The Market Report

Well, I got to spend a whole week up here in the Finger Lakes, but you all didn't! I know we have readers from across the country here, so I wanted to give you all a look at the region apart from its supermarkets -- to be your tour guide, if you will. I hope this is fun and/or interesting! To begin with, here's a view of Canandaigua Lake from a location just outside of the town of Naples . This is the area where I stayed, so it's where most of my non-supermarket pictures are going to be from. The Finger Lakes area definitely has beautiful scenic views of the various lakes (from west to east: Conesus, Hemlock, Canadice, Honeoye, Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga, Owasco ,  Skaneateles, and Otisco), but it also has some gorgeous scenery available to hikers through its forests. Meanwhile, because there is so much water in the area, there is flowing water everywhere you look. These waterfall pictures come from Grimes Glen (I think...?), a small park located just out...

What better way to end our Finger Lakes group than with a Tops! (In case you've missed our previous Finger Lakes Tops coverage, check it out: here , here , here , here , here , and here . I had previously speculated that this may have been a replacement store for a now-abandoned location in nearby Riverside, but I have no confirmation of this other than a general feeling. Any input? This store, which is located at 360 W Pulteney St in Riverside, wraps up our Finger Lakes group! We have a little more fun stuff tomorrow to round it all out, then we start something totally new on Saturday. Lots of exciting stuff in the pipeline, so come back soon! Photographed August 2018

Just about three miles west of Corning, NY (yes, home of Corning Glass  and the spectacular Corning Museum of Glass ), we find this ALDI. I've seen it referred to as both Painted Post and Gang Mills, but I'm going with what Google Maps says. This ALDI has the latest decor, which we saw in Livingston . I don't really have much else to say about it; I find ALDI incredibly boring but not unpleasant to shop in. The building, however, is on the older side (it has been remodeled), so it's not particularly exciting. Some of the newer ALDI locations are quite nice. This location , for instance, takes up half of a former Tops in Rochester. This location is at 3133 Silverback Ln, Painted Post, NY. Photographed August 2018

Our last stop here in Bath is a look at another really, really nice Tops. I snapped a few drive-by pictures early in the week I was here, but we returned and went into the store, so I have a full tour. It features much newer decor than the one we saw in Canandaigua , but I would imagine it opened with that decor. Surprisingly, this store is only about 45,000 square feet. It feels much larger. Also interesting, it's almost a perfect square. Daytime drive-by, and then a nighttime visit... Produce and natural/organic run along the first aisle, with deli in an island facing. Bakery is at the back of the first aisle with meat/seafood on the back wall. Dairy is in the last aisle. I'm not remembering entirely, but I believe pharmacy is in an island in the middle of the grocery aisles facing the front end. I'm assuming this time capsule was installed when the store was built in 1996. And hey, you want a (terrifying) fun fact? If we go to plan, we'll be cover...

We are returning to the slightly larger small town of Bath, located south of the south end of Keuka Lake, for two more stores. (We've previously seen a former A&P and a former ACME .) Now for two stores that are still operating here. On our post of the former ACME, I wrote (and speculated) a little about the history of that store and this one, which might be very closely connected. They are located in very close proximity to each other: "The replacement ACME probably, as Acme Style points out, closed in 1994 before a sale to Penn Traffic. (In 1979, it had been  switched  to the Pennsylvania division, not as strange a choice as it might seem since Bath is only 30 miles north of the Pennsylvania border.) Interestingly, by 2009, Penn Traffic was operating a P&C Foods at  400 W Morris St in Bath  (just around the corner from this store at 380 W Washington St), which was sold to Tops Friendly Markets in 2010 before being  sold  once again ...

About 10 miles south of Naples , we encounter the even smaller town of Prattsburgh. It's entirely possible the Prattsburgh Market Place is its largest business. Another store I wish I could have gone inside, but I'm happy to just have the exterior pictures too. Interesting window placement. This store is located at 2 S Main St, Prattsburgh, NY. We still have the ShurFine logo visible here too! Photographed August 2018

Now it's time for another store tour at a very nice local small-town supermarket! These are the stores I love the most, because they're so unique -- to the area and even to the town. Full disclosure: I first visited this store one night and found a lot of empty shelves, a generally disorganized store, and rather grumpy service. I don't blame them, as I believe I came in pretty close to closing. I then returned during the day and was very happy to find a clean, fully stocked store with much better service too. I always do my best to show the store in its best state, so I tried to replace any pictures showing the store in bad condition with new pictures of it in better condition, so these were taken over the course of a few days. The storefront faces the parking lot, with produce on the left wall (facing the street). Aisles run parallel to the front wall of the store, with meat/deli on the far right wall. Here you can see how the store fits into the small downto...