The Market Report

Ideal Market Owner: David Mihalick Opened:  1998-2023 Cooperative:  none Location:  339 Walnut St, Johnstown, PA Photographed:  January 14, 2023 Contributor: Margot S. Today's snapshot is a bit of a bonus one! In writing yesterday's post about the former Tioga Street Market, I noticed that another picture my friend had sent actually inadvertently contained a shot of the now-closed Ideal Market in downtown Johnstown. The roughly 18,000 square foot store opened in 1998 as part of the local Ideal chain, with no relation to New York's Ideal Food Basket , and just recently closed this summer . That picture above is a not-great-quality screenshot of the below view of downtown from up on the hill in Westmont. And here's a little look inside the supermarket when it was still in business. These are pictures from the Johnstown Inclined Plane, the world's steepest vehicular inclined plane (basically the steepest slope a vehicle goes up and down). It's a cog railroad, th...

Original Grocery Tenant:  independent grocer Address: 380 Bucknell Ave, Johnstown, PA Opened:  1892 Closed:  1924 Later Tenants:  A&P (1924-1939) > ACME Markets (1939-1950s) > Tioga Street Market (1950s-2017) Photographed:  January 14, 2023 Here's another snowy Johnstown shot from our contributor, who grew up around the corner from this store. We're at the corner of Bucknell and Tioga here in the Westmont section, to see a roughly 2,000 square foot store that opened in 1892 as an independent grocer, later purchased by A&P in 1924 before closing in 1939 and becoming, believe it or not, a very early ACME in the same year. ACME moved to the Bi-Lo location I mentioned in yesterday's post in the 1950s and it became the Tioga Street Market, which finally closed in 2017. There has been talk of reopening the store, but no progress that I can see. Tomorrow we have one more store in Johnstown, a snapshot of a recently-closed store over on The Independent ...

Clark's Corner Store Owner: Anne Clark Schrey Opened:  before 1972 Cooperative:  none Location:  1003 Menoher Blvd, Johnstown, PA Photographed:  January 14, 2023 Contributor:  Margot S. Welcome to a somewhat snowy Johnstown! The city of around 18,000 people is just under 60 miles east of Pittsburgh and, well, a city I've never been to. But I have a friend who grew up there, and shared today's and tomorrow's pictures. Clark's Corner Store has been around for many decades, and these days is more of a deli than a grocer. My friend tells me they make very good sandwiches. Johnstown these days is mostly Giant Eagle country, with a few assorted others, but there was once an ACME (later Bi-Lo, still with the distinctive facade) not far from this part of Johnstown, called Westmont. There's even still a Bi-Lo or two still operating (C&S-supplied) around here, although of course they are just independents that have held onto the name now that Penn Traffic has been ...

ALDI Food Market Opened: unknown Previous Tenants:  none Location:  22827 PA-68, Clarion, PA Photographed:  July 1, 2023 Here's a quick look at a newly-renovated ALDI to the south of downtown Clarion, a store of just over 15,000 square feet built at some point before 2007. You'll notice that the renovation of the exterior is not nearly as extensive as some of the other renovations we've seen, such as New Brunswick . Is ALDI getting cheaper with their renovations? Is there just not enough competition here to warrant that much to be done? The store is the only dedicated grocery store in Clarion since the Comet Food Warehouse closed in 2019. There's also a Walmart nearby, but for a traditional supermarket, you'd have to travel about 16 miles east to the Giant Eagle in Brookville. Our last stop in western PA before we return to the northeastern PA area is Johnstown, where we'll start by seeing an independent corner store tomorrow on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant: Quaker Market Address: 443 S 5th Ave, Clarion, PA Opened:  1968 Closed:  1972 Later Tenants:  Comet Food Warehouse (1972-2019) > Faller's Furniture (2023- ) Photographed:  July 1, 2023 Hope you had a great weekend! Today we're taking a look at the former Comet Food Warehouse in Clarion, PA, about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. It was previously owned by a company called Jefferson Grocery, whose Clearfield location we saw on Friday. This store closed in 2019, following struggles with everything from road closures to union issues (a case was brought to the NLRB in 2017 and closed in 2018 regarding this store). Here's more coverage on the store's closure. The store opened in 1968 as a Quaker Market, a chain or independent I know nothing about. Quaker closed just four years later when the store became a Comet Food Warehouse (store #12, in fact, and I have read elsewhere that Jefferson owned 13 stores in total at their peak). Today, th...

JG Food Warehouse Owner: Drew Rowles Opened:  1983 Cooperative:  none Location:  200 River St Photographed:  June 23, 2023 Here in Clearfield, PA, where we saw a former ACME yesterday, today we're taking a look at a former A&P! This A&P appears to have been opened in the early- to mid-1950s, renovated and expanded to its present 17,000 square feet in the mid-1970s, and closed no later than 1983. JG Food Warehouse opened in that year, as one of the retail grocery stores owned by a local group called Jefferson Wholesale Grocery. They were a wholesaler and small chain of retail grocery stores in this area, based in Clarion, about 50 miles west of here where they also owned a grocery store. There's not a whole lot of information out there about Jefferson, and a 1958 lawsuit regarding a company of the same name but based in Pittsburgh may or may not be referring to the same company. (And is JG Food Warehouse just short for Jefferson Grocery?) Jefferson has been...

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 3055 Park Pl, Clearfield, PA Opened:  1963 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  CVS > Buck's Pizza Photographed:  June 23, 2023 I think this is the first time we've seen a former ACME that's now a pizzeria! (Although we did see a former A&P become a pizzeria up in Elizabethtown, NY .) The unmistakable pitched-roof design tops this 11,500 square foot store opened in 1963 replacing an older store at 110 E Market St that appears to have opened around the 1930s. While I'm not clear on when ACME closed or who occupied the space thereafter, I do know that it became a CVS, which eventually moved to a new-build store closer to the street, and the space is now a large pizzeria, with a church apparently taking up the back half. Sadly, it doesn't look like there's any suggestion of the high ceiling inside. By the way, we're looking at this store from across the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, though we're a...

Original Grocery Tenant: Hall's Market Address: 491 E Sycamore Rd, Snow Shoe, PA Opened:  ca. 1990, 1948 in previous location Closed:  2020 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  July 2, 2023 I stopped for gas and a bathroom at the Snow Shoe, PA exit along route 80, and stumbled upon this sadly vacant 20,000 square foot carcass of Hall's Market. Having been in business since 1948 and here since 1990, Hall's was a fixture in Snow Shoe, a tiny town of around 700. The store closed in 2020 (paywall) after an electrical fire destroyed most of the building's interior, and while the owners originally planned to reopen, those plans were ultimately scrapped. But the sign remains out on the street, and interestingly enough, the convenience store at the nearby Sunoco seems to have expanded their grocery selection, likely to attract customers who would otherwise have to leave town and travel about 13 miles east to a Weis in Bellefonte for a full supermarket. Tomorrow is a look...