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TOUR: Quinn's Market - Pittston, PA

Quinn's Market
Owner: Jeff Krenitsky
Opened: 2010-2022
Cooperative: ShurSave
Location:
 401 Kennedy Blvd, Pittston, PA
Photographed: December 22, 2018
The Pittston location of Quinn's Market was well-documented over on Acme Style before the blog went dark, so I strongly recommend you check out their posts before we jump into our tour of this 26,000 square foot store. For a brief recap of the store's history, it was constructed in 1966 before becoming an ACME Super Saver in the 1970s, a brand it actually retained through the 90s. In 1994, it was sold to Penn Traffic and became an Insalaco's, then Bruno's ShurSave by 2006 which closed in 2008, then the third location of Quinn's ShurSave in 2010. My impression is that Bruno's and Insalaco's did little to no renovation prior to opening, and that the ACME decor may have been intact as late as 2008. Quinn's appears to be the one who changed the decor to what it was.
The store closed in 2022 but the property owner says they will pursue a redevelopment of the property.
All the more, I'm glad I got my own set of pictures of this store! We enter on the left side to the produce department, with deli and meat on the back wall, dairy/frozen on the right side, and bakery in the front right corner. As Acme Style notes, the layout was last modified by ACME in the 1980s. The flooring is certainly left over from ACME, and the bones of the checkerboard arch decor remain. Here's a look to the right when you enter to see the pitched-roof...
I had assumed from the Benvenuto! sign on the back wall that Bruno's installed this decor, mostly because it made heavy use of the Italian flag colors around the store. But then notice that the deli signage, which specifically identifies Quinn's, is in the same font. I guess, therefore, that either Quinn's very carefully matched their new sign to the old ones, or more likely, they added the signage themselves.
A look at the deli in the back of the store. Below, too, you can see the arches on the back wall that are actually different sizes to reflect the pitch of the roof. Interesting touch!
It's likely the fixtures are mostly if not all left over from the ACME days. Regardless, the store was looking pretty good when I visited.
And the pitched-roof looks fantastic!
Pittston still has a tiny independent grocer downtown -- Sabatelle's, just a block over from this store.
I imagine it must be pretty difficult to replace lightbulbs on the pitched-roof ceilings.
We return to the ACME checkered floor in the frozen aisle, although as you can see there was a part missing where it looks like there was a hole.
It's possible Quinn's stopped doing some of the maintenance work, like changing lightbulbs and patching floor tiles, in anticipation of their lease ending (although I was here a good four years before they closed for good, so I'm not sure of that).
Dairy lining the outside of the store in the last aisle. Bakery has, it seems, very little decor-wise left over from ACME, and I really have no idea about the fixtures, whether they are left over or not.
And we've established that I love a good train, so I was very excited to see this on the front-end!
That about wraps up our look at the Quinn's Market in Pittston, and it's a shame that this store didn't make it. But I'm glad the ACME remnants from this store were preserved for as long as they were! Quinn's has two other locations, which we'll be seeing soon.
First, though, we're headed about two miles northeast for our final store in the Wilkes-Barre area, over on The Market Report on Monday!

Comments

  1. Insalaco's didn't last very long here, and Bruno's had opened by 1997-1998ish. Bruno's, like Insalaco's, did nothing to the store's interior after opening. This store had Checkerboard Arches completely intact until Bruno's closed - we used to shop at this store a decent amount in the Bruno's days, and I always liked the decor (although it wasn't until after Bruno's closed that I realized the decor originated from Acme). It was still neat that Quinn's left most of the bones of Checkerboard Arches intact after their remodel, and Quinn's aisle markers almost seemed like a nod to the arches on the wall. It's a shame to hear this store closed, and I can only imagine a redevelopment will probably mean the end of the old Acme building, as that's a prime piece of downtown real estate.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the history here! And yes, I have to assume the store will be demolished, or maybe completely stripped for a tenant like CVS or Dollar General or something.

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