Summer Road Trip to Philadelphia and Suburbs

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neil mcauliffe
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Re: Summer Road Trip to Philadelphia and Suburbs

Post by neil mcauliffe »

Gaudios was owned and operated by Penn Fruit. Some of their locations were former Penn Fruit stores.

The Pep Boys store on the Boulevard near Red Lion was never an A&P.
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MikeRa
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Re: Summer Road Trip to Philadelphia and Suburbs

Post by MikeRa »

neil mcauliffe wrote:Gaudios was owned and operated by Penn Fruit. Some of their locations were former Penn Fruit stores.

The Pep Boys store on the Boulevard near Red Lion was never an A&P.
The Pep Boys on Roosevelt Boulevard and the former Penn Fruit-Dale's-Gaudio's-Frank's at Roosevelt & Bustelton has the same front entrance frontage. The Frank's main entrance was on the otherside of Roosevelt Blvd. They were both built with the same brick workings of sort as the A&P stores that were in Southern California.

There was also, according to the ads from the Inquirer in 1969, an A&P that was at Red Lion and Acamdey. I would have to assume that this A&P was sharing the shopping center with a 1960's Acme Markets, and was demolished and replaced by the current Acme building.
Last edited by MikeRa on 31 Oct 2018 02:55, edited 1 time in total.
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MikeRa
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Re: Summer Road Trip to Philadelphia and Suburbs

Post by MikeRa »

MikeRa wrote: 04 Mar 2009 23:03
neil mcauliffe wrote:2449 was definitely a Penn Fruit. I grew up in that neighborhood and shopped a few times in that store. One of its unique features was that it had entrances on the Boulevard and from the parking lot. Most of the activity was on the parking lot side. I think there were only 2 or 3 checkouts on the Boulevard side.

It was not uncommon during that period to have stores from the same company relatively close together. Other examples by Penn Fruit would be Cottman and Bustleton, Cottman and Frankford and Frankford and Robbins.
Picture 2449 was never a Penn Fruit. it was a A&P. The front of that location (which faces the parking lot) matches exactly with the former A&P (current Pep Boys) on Roosevelt Blvd & Red Lion Road, as well as some of the old A&P that were in Southern California. There was also a A&P store on Woodlawn Avenue that had the same tower as the Roosevelt Blvd & Bustelton Avenue store.

The Penn Fruit location at Bridge & Pratt was built sometime after 1962, replacing a smaller store that was on the SE Corner of Frankford & Bridge Street. That original Penn Fruit location was bordered by a Bowling Alley and the Forum/Ellis Theatre, and was replaced, along with the bowling alley, by the current building that houses a chicken fast food place.
I was wrong back in 2008. The Penn Fruit/Dale's/Gaudio's/Frank's building is now a Chevrolet dealership.
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