The Independent Edition

Huber's West End Market Owner: Glenn and Dee Huber Opened:  1960-2021 Cooperative:  none Location:  501 W Lemon St, Lancaster, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 Huber's West End Market had been open since 1960, and I managed to get to it just before it closed in 2021. It was taken over by new owners who are renovating it to prepare to reopen it, but that hasn't happened yet. When I visited, the approximately 2,000 square foot store was fully functional and a very quaint old-fashioned grocery store. It has produce and a few grocery aisles on the left side, with the butcher/deli and frozen foods on the right side. It definitely felt a little bit like a time capsule, but in a good way -- it didn't feel neglected, even though it was very old and reaching the end of its life. Check out the produce department here! I have to imagine this fixture is original to Huber's opening, right? And how about this price table at the top of the case? As long as we're here, I may ...

Mandros Imported Foods Owner: Dino Mandros Opened:  1950s Cooperative:  none Location:  351 N Charlotte St, Lancaster, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 A quick look at Mandros Imported Foods today, a small shop of specialty Greek, Italian, and Mediterranean foods in northwestern Lancaster. I regret not going in, as it looks like a fun place to stop and look around . Notice that, in that exterior picture on Yelp, there's a sign for Red Rose Food Stores. I wonder if that was a cooperative of independent grocers in this part of Pennsylvania at some point. I couldn't find anything searching online. Anybody familiar with that name? There's another grocery store about two blocks away, which we'll be taking a look inside tomorrow!

Brothers International Supermarket Owner: Adriano Gomez Opened:  unknown, closed ca. 2020 Cooperative:  Associated Supermarket Group (?) Location:  806 S Duke St, Lancaster, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 We are in the next block west from Brothers Foodmax to check out the original Brothers grocery store here in Lancaster, which was about 4300 square feet. As we see, it was co-branded with the Brothers name and the Compare Foods logo, although it was never actually on the Compare Foods website's store locator. Although the store was very small, it was a complete supermarket with produce, deli/meat, dairy, frozen, and a few grocery aisles. I was unaware that this store had closed until I started preparing for this post. And not only has it closed, it's been completely demolished. I wonder if that was one of the reasons Brothers Foodmax seems to be doing better these days; they brought some of the resources from this store over there to be running it better, and p...

Brothers Foodmax Owner: Adriano Gomez Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  Associated Supermarket Group (?) Location:  920 S Duke St, Lancaster, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 Yesterday's store was in a former Family Dollar, which moved across the street around 2017. When the Family Dollar moved, it moved into the newly-constructed Conestoga River Plaza, anchored by that store and an 11,000 square foot Brothers Foodmax supermarket. This is Brothers' second location in town, with a smaller Brothers International Supermarket in the next block west (we'll be headed there tomorrow). Brothers also annouced they were opening a store around the same time at 625 E Orange St in Lancaster, which may have been canceled as no visible progress has been made on the site and they've since opened another new store in Lebanon, PA, about 25 miles north. There are quite a few interesting things about this store, the first of which is the decor. As we'll see, the decor appears to be enti...

Junior's Food Market Owner: unknown Opened:  ca. 2017 - ca. 2020 Cooperative:  none Location:  917 S Duke St, Lancaster, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 We're right above the Lancaster County Central Park on the Conestoga River to visit a grouping of three small grocery stores along South Duke Street. Our first one here is Junior's Food Market, which was open from about 2017 through about 2020 in a former Family Dollar in a very interesting rounded building. The store is about 6500 square feet, and around 2020, became the Cilantro Food Market. It's a surprisingly complete supermarket these days, and I didn't really know that or I would've gone in. It also appears to be using some former A&P decor . Tomorrow, we're headed across the street to tour the largest and newest food store at this intersection here on The Independent Edition!