TOUR: Schiel's Family Market - Wilkes-Barre South, PA

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 Binghamton, NY area). That store was closed here by the 1990s, and after being left vacant for a few years, this property was acquired by Schiel's and opened in 2000.

The roughly 23,000 square foot store is almost a triangle because of the way the streets around it are laid out. Produce is in the front right corner, with deli and bakery in the rest of the first aisle. Meat is on the back wall, with dairy and frozen on the left side of the store.

While both Schiel's stores are beginning to show their age -- and this one definitely feels older and smaller, which it is -- they are generally well-maintained and well-stocked stores. And, they're full-service supermarkets, with lots of fresh produce and meat and full in-store bakeries -- they're not at all discount or lower-end stores.

A look across the back wall at the meat department. As we see, older, but beautifully maintained.

The grocery aisles have a pretty standard selection, featuring Best Yet and Full Circle products from C&S.

Frozen foods begin in the second-to-last aisle, I believe.

As we can see here, the grocery aisles are split front-to-back with a middle dividing aisle. You can tell the store isn't large, but it's a full supermarket.

And notice the Your Pet Place signage I commented on at Plymouth.

I believe there are only seven aisles here, so it's not a very large store.

Dairy and frozen are in the last aisle.

One thing I will say is that it's not completely obvious this is as old as it is. It's not clear at first glance that this store has been operational as a supermarket for over half a century.

Tomorrow we're headed just over a third of a mile east as the crow flies to see a small grocery store in the neighborhood before returning to near where this store is for our next stops. Check it out tomorrow right here on The Independent Edition!