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...

  I admittedly haven't spent a whole lot of time in the western part of Pennsylvania, but we are going to nevertheless take a little bit of time to look around this part of the state! On the map above I've placed the large cities (Erie and Pittsburgh) for reference, but we're going to be spending our time in Snow Shoe, Clearfield, Clarion, and Johnstown -- the first three along the I-80 corridor in northern PA, then Johnstown roughly 1/3 of the way from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg. Unfortunately, I've never been to Johnstown, but I have a friend from there and we have a quick look at two interesting stores from there thanks to them. We're going to start in Snow Shoe, with a look at a former supermarket (the only grocer in town) on  Grocery Archaeology  tomorrow!