The Independent Edition

Liberty Market Owner: Randy Resnick Open:  2020-2023 Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  261 N Main St, Liberty, NY Photographed:  February 3, 2021 Welcome to the town of Liberty! Although not a large city, its population of around 10,000 makes it a larger town in the region. We are here to tour the Liberty Market! This 15,000 square foot store appears to have started out as a Victory Market, later Great American , then Ideal Food Basket , then a Key Food-affiliated independent, Liberty Market from 2020 to 2023. Liberty Market closed in early 2023 , and by the summer, reopened as Lemonade, a kosher supermarket. Lemonade doesn't appear to have done much to the store, which makes sense because Liberty Market did a fair amount before moving in. See a new outside shot here and inside here . In an area with a fast-growing Orthodox Jewish population, it seems logical that Liberty can't necessarily support two mainstream stores. There's a ShopRite outside of town as ...

Ahart's Market Owner: George Ahart Opened:  2001-2021 Cooperative:  Great Valu Markets Location:  410 Montclair Ave, South Side, Bethlehem, PA Photographed:  September 10, 2016 We saw the Ahart's stores in Phillipsburg (now demolished) and Allentown (now a Grocery Outlet), and although I photographed the Bethlehem location at the same time as those -- as a matter of fact the same day back in September 2016 -- for whatever reason it didn't quite come around to my radar to post until now. Bethlehem and Phillipsburg were definitely the worst two stores, and my lingering memory of this store was just how strongly the store smelled of rotting meat and mildew. The 17,500 square foot store is just a few blocks from the very attractive if very hilly campus of Lehigh University, but was the only supermarket on the South Side until the CTown opened. That store, by the way, has been remodeled since I visited, but is only about half a mile away. You can see coverage of the s...