The Market Report

Original Tenant: Penn Fruit Address: 6150 N 5th St, Olney, Philadelphia, PA Opened:  1940s Closed:  by 1979 Later Tenants:  CVS (ca. 1985- ) Photographed:  July 2021 Quick stop here just west of yesterday's H Mart . This roughly 13,000 square foot building has been a CVS since at least around 1985, and according to JoshAustin610 , it was built on the site of a demolished Penn Fruit. Looking at Historic Aerials, we can see that there's been a building here since at least 1948, but I can't find any evidence that the building was demolished at any point. In fact, there's a pretty clear progression of the building staying exactly as it is and being expanded several times. The original structure appears to be a 6100 square foot Penn Fruit with a 2400 square foot smaller store next to it. An addition of roughly 3200 square feet was built out on the other side of the property, towards the parking lot. If you look carefully, you can actually see the seam between the Penn F...

H Mart Owner: Il Yeon Kwon Opened:  2020 Previous Tenants:  SuperFresh (1996-2002) > Food Basics (2003-2006) Location:  6201 N Front St, Olney, Philadelphia, PA Photographed:  July 2021 As I've mentioned on previous posts, there are Asian supermarkets scattered throughout Philadelphia, and we've checked out a few of them. Lawncrest and Olney each have Asian populations of roughly 12-14%, and three of our Lawncrest stops were Asian supermarkets ( E&D , Ben City , and Farmer's Best ). Surprisingly, or perhaps due to the presence of these local competitors (plus an existing store just about a mile and a half outside of this neighborhood), the country's largest Asian supermarket chain -- H Mart -- didn't have any presence in Philadelphia until 2020. They did, however, have locations in Elkins Park all of half a mile from the city border, Upper Darby about 3/4 of a mile west of the city limits, and Langhorne a bit farther, about 7 miles northeast of the city. (No...

ShopRite of Front & Olney Owner: Larry Collins Opened: 1988 Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  101 E Olney Ave, Olney, Philadelphia, PA Photographed:  July 2021 We are here to tour the largest supermarket in the Lawncrest-Olney area. At just under 70,000 square feet, this sprawling ShopRite is one of the anchors of the One & Olney (ha) Shopping Center. We're just about half a mile as the crow flies from Wilson's Meats , but more like 8/10 of a mile on the street. This store opened in 1988 and expanded into a neighboring Rite Aid around 2000. We enter on the far left side of the storefront to floral, produce, prepared foods, and some of the bakery department in the expansion. The bakery service counter and deli are all that's left of the original grand aisle, while what I assume was previously produce is now an odd space for mostly snacks and beverages. Meat and seafood line the back wall, with dairy on the far right side of ...