Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 1841 S 4th St, Allentown, PA Opened:  1956 Closed:  1982 Later Tenants:  Hersh's IGA (1982-1990) > subdivided Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Just around the corner from yesterday's Superfood is this former A&P. It was constructed in the 1960s as an A&P centennial, then closed in 1982 when it was sold to Hersh's IGA. In 1990, Hersh's merged with Traub's IGA which was in what is now the Superfood, and closed this location. Traub's later sold to Valley Farm Market and then they sold to Superfood. Here's my source on that history. Don't forget the name Hersh's, by the way, we'll be seeing more of them as we pass through Allentown. A&P and ACME were direct competitors for a very long time and this location was no different, with a former ACME just up the street. That one, however, is still a supermarket, and we're going to check it out tomorrow on The Market Report !

Original Grocery Tenant: Shop Fair Supermarket Address: 1587 Lehigh St, Allentown, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  by 2008 Later Tenants:  NSA Supermarkets (ca. 2008-ca. 2012) Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Our next two days of posts are in the same strip mall! The Parkway Shopping Center here in Allentown was once home to a Food Fair, which we'll be checking out tomorrow, but more recently had the Shop Fair Supermarket (no relation to the current chain ) later replaced by the Food Saver Market, affiliated at the time with NSA Supermarkets. NSA was the precursor to what today is America's Food Basket, and their banner Ideal Food Basket is preparing to open a store over in Bethlehem. This 22,000 square foot space is now a medical facility. Tomorrow we're headed to the other end of the mall for a look at its original supermarket anchor!