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anyone heard of PickWell supermarkets in Philadelphia?

Posted: 05 Sep 2009 12:54
by ProudPantry
This is a question especially to all you board members who are in the Philadelphia area. I vaguely recall in the 1980s , visiting relatives in Philadelphia going past a branch of a small to midsize grocery chain in that area called "PickWell" It was founded by a man named Ted Molish (sp)and somebody said that they were connected to the long gone Fleming company (wholesalers) and the Thriftway group. I recently stumbled searching the Philly Inquirer archives from the 1980s and and seeing references to this chain. I wonder what became of them?

Re: anyone heard of PickWell supermarkets in Philadelphia?

Posted: 05 Sep 2009 18:30
by maynesG
Hi, I can give you8 some of the information that you wanted, When I moved down to Delaware in 1984. I was as account manager with Quaker Oats responsible for Fleming Foods. ( I worked for Acme in the evenings at that time I never met the founder of Pickwell , but I called on Mitch Saffrin who purchased the Pickwell Chain. They had about 10 or twelve stores at the time in Pa and I remember the one In Chester. They purchased thier Groceries from Flemings Oaks D.C., and ran their own ad each week.Mitch had a partner by the name of Ed ( Funny Ican!t remember his last name but he owns a Shop & Bag in South Jersey today) who was the buyer. Mitch also owned four Thriftways in Delaware that were former Food Fairs. The chain ran afoul of the law during the great Coupon Mis Redemption fraud cases of that decade and many Thritway owners , Ed and Mitch were convicted and that was the end of Pickwell.
Pickwell itself I memory serves came out of The PenFruit diaster at least most oftheir stores were Penn Friut stores.
Most of their stores became Thritways, Shop & Bags or American Family stores. One became a Super Fresh closed and became a Wakefirms secondary chain store ( Sorry I can!t come up with the name). The onein Chester became aFamily Dollar Store.
Hope itHelps
Gerry Maynes

Re: anyone heard of PickWell supermarkets in Philadelphia?

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 20:07
by Ephrata1966
The former Penn Fruit in Chester became a Pick Well in 1976, when Food Fair bought Penn Fruit. This was an earlier Penn Fruit, built in 1953.

Re: anyone heard of PickWell supermarkets in Philadelphia?

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 20:19
by BillyGr
maynesG wrote:One became a Super Fresh closed and became a Wakefirms secondary chain store ( Sorry I can!t come up with the name).
I assume you're thinking of WakeFern (the co-op whose stores operate under the Shop-Rite name)?

If so, the bargain store was either Cost-Rite or Price-Rite.

Re: anyone heard of PickWell supermarkets in Philadelphia?

Posted: 07 Sep 2009 07:29
by maynesG
Hi, Thanks, Yes the stores name is Price Rite.

Re: anyone heard of PickWell supermarkets in Philadelphia?

Posted: 27 Sep 2009 23:07
by MikeRa
I think the A&P on Krewstown Road, in NE Philadelphia became a Pickwell before it became a Thriftway around 1982, when A&P tried to leave the Philadelphia area.