Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: Harry's Market Address: 645 Hazle St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Opened:  1945 Closed:  2018 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Harry's Market was in business in Wilkes-Barre's southwestern area for 73 years, having opened in 1945 and finally closing in 2018 -- just days before I visited the store, unfortunately. A local TV station has a piece on the store's closure , which I would recommend taking a look at. The former owner had, at the time, gone over to the Gerrity's in West Pittston, about eight miles to the north. We'll be touring that store soon enough. But for now, we can take a look inside the wonderful classic grocery store/butcher shop interior of the 2200 square foot store... I so wish I was able to check out the store before it closed, but this isn't bad either, that I got to see it very shortly after closing. As far as I know, the space remains vacant. Tomorrow we're headed a bit north to check out an in

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 501 W Main St, Plymouth, PA Opened:  1967 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Family Dollar Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Today's snapshot is a quick look at the former ACME in Plymouth, PA! The 11,000 square foot store is now mostly occupied by a Family Dollar, and was built in 1967. It had closed by 1990 but I'm not sure of the exact year. As was frequently the case, ACME was located directly across the street from an A&P that was built probably slightly before the ACME was. That store is still a supermarket, and we're going to be touring it Monday on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 2456 Sans Souci Pkwy, Nanticoke, PA Opened:  1959 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Gerrity's ShurSave > Tractor Supply Co. Photographed:  December 22, 2018 ACME used to have a very significant presence in the Wyoming Valley, but was out of the area by 1995 when the remaining stores were sold to Penn Traffic (except for one, I think -- didn't Edwardsville stay open for a while longer? I could be wrong but I seem to remember that being the case). Anyway, this store is around 30,000 square feet and was replaced by a Gerrity's ShurSave when it closed. That store later moved next door to the former Kmart in Hanover around 2002. Acme Style has posted on Flickr some beautiful old pictures of this store when it had the script logo, when it opened , and a later picture with the updated logo . There was also another ACME in Nanticoke , which was a pitched-roof store (see here for more). We'll be taking a look at the Gerrity'

    We're now back in the northeastern corner of the state of Pennsylvania, for the southern part of the Wyoming Valley! The valley roughly stretches 30 miles southwest to northeast, with Wilkes-Barre in the southwestern part of the valley and Scranton in the northeastern corner. We're going to look at the area around Wilkes-Barre first, starting in Mountain Top (which, yes as you can assume, is not actually  in  the valley) and then through Nanticoke, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre itself, Luzerne, Plains, Pittston, and Duryea. GIANT and Weis are the two big chains present in this area, although regional favorite Gerrity's is present too, as well as quite a few independents and former supermarkets that we'll be checking out! Tomorrow is our first store in Mountain Top on  The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant:  independent grocer Address: 380 Bucknell Ave, Johnstown, PA Opened:  1892 Closed:  1924 Later Tenants:  A&P (1924-1939) > ACME Markets (1939-1950s) > Tioga Street Market (1950s-2017) Photographed:  January 14, 2023 Here's another snowy Johnstown shot from our contributor, who grew up around the corner from this store. We're at the corner of Bucknell and Tioga here in the Westmont section, to see a roughly 2,000 square foot store that opened in 1892 as an independent grocer, later purchased by A&P in 1924 before closing in 1939 and becoming, believe it or not, a very early ACME in the same year. ACME moved to the Bi-Lo location I mentioned in yesterday's post in the 1950s and it became the Tioga Street Market, which finally closed in 2017. There has been talk of reopening the store, but no progress that I can see. Tomorrow we have one more store in Johnstown, a snapshot of a recently-closed store over on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant: Quaker Market Address: 443 S 5th Ave, Clarion, PA Opened:  1968 Closed:  1972 Later Tenants:  Comet Food Warehouse (1972-2019) > Faller's Furniture (2023- ) Photographed:  July 1, 2023 Hope you had a great weekend! Today we're taking a look at the former Comet Food Warehouse in Clarion, PA, about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. It was previously owned by a company called Jefferson Grocery, whose Clearfield location we saw on Friday. This store closed in 2019, following struggles with everything from road closures to union issues (a case was brought to the NLRB in 2017 and closed in 2018 regarding this store). Here's more coverage on the store's closure. The store opened in 1968 as a Quaker Market, a chain or independent I know nothing about. Quaker closed just four years later when the store became a Comet Food Warehouse (store #12, in fact, and I have read elsewhere that Jefferson owned 13 stores in total at their peak). Today, the s

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 3055 Park Pl, Clearfield, PA Opened:  1963 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  CVS > Buck's Pizza Photographed:  June 23, 2023 I think this is the first time we've seen a former ACME that's now a pizzeria! (Although we did see a former A&P become a pizzeria up in Elizabethtown, NY .) The unmistakable pitched-roof design tops this 11,500 square foot store opened in 1963 replacing an older store at 110 E Market St that appears to have opened around the 1930s. While I'm not clear on when ACME closed or who occupied the space thereafter, I do know that it became a CVS, which eventually moved to a new-build store closer to the street, and the space is now a large pizzeria, with a church apparently taking up the back half. Sadly, it doesn't look like there's any suggestion of the high ceiling inside. By the way, we're looking at this store from across the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, though we're a

Original Grocery Tenant: Hall's Market Address: 491 E Sycamore Rd, Snow Shoe, PA Opened:  ca. 1990, 1948 in previous location Closed:  2020 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  July 2, 2023 I stopped for gas and a bathroom at the Snow Shoe, PA exit along route 80, and stumbled upon this sadly vacant 20,000 square foot carcass of Hall's Market. Having been in business since 1948 and here since 1990, Hall's was a fixture in Snow Shoe, a tiny town of around 700. The store closed in 2020 (paywall) after an electrical fire destroyed most of the building's interior, and while the owners originally planned to reopen, those plans were ultimately scrapped. But the sign remains out on the street, and interestingly enough, the convenience store at the nearby Sunoco seems to have expanded their grocery selection, likely to attract customers who would otherwise have to leave town and travel about 13 miles east to a Weis in Bellefonte for a full supermarket. Tomorrow is a look at

  I admittedly haven't spent a whole lot of time in the western part of Pennsylvania, but we are going to nevertheless take a little bit of time to look around this part of the state! On the map above I've placed the large cities (Erie and Pittsburgh) for reference, but we're going to be spending our time in Snow Shoe, Clearfield, Clarion, and Johnstown -- the first three along the I-80 corridor in northern PA, then Johnstown roughly 1/3 of the way from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg. Unfortunately, I've never been to Johnstown, but I have a friend from there and we have a quick look at two interesting stores from there thanks to them. We're going to start in Snow Shoe, with a look at a former supermarket (the only grocer in town) here on Grocery Archaeology tomorrow!