The Independent Edition

Ray's Market Owner:  Ray Petty Opened:  unknown Cooperative:  ShurSave Location:  686 Roosevelt Hwy, Waymart, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Today's snapshot is a disappointingly bad nighttime picture of the Ray's ShurSave in Waymart, PA, on route 6 as it winds its way out of the Wyoming Valley into the mountain range. This store opened at some point in the 1980s or 90s (I'm really not sure), then closed in 2019. Another ShurSave operator took on the location in 2019, reopening it under the name Hayes' Market. We're going to take a tour of that store on Monday!

Super Natural Produce Owner: Leopoldo Sanchez Opened:  2016 Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  824 Pittston Ave, Scranton, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Here we are at the second, newer, and larger Garcia Market location diagonally across the street from yesterday's store . This store became Super Natural Produce -- whose Reading location we saw a while ago -- in 2016. But the store goes way back, actually all the way to 1937, when it was constructed as an ACME, and its grand opening ad advertised Christmas trees for 50 cents. Or two pounds of grapes for 15 cents. This was the first "supermarket"-style ACME in the Wyoming Valley, a self-service store where customers rolled around their own shopping carts to the various departments of the store. According to the Scranton Times-Tribune, the store "represented a great leap forward...it offered convenience and things not usually found in smaller stores," but a 1995 opinion piece noted that "some pe...

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 ...

Surplus Outlet Owner: Thomas Wengerd Opened:   Cooperative:  none Location:  5464 US-15, Montgomery, PA Photographed:  August 19, 2022 Now for a look at our second Surplus Outlet! We saw the Northumberland one a few days ago, and this one looks very similar. It's also around 35,000 square feet, and looks very similar inside. I'm not sure exactly what this store is like, but as I mentioned on the post for their other location, it seems to be more in line with the BB's model than, say, an ALDI or Save-A-Lot. For example, it doesn't look like these stores have a consistent selection of products or a storebrand, but they do seem to have meat and produce departments. We're just over five miles southeast of Williamsport, the largest town in this area, and that's where we're headed next for a look at a big-chain store right downtown on The Market Report !

Surplus Outlet Owner: Thomas Wengerd Opened:  2007 Cooperative:  none Location:  281 Point Township Dr, Northumberland, PA Photographed:  August 15, 2022 Just across the Susquehanna River from Sunbury , we're here to check out the 35,000 square foot Surplus Outlet discount grocery store in Northumberland. While unfortunately I haven't been inside, we can see plenty of pictures from Google Maps to illustrate the store's interior . It seems not unlike some of the other discount or surplus grocery stores we saw in the Lancaster County area, such as BB's . There's another Surplus Outlet about 20 miles to the northwest, which we'll be checking out when we're closer to Williamsport. In the meantime, we're going to move north along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River to Lewisburg tomorrow on The Market Report !

C&P Store Owner: Divyenkumen Patel Opened:  2001-2021 Cooperative:  none Location:  118 Chestnut St, Hazleton, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Today's snapshot is a quick look at a former grocery store, one of those that probably used to be more of a full supermarket but became more of a bodega/convenience store over the years. The store was only 2,000 square feet, and appears to have opened under this ownership in 2001. It was definitely also open as C&P Store going back to 1996, but I can't confirm anything before that. However, I suspect it was open as a grocery store of some form for a very long time before that. The store closed in 2021. Our next stop is just a few blocks north here on The Independent Edition tomorrow!

Apna Bazar Farmers Market Owner: Himanshu Bajaj Opened:  2022 Cooperative:  none Location:  85 Gateway Dr, Mechanicsburg, PA Photographed:  August 14, 2022 Today's post is a quick look at the Apna Bazar Farmers Market in Mechanicsburg, PA, taking the roughly 19,000 square foot space previously occupied by Grocery Outlet . Just last year, the Indian supermarket opened in the closed Grocery Outlet, which moved a bit south in 2022. It appears to be related to the Apna Bazar we saw in Edison , but as I mentioned on that post, it's very hard to tell for sure. It doesn't look like Apna Bazar is reusing much if anything from Grocery Outlet. While there are plenty more supermarkets in Mechanicsburg, that's all we'll be seeing this time around, and tomorrow we're headed just north to Enola for a look at a relatively new store over on The Market Report !

Mahatam Mini Mart Owner: Pravin Patel Opened:  1989 Cooperative:  none Location:  1002 N 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA Photographed:  August 14, 2022 This small grocer is only 1300 square feet, and although this particular business has been here since 1989, I'm not sure how long it's been a grocery store. Back in the late 1910s and early 1920s, it was a real estate office, but unfortunately I can't find any records between 1923 and 1989. Our trip to Harrisburg is relatively brief, and unfortunately this is the last stop in the city itself for us. But don't worry, we're going to spend a few days wandering around the suburbs too, so head over to The Market Report tomorrow to check out our first Harrisburg suburb store!

Radish & Rye Food Hub Owner: Dusty & Julia James Opened:  2018 in Broad Street Market, 2020 here Cooperative:  none Location:  1308 N 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA Photographed:  August 14, 2022 Today's stop is very different from yesterday's . The Radish & Rye Food Hub is a small grocery store collecting local and artisan food items along with locally grown produce. The business was previously located at the Broad Street Market, a public market diagonally across the street from this storefront, and this storefront opened shortly after the Broad Street Market location closed in the summer of 2020. This is the only store of its kind in this part of the city, but there's another small grocer about three blocks south into downtown that we'll be checking out tomorrow!

McMullen's Market Owner: Bill McMullen Opened:  1947-2023 Cooperative:  none Location:  165 Valley St, New Philadelphia, PA Photographed:  November 29, 2019 A very longtime small-town grocer, McMullen's Market served the tiny town of New Philadelphia with their 2000 square foot store from 1947 all the way up to 2023, when the store closed for good earlier this year . In its final years, the store was remodeled to be more of a butcher shop/deli store than a full grocer, but back in 1995 it was a full grocer. There are fewer and fewer independent small grocers like this one around, but there's another one just about five miles west as the crow flies in the small town of St. Clair. We're going to take a look inside that one tomorrow!

Shawnee General Store Owner: Bill Rooth Opened:  2000 Cooperative:  none Location:  542 River Rd, Shawnee, PA Photographed:  May 31, 2021 Today's post is a quick one -- a stop by the Shawnee General Store in Shawnee, PA. The general store/eatery claims to have been in business since 1859, which looks fully possible if perhaps expanded and remodeled a few times. We're about five miles outside of Stroudsburg here, and before we get into the town itself we're headed up to the northeast to pass through East Stroudsburg with a few stops along and near US-209, the main drag that goes from Stroudsburg to Port Jervis. Head over to Grocery Archaeology on Monday to see something that may have been a supermarket in the past -- but, admittedly, probably wasn't. Then we're on to checking out a couple of stores still in business up that way!

Demely Deli-Grocery Owner: unknown Opened:  2012 Cooperative:  none Location:  548 Tilghman St, Center City, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Nothing says Lehigh Valley (or more broadly, this part of Pennsylvania) like an A-Treat soda sign! That sign welcomes us to Demely Deli-Grocery, a roughly 2000 square foot corner grocer that up until 2012 was Tommy's Deli Mart. This store is on the northern side of center city Allentown, and it will actually wrap up our coverage of Allentown itself as we head on to a northern suburb tomorrow for a former supermarket over on Grocery Archaeology !

Happy Dairy Market Owner: Charles Yun Opened:  unknown Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  201 N 6th St, Center City, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Today's post is a quick look at the Happy Dairy Market in Allentown! I admit that I regret not going in but for whatever reason I skipped this one. The store might be only a little over 20 feet wide, but it goes way back bringing its size to around 1700 square feet. We've seen a lot of these small grocers, but tomorrow we're headed a few blocks north to one that has closed on Grocery Archaeology!

J&J Spanish American Grocery Owner: Jose Rosario Opened:  2010 Cooperative:  none Location:  249 N 7th St, Center City, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 A great building for today's corner grocer! As you can probably see, the architecture in Allentown is wonderful and there's a lot of preserved historical buildings. This building used to have bland white siding across all of it until it was refurbished and restored in 2011. This store is around 1400 square feet and has been open as a grocer probably for many decades but under its current ownership only since 2010. Tomorrow we're headed around two blocks east and a block south for our next stop in Center City!