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TOUR: Dave's Super Duper - Honesdale, PA

Dave's Super Duper
Owner: Dave Flederbach
Opened: 1985 (Dave's Foodtown 2017-2018)
Cooperative: none
Location:
 200 Willow Ave, Honesdale, PA
Photographed: December 22, 2018
Welcome to Dave's Super Duper in Honesdale! It appears that Super Duper was once a cooperative of supermarkets ranging from Ohio to Pennsylvania (see here and here), but these days most of those stores have been lost. One of the very few remaining stores is here in Honesdale, PA, with other remaining locations in East Rochester, OH and Kennedy, NY, although the Super Duper cooperative has long since dissolved.
In fact, Dave's Super Duper briefly actually joined another cooperative. The store became Dave's Foodtown in 2017, though oddly the store left the following year and returned to Dave's Super Duper. I'm not clear on why they joined or why they left, but by the time I got there, it had returned to its second incarnation as Super Duper. Notice, in fact, the signage on the front of the store welcoming back Super Duper. (Incidentally, don't forget that Kings in New Jersey joined Foodtown way back in 1959, then left just a few months later because customers thought the stores had been sold to a new owner. I believe it was over the summer of 1959 that Kings briefly became Foodtown.)
Produce is in the first aisle along with dairy, meats are on the back wall, deli is in the back left corner with frozen on the left side of the store.
I believe these aisle markers were installed for Super Duper 2.0, but that the decor dates probably back to the store's opening in the mid-80s. I'm not sure if this was previously another store before Dave's. The 23,000 square foot store is just to the north of the former ACME in Honesdale, now a Tractor Supply Company.
The store definitely is beginning to look outdated, but it's fully stocked and clean, so it doesn't look bad.
Interestingly enough, this store is not C&S-supplied as so many independents are in this part of the country. Instead, it's supplied by UNFI (Supervalu) with Essential Everyday and Wild Harvest.
And speaking of Essential Everyday, here's a whole lot of Essential Everyday paper goods...
The deli is a bit tucked away in the back left corner, and I don't believe there's a bakery here.
Moving into frozen foods in the last aisle...
I can't tell whether this decor has been painted or if this was the original appearance of the store.
As we see below, frozen foods continue into the front corner of the store with the checkouts beyond that.
Notice that it doesn't look like this store has gotten any major changes since it opened. The decor and fixtures mostly are all original, as far as I can tell.
Honesdale is a town of only 4400 people, but it actually has two independent supermarkets. We'll take a look at the other one in town tomorrow here on The Independent Edition!

Comments

  1. I remember driving past this store in the period when it was a Foodtown and being surprised there was one in this area. Apparently that was short-lived. I wonder if the return to Super Duper was because Dave's left Foodtown or Foodtown dropped Dave's.

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    1. That's one of my long-standing questions -- when a store joins or leaves a cooperative, whose decision is it? I'm still trying to figure out whether it's the chicken or the egg!

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  2. This store was originally supplied by S.M. Flickenger out of Buffalo I believe they were located in. Flickenger was sold to Scrivener in the 80's ish and scrivener was sold to Fleming in the 90's. Sc rivener was owned by a German company (Hans Haniel I believe). Flickenger had the red and White and Super duper banners. Scrivener also brough Fleming the Jubilee and Jamboree IGA banners as well, but i digress.

    Daves was briefly also a member of the Retail Marketing Group stores when they were supplied by White Rose. he went back to SuperValu after a few years. He switched to Fodtown for barely a year before going back to SuperValu, now UNFI (United Natural Foods, Inc.). Dave does his own thing and is successful. Our impression was that this did not fit well with working within a co-op/banner group where certain programs and a base marketing/circular program must be adhered to. The parting from RMG and Food Town was by all accounts amicable (there stereotypical "it's not you it's me). Again, they do their own thing, have been for decades, and are successful. SuperValu/UNFI have served the rural Pennsylvania area for a very long time, with the roots of this strongly tied to the old Wetterau Reading Division which was acquired by SuperValu in the 80's or so. They do a good job and have a lot of stores in the area.

    You have a great site and do great work!

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    1. Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying reading my site and thank you for adding your thoughts and history! Great to read more details about this store's past and the wholesalers you mention.

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  3. Super Duper is a pretty rad name for a store (and onetime cooperative of stores)!

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    1. Agreed!

      Back in the 1960s there was a Popeye cartoon called The Super Duper Market, and Popeye and Olive Oyl go shopping in Bluto's store, which is a beautiful midcentury modern arched roof building called Big B Supermarket. Probably coincidental, but honestly not unlike this one...
      https://bigv.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/BigVMarket-front2.jpg

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