The Independent Edition

Carone's ShurSave Owner: Frank Carone Opened:  1996 Cooperative:  ShurSave Location:  101 S Mountain Blvd, Mountain Top, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 We saw the Carone's in Freeland, PA , not too long ago, and now we're here just to the south of the Wyoming Valley to see their other location. The locations are only about ten miles apart. This one is also part of the ShurSave cooperative, and opened in 1996 in a former ACME. The store is currently about 15,000 square feet, appearing to take up the ACME space and a roughly 3000 square foot space next door, although it's not clear whether Carone's or ACME was responsible for the expansion. Although the facade has had some cosmetic work done, it's still clearly the ACME Super Saver awning. The store is part of a small strip mall in what amounts to the main business district in Mountain Top, which also has a Weis just to the south. As we'll see, this store has been more recently updated than Freeland and

    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 right here on The Independent Edition!

Ideal Market Owner: David Mihalick Opened:  1998-2023 Cooperative:  none Location:  339 Walnut St, Johnstown, PA Photographed:  January 14, 2023 Contributor: Margot S. Today's snapshot is a bit of a bonus one! In writing yesterday's post about the former Tioga Street Market, I noticed that another picture my friend had sent actually inadvertently contained a shot of the now-closed Ideal Market in downtown Johnstown. The roughly 18,000 square foot store opened in 1998 as part of the local Ideal chain, with no relation to New York's Ideal Food Basket , and just recently closed this summer . That picture above is a not-great-quality screenshot of the below view of downtown from up on the hill in Westmont. And here's a little look inside the supermarket when it was still in business. These are pictures from the Johnstown Inclined Plane, the world's steepest vehicular inclined plane (basically the steepest slope a vehicle goes up and down). It's a cog railroad, th

Clark's Corner Store Owner: Anne Clark Schrey Opened:  before 1972 Cooperative:  none Location:  1003 Menoher Blvd, Johnstown, PA Photographed:  January 14, 2023 Contributor:  Margot S. Welcome to a somewhat snowy Johnstown! The city of around 18,000 people is just under 60 miles east of Pittsburgh and, well, a city I've never been to. But I have a friend who grew up there, and shared today's and tomorrow's pictures. Clark's Corner Store has been around for many decades, and these days is more of a deli than a grocer. My friend tells me they make very good sandwiches. Johnstown these days is mostly Giant Eagle country, with a few assorted others, but there was once an ACME (later Bi-Lo, still with the distinctive facade) not far from this part of Johnstown, called Westmont. There's even still a Bi-Lo or two still operating (C&S-supplied) around here, although of course they are just independents that have held onto the name now that Penn Traffic has been

JG Food Warehouse Owner: Drew Rowles Opened:  1983 Cooperative:  none Location:  200 River St Photographed:  June 23, 2023 Here in Clearfield, PA, where we saw a former ACME yesterday, today we're taking a look at a former A&P! This A&P appears to have been opened in the early- to mid-1950s, renovated and expanded to its present 17,000 square feet in the mid-1970s, and closed no later than 1983. JG Food Warehouse opened in that year, as one of the retail grocery stores owned by a local group called Jefferson Wholesale Grocery. They were a wholesaler and small chain of retail grocery stores in this area, based in Clarion, about 50 miles west of here where they also owned a grocery store. There's not a whole lot of information out there about Jefferson, and a 1958 lawsuit regarding a company of the same name but based in Pittsburgh may or may not be referring to the same company. (And is JG Food Warehouse just short for Jefferson Grocery?) Jefferson has been shrinking