TOUR: The Market at Oregon Dairy - Lititz, PA

The Market at Oregon Dairy

Owner: Victor Hurst

Opened: 1979, previous farm store opened 1974

Cooperative: IGA (Family Owned Markets)
Location: 2900 Oregon Pk, Lititz, PA

Photographed: August 20, 2019

As we've seen, there are quite a few large independent country supermarkets in this part of Pennsylvania, such as Shady Maple and Yoder's, and on that list is also The Market at Oregon Dairy. Oregon Dairy is a large, family-owned, working farm that has this roughly 70,000 square foot supermarket, family restaurant, and ice cream shop.

The supermarket is a member of the IGA-affiliated Family Owned Markets, with a few other stores including Yoder's. When I visited in 2019, the store was still affiliated with whatever the evolution of AWI was, but they were C&S-affiliated and still selling Best Yet and Full Circle items.

We enter to the produce department on the right side of the store. I'm not 100% on my memory of the layout, but I believe produce is in the front right corner with bakery on the right side of the store. Seafood and meat are on the back wall with deli and prepared foods on the far left of the store along with frozen and dairy.

As we see, there's a few generations of decor in here, with this decor being the newest. It looks really good, and of course, the produce department features a lot of local products along with the usual selections. We'll see plenty more of local and other unusual products throughout the store, along with some super-local selections.

Produce continues onto the right side of the store, with bakery behind it. As we see, this area of the store is a transition from the newer (on the right) to the older (flooring, and cases on the left).

Regardless, the store is very attractive and, much like the others we've seen, very well-maintained.

Service and perishables departments are big here, which again is not what I would have expected in a rural store like this. But as we've seen throughout this region, these rural stores have surprisingly large selections of everything.

Beyond bakery, we begin to get into meat and seafood, and the grocery aisles.

How about these Loaded Brownies?

The store has a lot of higher-end, homemade, or specialty items, possibly more than we've seen in other stores like this in the area. I have to wonder how much of this is catering to tourists and visitors to Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and how much of this is actually for and used by local residents.

Looking back up towards the front of the bakery department, and produce in the distance.

As we can see, this is a large supermarket -- and you can definitely feel its large size -- but it's not an overwhelming size or layout, like Shady Maple.

Another very large seafood department. I think it's also important that we are in Pennsylvania here, which still has good access to ports and the east coast, plus overall good transportation.

And how about that? I really wanted to try this, but unfortunately I couldn't let this sit in the car for the rest of the day. This is a homemade soft pretzel stuffed with crab and topped with a ridiculous amount of shredded cheese -- basically a meal in itself! To be clear, by the way, this is in fact raw and needs to be baked at home, but still pretty cool.

And as we get into the grocery aisles, we see it's a pretty standard setup. Notice the Best Yet poster hanging on the left side.

The dairy department, I believe, is in the back corner -- but I don't honestly remember specifically where in the store is.

And how about this? Sour cream (and other dairy products, including a full line of milk) made with milk from this farm! This store did in fact start as a farmstand/dairy store and it's nice to see they've continued to work in these local and homemade items as the supermarket grows.

Now moving into frozen foods...

These freezers are older, and the flooring is too, but as we can see the flooring is maintained beautifully and was probably re-finished when the produce area was remodeled.

Some packaged meats and cold cuts in the last few aisles, with the enormous butcher department on the left side wall I think...

And I believe deli is with milk in the back left corner, although again I'm not remembering perfectly. Lots of store-prepared foods here, with a lot of homemade heat-and-eat foods in the case to the right.

And of course, milk from this very farm!

Cheese and other dairy-related items are opposite that area.

And there's a small shop of locally-made home goods and other nonfoods items in the front, along with an entrance to the restaurant.

That is all for Oregon Dairy, a fun place to stop by (and I wish I had gotten some ice cream...). And up next we're headed about five miles northeast for another independent store, but this time a very small one right here on The Independent Edition tomorrow!