TOUR: Save-A-Lot - Germantown, Philadelphia, PA

Save-A-Lot

Owner: Shawn Rinnier / Save Philly Stores

Opened: 2011

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 5834 Pulaski Ave, Philadelphia, PA

Photographed: July 2021

We're touring a Save-A-Lot here that I initially thought was pretty unremarkable but is actually at the center of an interesting story. The store, which is just under 17,000 square feet, was built in 2011 directly behind a former Fresh Grocer. Where it gets interesting is that, according to WHYY, the Burns family (which owned The Fresh Grocer) actually owns this Save-A-Lot too, or at least did in 2011. The theory is that the LaSalle Fresh Grocer was intended as an informal replacement for the Germantown Fresh Grocer. The Burns family, who may also owned a Save-A-Lot at 5753 Wayne Ave not far away, moved that store here and subdivided the former Fresh Grocer space. I can't confirm that this store was in fact ever owned by the Burns operation, but today (and as of late 2011) it's owned by Shawn Rinnier's Save Philly Stores, which recently acquired several Philadelphia area Save-A-Lots from corporate. (In fact, a later article also from WHYY makes it pretty clear that Rinnier has owned the store from the start, but that Burns was the developer.)

This store, regardless, is one of the nicer Save-A-Lots that I've been to, though not particularly special. You enter to produce in the front left corner, with meat and cold cuts on the back wall. Dairy and frozen are on the far right side of the store.

The store is oriented to face Pulaski Avenue, not Chelten Avenue, so the wall behind the produce department seen here borders the parking lot.

In fact, I wonder why this new building was constructed for the Save-A-Lot when they easily could've moved into about half of the old Fresh Grocer building.

This store was certainly cleaner and better-organized than other Save-A-Lots I've been to, but the fact remains that it's a Save-A-Lot and not a full service supermarket like a Fresh Grocer. But, I suppose, anyone in this immediate neighborhood who wants a full service supermarket can go a block and a half away to Chelten Market.

Not a whole lot to see in the grocery aisles. The selection was exactly what I'd expect from a Save-A-Lot.

And the meat department is on the back wall. Meat actually looked alright. Frozen foods are on one side of aisle 7 and both sides of aisle 8.

The dairy department is mostly in this back corner, and extends down the last aisle a short distance.

I must say, the signage here is very nice, and I don't believe it's something I've seen in other Save-A-Lots. This is what I'm more used to in the older stores.

Looking up towards the front of the store, with the baked goods and the registers on the front wall.

And a few shots of the front-end before we move on.

Up next we're going to the northwest of Germantown to check out two stores in Mount Airy -- one local favorite and one newcomer to the area. Head over to The Independent Edition tomorrow to check the first one out!