The Market Report

Save-A-Lot Open:  2012-2022 Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Later Tenants:  Bravo Supermarkets (opened September 1, 2023) Location:  400 S Main St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Today's tour is not a particularly exciting one, but it's one I'm glad I have nonetheless! I visited this Save-A-Lot in late 2018, around 6 years after it opened , and shortly before Save-A-Lot started their push to sell all of their stores to franchise owners. There were a lot of casualties in that process as Save-A-Lot made it clear they didn't want to own any supermarkets anymore, so many stores that were not purchased closed. This one closed in 2022. It was a pretty typical Save-A-Lot inside, with produce and sales in the first aisle, meat on the back wall, and dairy/frozen on the left side. It was one of the nicer stores, though, as some are really disgusting, some are just poorly run , and some are perfectly fine . The Save-A-Lot appears to have ...

Tony's Meat Market Owner: unknown Open:  2011-2023 Cooperative:  none Location:  124 Grove St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Tucked away into a neighborhood of southern Wilkes-Barre is this 4,000 square foot butcher shop/corner grocer that appears to have been in business for a very long time. Prior to 2011, it was the Grove Market, which was affiliated with AWI, a cooperative I discussed at length in yesterday's post . In 2011, it became Tony's Meat Market, which then earlier this year became the Grove Mart . Inside, we can tell that the store has been a grocery store for a very very long time. The store was Passeri's Cash Market from 1936 through at least 1974 (and later in its life called Passeri's Master Market), although founder Joseph Passeri retired in 1966. It appears in 1966, the store was sold to Benjamin Leggieri, who around the late 70s appears to have converted the store's name to Leggieri's. Leggieri's was in business un...

Schiel's Family Market Owner: Frank Schiel Opened:  2000 Cooperative:  ShurSave Location:  30 Hanover St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Photographed:  August 12, 2020 Here in the southern part of Wilkes-Barre we find a Schiel's Family Market, one of two in the city. The stores are affiliated with ShurSave and currently supplied by C&S. While I can't find much on the history of ShurSave, it was originally affiliated with Reading, PA-based Associated Wholesalers Inc., or AWI, which declared bankruptcy and was mostly acquired by C&S in 2014 (following a merger with Carteret, NJ-based White Rose in 2006). At the time of the merger in 2006, AWI supplied upwards of 800 stores, although it's not clear how many of those were ShurSave stores. 20 years ago, there were 30 ShurSave stores, and today, there are just 12. This building was built in the 1960s as a Food Fair, then closed around 1970 and was turned into a Giant Market location (that is, the local chain from the Binghamt...

Original Grocery Tenant: Harry's Market Address: 645 Hazle St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Opened:  1945 Closed:  2018 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Harry's Market was in business in Wilkes-Barre's southwestern area for 73 years, having opened in 1945 and finally closing in 2018 -- just days before I visited the store, unfortunately. A local TV station has a piece on the store's closure , which I would recommend taking a look at. The former owner had, at the time, gone over to the Gerrity's in West Pittston, about eight miles to the north. We'll be touring that store soon enough. But for now, we can take a look inside the wonderful classic grocery store/butcher shop interior of the 2200 square foot store... I so wish I was able to check out the store before it closed, but this isn't bad either, that I got to see it very shortly after closing. As far as I know, the space remains vacant. Tomorrow we're headed a bit north to check out an in...

Plymouth Hometown Market Owner:  Christopher Kubishin Opened:  2012 Cooperative:  none Location:  500 W Main St, Plymouth, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Welcome to the Plymouth Hometown Market! We're directly across the street from Friday's ACME for this independent grocery store, which has made its home in a former A&P, later Fetch's Market. Here's a shot of the transition between Fetch's and Plymouth Hometown Market. While Fetch's was ShurSave-affiliated, PHM is an independent supplied by C&S. Does the logo look familiar? Yes, this is under the same owners of the White Haven Market . The former A&P centennial style store has been expanded in nearly every direction to come to its current total of around 18,000 square feet. The grand aisle is on the left side of the store in one of the expansions, with bakery at the front and produce behind it. I don't know if there's an in-store bakery, but the bakery isn't set up as a service de...