Recurring "new" uses for obsolete grocery stores, Phila.

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Ephrata1966
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Recurring "new" uses for obsolete grocery stores, Phila.

Post by Ephrata1966 »

There are several national retailers that seem to love older grocery stores. Again, this trend seems mostly Philadelphia-centric, but not that different from Houston. These companies have all taken over at least a few older Acme/A&P/Food Fair/Penn Fruit stores. Joshaustin610/Josh has photo evidence of this. I wonder if the same is true in other parts of the country. Here is my Top 20 list, in no particular order:

1. CVS

2. Rite Aid

3. Thrift Drug/Eckerd (now out of business?)

4. Family Dollar

5. Dollar General

6. Save-a-Lot

7. Thriftway/Great Valu (now out of business?)

8. Big Lots

9. Staples

10. Pep Boys

11. LA Fitness

12. Planet Fitness

13. Bally Fitness

14. Gold's Gym

15. Frank's Nursery (now out of business)

16. Dollar Tree

17. Goodwill

18. ALDI

19 Drug Emporium (now out of business)

20. Value Warehouse/United Furniture (cheap furniture stores)
werememberretail
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Re: Recurring "new" uses for obsolete grocery stores, Phila.

Post by werememberretail »

Ephrata1966 wrote:There are several national retailers that seem to love older grocery stores. Again, this trend seems mostly Philadelphia-centric, but not that different from Houston. These companies have all taken over at least a few older Acme/A&P/Food Fair/Penn Fruit stores. Joshaustin610/Josh has photo evidence of this. I wonder if the same is true in other parts of the country. Here is my Top 20 list, in no particular order:

1. CVS

2. Rite Aid

3. Thrift Drug/Eckerd (now out of business?)

4. Family Dollar

5. Dollar General

6. Save-a-Lot

7. Thriftway/Great Valu (now out of business?)

8. Big Lots

9. Staples

10. Pep Boys

11. LA Fitness

12. Planet Fitness

13. Bally Fitness

14. Gold's Gym

15. Frank's Nursery (now out of business)

16. Dollar Tree

17. Goodwill

18. ALDI

19 Drug Emporium (now out of business)

20. Value Warehouse/United Furniture (cheap furniture stores)


on the ones in bold. No and no! Thrift Drug/Eckerd was merged into Rite Aid.

Thriftway is still alive (though much smaller 20 years ago they numbered almost 90 stores) there are still stores under the Thriftway name in Philadelphia and in suburban NJ, however most of these if not every one of them was a post 1985 opening. the Thriftways that made up the bulk of the chain consisted of older chain stores and they have for the most part closed. only 2 I know of still operate as groceries: The old Food Fair in Abington, later a Thriftway that was sold to Clemens and became Giant, and the Food Fair store in NE Philly on Bustleton at the old Leo Mall that became Thriftway and is now the "Net Cost Market" Russian grocery. Great Valu is still around too. There is a Great Valu store in hamilton NJ (which ironically opened as a Thriftway in the late 70s or early 80s) that has recently greatly expanded and remodeled to include a cafe and a pharmacy. perhaps one of the more "pimped out" Great Valu stores.
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MikeRa
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Re: Recurring "new" uses for obsolete grocery stores, Phila.

Post by MikeRa »

werememberretail wrote:
Ephrata1966 wrote:There are several national retailers that seem to love older grocery stores. Again, this trend seems mostly Philadelphia-centric, but not that different from Houston. These companies have all taken over at least a few older Acme/A&P/Food Fair/Penn Fruit stores. Joshaustin610/Josh has photo evidence of this. I wonder if the same is true in other parts of the country. Here is my Top 20 list, in no particular order:

1. CVS

2. Rite Aid

3. Thrift Drug/Eckerd (now out of business?)

4. Family Dollar

5. Dollar General

6. Save-a-Lot

7. Thriftway/Great Valu (now out of business?)

8. Big Lots

9. Staples

10. Pep Boys

11. LA Fitness

12. Planet Fitness

13. Bally Fitness

14. Gold's Gym

15. Frank's Nursery (now out of business)

16. Dollar Tree

17. Goodwill

18. ALDI

19 Drug Emporium (now out of business)

20. Value Warehouse/United Furniture (cheap furniture stores)


on the ones in bold. No and no! Thrift Drug/Eckerd was merged into Rite Aid.

Thriftway is still alive (though much smaller 20 years ago they numbered almost 90 stores) there are still stores under the Thriftway name in Philadelphia and in suburban NJ, however most of these if not every one of them was a post 1985 opening. the Thriftways that made up the bulk of the chain consisted of older chain stores and they have for the most part closed. only 2 I know of still operate as groceries: The old Food Fair in Abington, later a Thriftway that was sold to Clemens and became Giant, and the Food Fair store in NE Philly on Bustleton at the old Leo Mall that became Thriftway and is now the "Net Cost Market" Russian grocery. Great Valu is still around too. There is a Great Valu store in hamilton NJ (which ironically opened as a Thriftway in the late 70s or early 80s) that has recently greatly expanded and remodeled to include a cafe and a pharmacy. perhaps one of the more "pimped out" Great Valu stores.
The Thriftway at Frankford Avenue and Pratt Street most likely opened in 1979 in the Penn Fruit Company building.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Recurring "new" uses for obsolete grocery stores, Phila.

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Even though Rite Aid did not remodel most of the Thrift Drug/Eckerd stores, it's sad many have closed anyway. This is considering how many stores Eckerd closed before that merger.

The only Great Valu stores still open remotely close to Philadelphia are the two identical "Sunnyway" stores in Chambersburg and Greencastle, both near Gettysburg. Both started as Grand Union.

Here are some notable former Thriftways:

1. Lansdowne Ave. and 61st St., West Philadelphia (former Acme A Frame)

2. Lindbergh Blvd, West Philadelphia (also former Acme A Frame)

3. Frankford Ave. and Pratt St., North Philadelphia (former Penn Fruit)

4. Frankford Ave. and Morrell Ave., North Philadelphia (was a later A&P, then Super Fresh, then Shop 'n Bag)

5. Richmond St., North Philadelphia (former Centennial A&P)

6. Folcroft, now Save-a-Lot (an early Centennial A&P, then Shop 'n Bag)

7. Aston/Village Green (this store started around 1958 as a barrel roof (Penn Fruit-like) A&P, then was expanded/remodeled around 1968. Then it was a Thriftway, then was an "I Got it At Gary's", then Drug Emporium, and finally Big Lots.)

8. West Philadelphia (former Penn Fruit, now Shop 'n Bag.)

9. Stratford, NJ (possible, in this case was a Penn Fruit-like Food Fair built in 1959. Later it was a Phar-Mor starting in 1980-something. So it was most likely a Thriftway or Acme at one point.

10. Woodlyn (possible, this store was an Acme A Frame, actually one of the last. In 1978, Acme moved to the former Penn Fruit nearby, which is now Bally Fitness. The original Acme was more recently subdivided between Save-a-Lot and Dollarland. There must have been something in between.)

11. Cheltenham (possible, this store was a Penn Fruit. Now it's a Save-a-Lot as well. Has an old-school Wine & Spirits attached.)

12. North Philadelphia (possible, another Acme A Frame. In 1978, Acme relocated to a standard 70's store next to a Kmart, probably because a Pathmark was built nearby. The replacement Acme closed eventually and Pathmark moved into that space. Kmart is still open and the old Pathmark is a Forman Mills. The original Acme is now a PETCO, but PETCO only started in 1984 or 1985.)

And let's not forget the newer Aston Shop 'n Bag, and Henning's in Harleysville (former Jamesway).
Last edited by Ephrata1966 on 04 Sep 2010 16:10, edited 1 time in total.
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BK31
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Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Recurring "new" uses for obsolete grocery stores, Phila.

Post by BK31 »

Down in the SE, its a pretty similar tenant mix. Lots of gyms, dollar / discount stores and the like and, discount clothing stores like Citi Trends and Tuesday Morning, but those usually only take about 15K of square feet and split up the space. One thing I've been seeing on the planning side of things is that TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, AJ Wright among others has started gobbling up some old grocery spaces over the past few years, but they usually renovate pretty heavily to the point the old facade is barely recognizable. That old A&P futurestore I posted about in Culpeper, VA in Dominion Square is going to become either a TJ Maxx or Marshalls. There have been a couple of 60's-early 70's era grocery spaces in the the Atlanta metro that have become AJ Wrights. I'm fairly certain the AJ Wright in Belvedere Plaza on Memorial in Decatur is in the original Kroger space before they built the 'City Center' store there.
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