The Market Report

Demely Deli-Grocery Owner: unknown Opened:  2012 Cooperative:  none Location:  548 Tilghman St, Center City, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Nothing says Lehigh Valley (or more broadly, this part of Pennsylvania) like an A-Treat soda sign! That sign welcomes us to Demely Deli-Grocery, a roughly 2000 square foot corner grocer that up until 2012 was Tommy's Deli Mart. This store is on the northern side of center city Allentown, and it will actually wrap up our coverage of Allentown itself as we head on to a northern suburb tomorrow for a former supermarket over on Grocery Archaeology !

Original Grocery Tenant: unknown Address: 501 N 6th St, Allentown, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Kim's Market (closed 2019) Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Here's a grocery store in a mostly residential neighborhood of northern Center City that didn't make it. As we'll see, it's not the store, it's the building that didn't work. This is another one I'm sure has been a grocery store for many decades but was most recently Kim's Market, which closed in 2019. If we look at the notice on the front door, it warns that the structure is unsafe and needs to be razed or repaired. Admittedly walking under the front overhang and looking in the windows freaked me out just a little bit, but no building fell on me, so I'm fine. Classic corner grocer entrance door here. The store seemed to have the opportunity to vacate, leaving behind all the fixtures and a lot of signage, but taking all merchandise out... ...and we see that there had be...

Happy Dairy Market Owner: Charles Yun Opened:  unknown Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  201 N 6th St, Center City, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Today's post is a quick look at the Happy Dairy Market in Allentown! I admit that I regret not going in but for whatever reason I skipped this one. The store might be only a little over 20 feet wide, but it goes way back bringing its size to around 1700 square feet. We've seen a lot of these small grocers, but tomorrow we're headed a few blocks north to one that has closed on Grocery Archaeology!

J&J Spanish American Grocery Owner: Jose Rosario Opened:  2010 Cooperative:  none Location:  249 N 7th St, Center City, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 A great building for today's corner grocer! As you can probably see, the architecture in Allentown is wonderful and there's a lot of preserved historical buildings. This building used to have bland white siding across all of it until it was refurbished and restored in 2011. This store is around 1400 square feet and has been open as a grocer probably for many decades but under its current ownership only since 2010. Tomorrow we're headed around two blocks east and a block south for our next stop in Center City!

8th Street Food Market Owner: Ramon Evangelista Opened:  1999 Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  247 N 8th St, Center City, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 We've seen several historically preserved small corner grocers lacking a lot of updates, but the 8th Street Food Market -- at just 2000 square feet -- has in fact gotten some pretty substantial renovation and, despite the size, actually has a full butcher, deli, and hot food bar inside with a table or two to sit and eat at. This store looks a little different from the other ones we've seen here in Allentown, with a hefty if tiny grocery department, and a full dairy case rather than just a gallon or two of milk. Not to mention that this store is supplied by Krasdale Foods, rather than just a collection of itesm from random wholesalers and wholesale clubs like BJ's. In the back of the store, which I couldn't photograph because there were too many people, was the butcher, deli, and hot food bar, pl...

Stop N Shop Food Market Owner: Wagby Ibrahim Opened:  2001 Cooperative:  none Location:  302 N 14th St, Center City, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Stop & Shop? No, this Stop N Shop Food Market appears to be a longtime fixture in northwestern Center City Allentown. It's located in one of the historic residential/commercial low-rise buildings of this neighborhood and looks like it doesn't quite reach 1000 square feet. There are two aisles in the front, one with grocery items and one with beverages, dairy, and a small deli. There's another little alcove in the back, if I'm not mistaken, for nonfood products. I love tiny stores like this because they're a well-preserved snapshot of what grocery shopping was like a century ago, or maybe not quite that long but regardless. But some of these longtime grocery stores have been more updated than others. Tomorrow's store, which is right near the center of the city, has gotten a big renovation recently. ...

Hersh's Super Market Owner: unknown Opened:  1959 under previous ownership, 2008 or later under current ownership Cooperative:  none Location:  129 S 17th St, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Today is our first of several small independent grocers in the Lehigh Valley. These stores might only be a few aisles and many of them are just little corner stores, but many of them have also been operating as grocers for several generations. This grocery store was bought by the Hersh family in 1959, then sold to Elizabeth and Rob Price in 2008. It may or may not have been sold again, I can't tell. The 3400 square foot store is about four aisles with a small deli in the back but still is more of a grocer than a convenience store. As we can see below, there's more staples than just snacks and grab-and-go beverages. Hersh's also had a store at the corner of N 19th and W Whitehall Streets in Allentown, which itself may have moved from what looks like a small storefr...

Price Rite Marketplace of Allentown Opened: 2001 Previous Tenants:  ACME Markets (1968-2000) Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  1720 S 4th St, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Our first Lehigh Valley store tour is here at the Price Rite of Allentown! We're about a mile and a half outside of downtown Allentown (or, as it's called in eastern Pennsylvania, center city rather than downtown). The 35,000 square foot store was built as an ACME in the late 1960s, and used to more strongly look like an ACME than it does now. ACME closed in 2000, and the store reopened in 2001 as one of the earliest Price Rite locations. Price Rite is the limited-assortment discount store end of Wakefern (ShopRite). Most recently, this store has gotten the latest decor package around 2020. Inside, Price Rite seems to have stripped most of the ACME attributes out, although there may be some remnants left. I'm not sure how ACME would've had the back wall area set up, but ...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 1841 S 4th St, Allentown, PA Opened:  1956 Closed:  1982 Later Tenants:  Hersh's IGA (1982-1990) > subdivided Photographed:  January 8, 2021 Just around the corner from yesterday's Superfood is this former A&P. It was constructed in the 1960s as an A&P centennial, then closed in 1982 when it was sold to Hersh's IGA. In 1990, Hersh's merged with Traub's IGA which was in what is now the Superfood, and closed this location. Traub's later sold to Valley Farm Market and then they sold to Superfood. Here's my source on that history. Don't forget the name Hersh's, by the way, we'll be seeing more of them as we pass through Allentown. A&P and ACME were direct competitors for a very long time and this location was no different, with a former ACME just up the street. That one, however, is still a supermarket, and we're going to check it out tomorrow on The Market Report !

Superfood Fresh Supermarket Owner: unknown Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  704 W Emmaus Ave, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 We're here at the Superfood Fresh Supermarket in Allentown -- one of two that started as Superfood Marketplace stores, then appear to have been sold to the owners of Twin City and other supermarkets, and rebranded Superfood Fresh. When we were here last, it was a Superfood Marketplace . Not much has changed, but I wanted to get a few updated interior pictures nonetheless. As we can see, maintenance at this store has been excellent. It's extremely clean and well-stocked. And even with the high ceiling, no lights were burnt out. Speaking of that, here's a few better and newer pictures of the high pitched-roof ceiling. And a picture of the mural on the front wall, which still has the poorly-added Superfood Marketplace logo over what used to say Valley Farm Market. Worth mentioning that the other remaining ...