TOUR: Save-A-Lot - Wilkes-Barre, PA

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 been around 18,000 square feet. In 2022, it was also announced that a Bravo currently located diagonally across the street was preparing to relocate into this space. The new Bravo opened on September 1, 2023 and is an impressive modernization of this space. I'll have to get back to check it out.

As I guessed, Bravo did some major renovations and added in a deli, hot food bar, bakery, and butcher.

This is clearly a limited-assortment store, which Bravo is not. Next week, we'll be taking a look at the former Bravo location diagonally across the street.

Compared to a store like Orange, linked above, this was a very well-stocked Save-A-Lot. There aren't a whole lot of grocery store options around here, which makes the store's closure slightly surprising to me, but we're only about a half mile northeast of the Schiel's.

A very familiar setup in the dairy and frozen department, which I commented on at JG Food Warehouse in Clearfield. This section of the store feels very typical Save-A-Lot, but the rest doesn't feel as strongly like the Save-A-Lots I'm used to. I can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's the exposed ceiling?

I do notice very clearly that this is a very well-stocked Save-A-Lot, as I said. It doesn't feel like it has only the odds and ends from elsewhere, it feels like a full supermarket.

And a look at the front-end before we head out...

There used to be another supermarket in this strip mall, and we're going to be taking a look at what that became later on Grocery Archaeology on Monday! Have a great weekend!