Look Inside: Vitali's Market - Scranton, PA

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 on that to come. The bakery shelving is wonderful though, and might even be original to day one...

At the back of the store we have cleaning products.

The grocery aisles are narrow and small, but well-stocked with all the essentials. As you can see, this is a lot more than a small convenience store.

Some soda shelving -- maybe from the 1970s? I don't know my sodas -- in the back right corner.

More frozen foods are in the last aisle, with dairy in front of that, a full meat department, a deli and the register in an island opposite that, and produce and more baked goods in the front corner.

As you can see, this is almost a full supermarket although it's so small. But it does have a full, substantial meat department and even a little produce department! You can just see the edge of the deli case in the far right of the below picture.

I loved this store because it feels old-fashioned in the best way possible. It doesn't feel outdated, it seems that people still come here to get their essentials and the specialty products (like homemade sausages, and maybe more importantly, homemade pies...)

I had to buy a pie when I was here, along with a few other fresh baked goods (that are made in-house, and house is a good word for it because this (it's not so clear at night in my pictures, but this is just tacked onto the front of a house). The deli is on the other side of the meat/produce/bakery cases, and they have a few prepared things and they make sandwiches too. A very full-service store for such a small place!

That is all for Vitali's Market, and I really loved it. I hope they're doing well these days! We are now going to jump to the other side of downtown Scranton, about two and a half miles east, to the town of Dunmore to take a look at an independent supermarket there, here on The Independent Edition tomorrow!