The Market Report

When we visited the Confluence Foodmart, I made a brief mention of the Diamond Produce store a few blocks west of the Foodmart. I decided to give the store its own dedicated Snapshot post. Although we're not really going to be seeing anything new, I wanted to separate it out as I'm pretty sure Diamond is itself a former Acme. (Incidentally, this week isn't themed. Next week will be, but then we're fast approaching our next big group of stores, 44 to be exact!) Okay, okay, we saw this picture already. I know. But let's take another look at it. Does the store not look almost identical to (if slightly wider than) the definite former Acme in Canandaigua , and maybe even closer to the likely former Acme in Union . (In fact, I started to do the Photoshop tricks to get the old Acme logo on this storefront, but I figured I could just send you over to the image I did for Union instead.) If you want to look it up yourself, the address is 606 Logan Pl, Confluence, PA.

Today's Snapshot is a supermarket about an hour southeast of Pittsburgh, PA. When I visited the store, it was Ross' Shop 'n Save, a member of the Shop 'n Save cooperative . It also had some great old decor inside, mostly lots of neon. This Shop 'n Save has since been replaced by Cash Saver, a cost-plus store (they sell groceries at the wholesale cost plus 10% at checkout). Unfortunately, you can see that the classic decor has been replaced on Google Maps . What struck me about the store is how nice the carts looked (even though they were pretty old) in the sunset, and more importantly, just how many of them there were! The store is located at 119 Memorial Blvd, Connellsville, PA. Photographed June 2017

See, the wonderful thing about blogging about supermarkets is you can jump from state to state by just clicking on a different picture. If only it were that easy in real life. Here in the most densely populated state in the country, which I call home, it can be hard to imagine rural food deserts. Urban food deserts are common, but their main problem is the combination of population density, lack of transportation, and lack of food stores. In rural areas, population density and access to transportation are not as important considerations. The problem lies in the distance between stores. When I stayed in Mill Run, PA (the town where Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater is; about an hour outside of Pittsburgh) this past July, the nearest grocery store was Miller's Grocery , a tiny country store with the bare minimum selection of groceries and produce, and a deli, but no fresh meat. Visitors could, however, have as much of the smell of mildew and old cigarette smoke as they wan...

Welcome to today's store tour, with a fancy new graphic! (Bonus points to anyone who can guess what store that photo was taken in...it's one that has been covered on my Flickr page .) For a while, Acme Markets had a moderate presence in western PA, with locations in Confluence, Connellsville, Uniontown, Salisbury, Meyersdale, Snow Shoe, Johnstown, and Phillipsburg, PA. Today the Confluence location is still very much alive and well, but under the independent Confluence Foodmart, which is affiliated with Western Family Foods (ShurFine/ShurSave). The Confluence location was built as an A-Frame or pitched roof , as it is known on Acme Style, building sometime in the 1960s. It's virtually identical to the former location in Canton, PA , which later became a Bi-Lo and is now a Tops. Set slightly out of the small downtown area of Confluence, PA, the Foodmart is the only full-size, full-service supermarket in the area. Confluence is also home, however, to Diamond Produce ...