The Market Report

Crop's Fresh Marketplace Owner: John Cropper Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  IGA (Family Owned Markets) Location:  1257 Horseshoe Pk, Downingtown, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 We're about four miles away from what might be considered downtown Downingtown, in an area sometimes referred to as East Brandywine and sometimes as Guthriesville. This approximately 43,000 square foot store has a very interesting history. The Cropper family first opened an IGA supermarket in town in 1953, before moving to the current location in 1995. The store was sold in 2002 to Stauffer's Market, a local ShurFine/AWI operator. AWI became the lease holder here, with Stauffer's as the subtenant. Well, time goes by, things change, and AWI goes bankrupt and is acquired by C&S. C&S decides to end the lease in 2015, and Stauffer's works out a lease directly with the landlord. Shortly thereafter, Stauffer's goes out of business. The space sits empty as a GIANT Food Store is announce...

Kimberton Whole Foods Owner: Terry Brett Opened:  2004 Cooperative:  INFRA Location:  150 E Pennsylvania Ave, Downingtown, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 We're at our second store here in Downingtown, about a mile and a half west of the Wegmans we saw yesterday. This store is 6100 square feet -- the Wegmans is nearly 20 times as large. But this Kimberton Whole Foods is a very pleasant outpost of the eastern PA natural foods chain. Originating in Kimberton, PA, the chain has since expanded to six locations with one more coming soon. Kimberton's produce is one of its strongest features, with a large amount of it coming from local farms including a farming cooperative based in Lancaster. While this store is quite nice, we can tell it's an older Kimberton store compared to newer stores like Collegeville , in part of a former ACME. Produce is in the front right corner, and dairy, meat, and frozen line the outside walls. There's some short grocery aisles in the middle...

Wegmans Food Markets Opened: unknown Previous Tenants:  unknown Location:  1056 E Lancaster Ave, Downingtown, PA Photographed:  August 20, 2019 Welcome to the Wegmans of Downingtown! The store appears to be around 115,000 square feet, and seems to be one of the older Wegmans in this part of Pennsylvania despite not being that old. It's in the Brandywine Square, a massive strip mall of nearly 600,000 square feet. Wegmans shares the mall with several other enormous tenants, including a BJ's at the western end of the strip mall. Downingtown is a fairly large town as it is a retail center, although its population is below 10,000. It's roughly halfway between Philadelphia and Lancaster, and in any other context I'd have a hard time justifying why it should be grouped with Lancaster stores except for the fact that I visited it on the same day as Lancaster, meaning we have more between here and Lancaster than between here and our next stops to the east. The layout is very sta...