TOUR: CTown Supermarkets - Lancaster, PA

CTown Supermarkets
Owner: Marcela Marquez

Opened: unknown

Previous Tenants: A&P (closed by 1980s)

Cooperative: Krasdale Foods

Location: 451 E King St, Lancaster, PA

Photographed: August 20, 2019

Our first downtown Lancaster supermarket is this CTown! The store is only about 9,000 square feet, but is a very complete supermarket. (As a side note, the owners of Brothers International and Brothers Foodmax were previously partners in this CTown.) It was built in the 1950s as an A&P and closed by the early 80s when the Philadelphia-area A&Ps were converted to SuperFresh around 1983.

Although it's a pretty small store, it's a very well-run store -- extremely clean, packed with merchandise, and newly renovated. It's been a CTown for at least 15 years, but I'm not sure exactly when it opened. Deli is immediately on the right upon entering, with produce and meat in the first aisle on the right side of the store. There's a butcher counter in the back-right corner of the store, with dairy on the back wall and frozen on the left side.

For the most part, I've liked the Pennsylvania CTowns I've been to. Generally, a lot of the CTowns are very good urban stores, but as we can see this store is very well-maintained. Perishables were great (meat and produce had large selections and were fresh and cheap).

The meat and produce departments take up the first aisle, as we see here.

The store was most recently remodeled around 2016 and was looking really good at the time of my visit.

The back of the first aisle is home to the butcher counter, as well as frozen seafood and meat.

In the grocery aisles, there's not much extra space to waste, but there's a complete selection of all groceries.

There's also the usual homegoods like cleaning and pet foods, meaning that residents of this neighborhood -- which appears to be a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood -- can walk to this store and do their whole food shopping, without having to leave the area.

Even some folding outdoor chairs, I guess. I wonder if the timing of this store's renovation coincided with the Brothers owners leaving this partnership.

In the last aisle, we have the rest of the dairy department and the frozen foods.

Look how nice and clean that floor is! Here's a look across the front towards the produce department. 6 aisles in total so it's not a very large store  but it's big enough to be a complete supermarket.

I really like to see these supermarkets -- like this one, a 60+ year old former A&P, not just still operating as a grocery store today, but being run very well and clealy having been maintained particularly well over the years.

If you like this CTown, you're in luck. These owners also own a Bravo about 11 blocks west on King Street, where we're headed on Monday! Come back here to The Market Report to check it out.