The Market Report

CTown Reading Plaza Supermarket Owner: unknown Opened:  ca. 2000 Previous Tenants:  ACME Markets (1960s-1996) > BRL Grocery Outlet (1996-ca. 2000) Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  600 E Greenwich St, Reading, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 Our second CTown in Reading (see the first here ) is on the northern end of center city, and is also much larger that the first at around 26,000 square feet. It appears to be under a different owner but at the very least is much better-run, even though it's also an older store. It was constructed in the 1960s as a pitched-roof ACME, of course, and closed in 1996. Shortly thereafter it was taken over by BRL Grocery Outlet, also known as Buy Rite Liquidators, which only lasted a few years before CTown moved in. It seems that BRL mostly cleared out the store interior so unfortunately we have very little left from ACME inside. But of course the outside still looks familiar. We enter to produce and deli/bakery in the first aisle on the r

Jimmie's CTown Supermarkets Owner: Isidoro Diaz Opened:  2008 under current ownership; 1965 previously Previous Tenants:  Jimmie's Supermarket Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  264 S 9th St, Reading, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 It's our first of two CTown Supermarkets here in Reading! We saw DeCarlo's Bravo yesterday, which became a Bravo pretty recently but was DeCarlo's Meat Market since at least 1931. It's a similar situation here, with Jimmie's Supermarket being here since at least 1965 and as far as I can tell, becoming CTown in 2008. The layout of the 7500 square foot store is pretty straightforward, with produce in the front right corner, grocery in the first aisle, meat on the back wall, and frozen/dairy in the last aisle. We see some classic decor on the walls, but not any decor I recognize from a big chain supermarket. Plus, it's not older than 1965... so it was likely installed by Jimmie's. Some fixtures (like the refrigerato

DeCarlo's Bravo Supermarkets Owner: unknown Opened:  before 2007 Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  228 Penn St, Reading, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 Our next stop in Reading is this Bravo, branded as DeCarlo's Bravo Supermarkets. I'm not aware of any other DeCarlo's Bravos, and I see some listings online for DeCarlo's Meat Market at this location, so it's possible the 4500 square foot store was previously DeCarlo's Meat Market and potentially was purchased by a Bravo owner who kept the name -- or, possibly, joined Krasdale and rebranded their store as Bravo. Looking through archives on Newspapers.com, DeCarlo Meat Market has been here at 228 Penn Street since at least 1931. Unfortunately, I can't find much more about the store, or its later transition to Bravo which I assume was under new owners, although I suppose it's still in the family. The store is small, but much like the other Krasdale stores we've se

Fine Fare Supermarkets Owner: Juan Diaz Opened:  2010 Previous Tenants:  A&P (closed ca. 1980) > IGA > Compare Foods Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  200 W Buttonwood St, Reading, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 Welcome to the city of Reading, PA for our first supermarket! This 30,000 square foot supermarket was built in the 1970s as an A&P, before closing around 1980. It became an IGA shortly thereafter, then a Compare Foods more recently and most recently a Fine Fare in 2010. (It's possible the owners of the Compare Foods and the Fine Fare are the same.) The best part about this store is that, although there have been some modifications inside, it's still got almost its entire A&P decor package intact. Reading is a lower-income but fairly large city, with a population of about 100,000 and a median household income around $26,000. It's about 60% Hispanic, meaning that several of the urban NYC coops (Fine Fare, Krasdale, and most recently I