The Market Report

Riccardo's IGA Owner: Rocco Riccardo Opened:  ca. 2010 in this location, 1968 previously Cooperative:  IGA Location:  1219 Wheeler Ave, Dunmore, PA Photographed:  December 18, 2019 We're east of downtown Scranton here in Dunmore, a midsized town of 13,000 that directly borders Scranton. We're going to tour the roughly 44,000 square foot Riccardo's IGA, which opened here around 2010 in what appears to have been a new-build location. Previously, they were just to the north in a roughly 22,000 square foot location now used for offices for a nonprofit ( here's a look at that building when it was still a supermarket). The store was a ShurSave until around 2017, when they left the ShurSave coop and joined IGA. (This is the only IGA in the Wyoming Valley, although oddly it does not appear on the IGA website. The circular for this week both uses the IGA logo and advertises IGA brand products.) Here's a look across the front-end if we look to the left when we enter. F...

Vitali's Market Owner: Margaret Vitali Opened:  1956 Cooperative:  none Location:  1711 Jackson St, West Scranton, Scranton, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Hope you had a great weekend! Now we're in West Scranton for a look at Vitali's Market! This grocery store opened in 1956 and appears to still occupy the same roughly 5,000 square foot space they did on opening day. In 1950, Vitali's opened as part of the Banner Food Stores cooperative at 1309 Swetland St here in Scranton, then either moved or opened a second location here at 1711 Jackson, and by the 1970s had a second location at 210 E Drinker St in Dunmore . All these years later, Vitali's is still going strong, a fully-stocked almost-supermarket with a lot of selection packed into a very small store. I believe these days they're independent and supplied by C&S with the Best Yet brand. In the first aisle, we have HABA/nonfoods, baked goods, and frozen foods. Well, not all of the baked goods. More...

Gerrity's ShurSave Owner: Joyce Fasula Opened:  1980 - 2022 Previous Tenants:  Giant Market (1951 - after 1967) > Short Stop Food Market (late 1970s - 1980) Later Tenants:  Gerrity's The Fresh Grocer (2022- ) Cooperative:  ShurSave Location:  702 S Main Ave, Scranton, PA Photographed:  August 12, 2020 Welcome to the original Gerrity's Supermarket! At 25,000 square feet, this is also the smallest, having been built in 1951 as a Giant Market. The store closed at some point after 1967, later becoming the Short Stop Food Market by the late 1970s and closing in 1980. Gerrity's, previously a butcher shop, moved in and opened their first supermarket here in 1980. (Incidentally, this was also the first store to be converted to The Fresh Grocer when Gerrity's joined Wakefern in 2022.) We enter to bakery and produce in the front right corner with meat and dairy in the first aisle (I commented on the meat being up front on our last Gerrity's , which was also a Gia...

Price Rite Marketplace of Scranton Opened: between 2000 and 2008 Previous Tenants:  Food Fair (before 1957 - 1970) > Price Chopper (1984-after 2000) Location:  611 Luzerne St, Scranton, PA Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Today's pictures aren't great, I know, but they're what we have. This Price Rite is around 35,000 square feet and located west of downtown Scranton. It appears to have been built as a Food Fair in the 1950s before closing by 1970, then a Price Chopper from 1984 until somewhere between 2000 and 2008. (It's likely that this store was a replacement for this one.) It looks like Price Rite pretty extensively stripped the store before they opened by 2008, since I don't see any Price Chopper remnants in the pictures I can find online of the Price Rite's interior. There's another supermarket about a third of a mile west here, which we'll be touring tomorrow!