Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union Address: 111 Hulst Dr, Matamoras, PA Opened:  1993 Closed:  2001 Later Tenants:  Grand Union Family Markets (2001-2004) Photographed:  February 3, 2021 Yesterday we saw a former Grand Union that has remained a supermarket since, and today, we're going to check out one that closed almost 20 years ago. The Westfall Town Center was originally built with a 115,000 square foot Kmart and a 40,000 square foot Grand Union. The latter was subdivided in 2004 with multiple tenants including a movie theater, and the former was subdivided in late 2021, with 73,000 square feet of it going to ShopRite. That replaced the now-closed Montague store  just two miles east across in New Jersey. Tomorrow we're headed to the other supermarket in Matamoras on The Market Report , which is also our last Pennsylvania store!

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 5684 PA-115, Blakeslee, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Ahart's Thriftway (open by 1976) > Ahart's Market Photographed:  October 15, 2023 Time for a little bonus post! A commenter on a Flickr photo says this 15,000 square foot was originally an A&P, but by 1976, it was Ahart's Thriftway. By 1998, it was still a Thriftway, and the following year, the newer location had been opened across the street. I'm not clear whether it opened as a Thriftway and later switched to Great Valu, or if it has been a Great Valu since it opened. Now for a look at what's next door... A 45,000 square foot former Jamesway at the other end of the strip mall is now a somewhat strange indoor flea market, but it definitely has signs of its Jamesway past, including the fact that the flea market sign is a banner over the old Jamesway sign. In the bathrooms, we have a more explicit indication... The strip mall is now mostly...

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 24 Main Ave, Hawley, PA Opened:  1950s Closed:  1994 Later Tenants:  Insalaco's (1994-1995) > Dutch's Market (1995-2006) > IGA (2006-2014) > Dollar General (2015- ) Photographed:  December 18, 2019 and May 28, 2023 Hawley, PA is a delightful quaint little town on the shores of Lake Wallenpaupack, a very interesting manmade lake (where you can also take a beautiful boat tour). This 13,000 square foot store was built in the 1950s by ACME and then closed in 1994, but here's where it gets interesting. Insalaco's was apparently here for just a year, opening in 1994 and closing in 1995. Dutch's Market, which has another location in Greentown which we'll be touring in a few days, was here from 1995 to 2006, at which point the store closed and was sold to the owners of the other supermarket in town, the Lake Region IGA. It operated as an IGA until 2014 (after it was beginning to close in 2011, but extended briefl...

Original Grocery Tenant: Giant Market Address: 1199 Texas Palmyra Hwy, Honesdale, PA Opened:  ca. 1972 Closed:  1993 Later Tenants:  Insalaco's > subdivided Photographed:  May 28, 2023 This 25,000 square foot store was built as a Giant Market at the eastern end of the Route 6 Mall at some point around 1972 before becoming an Insalaco's. Insalaco's then moved to a former Kmart, before ultimately becoming a Weis . As AFB pointed out a few months ago (which I didn't know), there were actually four  Giant chains at one point or another. Giant-MD and Giant-PA, of course, both of which are now owned by Ahold. There was also a chain in the Binghamton area, mostly acquired by Weis; and yet another (which I didn't realize was separate from the Binghamton chain), based in Scranton and at its peak, with 25 locations. In 1971, the Scranton-based Giant Market grew from 20 to 25 stores with the acquisition of five Food Fair stores. The chain declared bankruptcy in 1983,...

  Welcome to the Poconos! The Poconos are the mountains running between Stroudsburg and the Wyoming Valley. We're going to start to the east of Carbondale in Waymart, where we'll see a store that recently changed ownership. Then we'll roughly continue east along route 6 with some stops to the south in Greentown, Daleville, Blakeslee, Mount Pocono, and Mountainhome, then moving east to the Port Jervis area for Milford and Matamoras. Believe it or not, then we're completely done with Pennsylvania! Of course, not nearly all of the grocery stores in Pennsylvania, but just the relatively few stores I've actually been to and have pictures of. There's a lot of wilderness in this area, with state forests and game lands surrounding us, so we'll be seeing a lot of small stores in small towns. But it means a lot of interesting stuff, including lots of independent stores! We're going to begin with a store in Waymart tomorrow on  The Independent Edition !