The Market Report

GIANT Food Stores Opened: 1997 Previous Tenants:  none Location: 314 Horsham Rd, Horsham, PA Photographed:  December 28, 2021 Here's a quick look at the GIANT Food in Horsham, a 1997-built store a little over a mile north of 276 on route 611. The store is around 42,000 square feet, so it's on the smaller side for a GIANT. The store's nearest competition is an ACME about 3/4 of a mile east. There's also several stores in Warrington and Warminster to the north slightly farther, but those will have to wait as we are headed west now, to Dresher where we'll make a few stops starting with one here on The Market Report tomorrow!

Bell's Market Owner: Vladimir Kushnir Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  IGA Location:  1055 Bustleton Pk, Feasterville-Trevose, PA Photographed:  January 6, 2020 Welcome to the Bell's Market of Feasterville-Trevose, a very interesting store for a few reasons. It was constructed as a Genuardi's in 1998 on the site of a former Food Fair, then sold to GIANT Food Stores when Genuardi's went under. In 2018, GIANT moved to a new location a few blocks west, and Philadelphia-based Russian supermarket Bell's Market moved in. They did some light renovation, but the bones of GIANT and Genuardi's are still there We enter on the left side of the front to a large, spacious produce department. In the back left corner we have the deli and prepared foods section, with large sections for olives, pickles, prepared foods, and so on. Meat and seafood are on the back wall, with frozen and dairy on the right side. Bakery and pharmacy (not yet open at the time of my visit) are in the fron...

Original Tenant: Shop n Bag Address: 2134 Street Rd, Bensalem, PA Opened:  1960s/70s Closed:  ca. early 1980s Later Tenants:  Food Check (1980s-late 1980s) > Staples (1988-2003) > Office Depot (2006-2010) > Bottom Dollar Food (2011-2015) > Jerusalem Furniture (2016- ) Photographed:  December 28, 2021 An obvious former Bottom Dollar Food location here in Bensalem has become a furniture store for the past five years or so. Check out the full history here and here . The 21,000 square foot store has a lot of similarities to the Cinnaminson location we saw not too long ago. There's also a Redner's a little under half a mile west, and an Amazon Fresh coming soon about a quarter of a mile southeast, not to mention a GIANT about 3/4 of a mile north and other assorted markets closer, so there's a lot of competition around here. Tomorrow, we continue our westward trek, this time moving about five miles northwest to our next stop in Feasterville-Trevose on The I...

Patel Brothers Owner: Swetal & Rakesh Patel Opened:  2021 Previous Tenants:  A&P (1970s-1982) > SuperFresh (1982-1999) > AC Moore Cooperative:  none Location:  1907 Street Rd, Bensalem, PA Photographed:  December 28, 2021 Today's post is a quick look at the Patel Brothers in Bensalem, which has been located in this strip mall for quite some time. In 2021, the store moved from a small corner location to this spot in a former AC Moore, which was itself built as an A&P and was converted to SuperFresh. The move looks to have expanded Patel Brothers from a 12,000 square foot corner space in the mall to a roughly 30,000 square foot anchor tenant position, so that was likely a big move up for them. We don't have too much coverage here in Bensalem, but we do have one more store across the street before we move on. Check it out on Monday at Grocery Archaeology !

Selecto Supermarket Owner: Ramon Herrera Opened:  2010 under current ownership Cooperative:  none Location:  320 Pond St, Bristol, PA Photographed:  2017 We have an interesting story about the Bristol Selecto Supermarket, both about the store and about my experience. It's a pleasant independent supermarket of about just under 17,000 square feet. It was also built as an A&P, and we can tell the centennial facade is mostly intact. It became a SuperFresh in 1982, which later moved a little distance outside of town to a Futurestore later that decade. I'm unsure of what the store was between 1982 and 2007, the earliest that I can confirm that this was the Selecto Supermarket, but it still to this day maintains its SuperFresh-era decor inside. I do believe it's related in some way to the Selecto Supermarket in Trenton , but I can't confirm that. I stopped by here and took a few pictures back in 2017 and I went inside, but I didn't take any interior pictures unfortu...

Original Tenant: Pathmark Address: 500 Lincoln Hwy, Fairless Hills, PA Opened:  1994 Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  Funzilla Photographed:  January 6, 2020 We arrive at the former Fairless Hills Pathmark, another 1990s build store of roughly 60,000 square feet. Pathmark moved from an original Supermarkets General-owned ShopRite that converted to Pathmark in 1968 across the parking lot in 1994. These days, I believe the store has been subdivided with the bulk going to Funzilla, an indoor playground trampoline thingy. As we see, the facade has not been renovated in any way other than paint and new signage. Up next we're heading to the south a little bit to go over to Bristol, right on the river. Check out our next store on The Independent Edition !

Garden Farm Market Owner: Ki Chung Opened:  2001 Cooperative:  none Location:  1 E Trenton Ave, Morrisville, PA Photographed:  January 6, 2020 Ah, the Garden Farm Market of Morrisville! This is well-known among the ACME fan community as a former pitched-roof ACME with its signage inside completely intact. Acme Style covered this store, but of course we can't get to that post anymore. Here's what the exterior used to look like. We're familiar with the Garden Farm Market chain from their New Jersey stores, which include Metuchen , North Brunswick , and Newark. With GFM's new signage here, the exterior looks pretty sharp, especially during the day . I assume GFM gutted the former ACME when they moved in, which was about six years after the ACME left (they moved down the street in 1995). GFM opened in 2001 and, 21 years later, seems to still be going strong. The deli lines the left side wall of the store, seen above, with some international grocery items and dairy on...

    I try to gather my stores into groups that make sense geographically, but in this case the only thing I could come up with is stores clustered around the interstate, route 276, between Morrisville and Audubon! We will be starting on the eastern side in Morrisville and making stops in Fairless Hills, Bristol, Bensalem, Feasterville-Trevose, Horsham, Dresher, Ambler, Lafayette Hill, Conshohocken, Norristown, West Norriton, and Audubon. It's a lot of stops, so we'll be spending a little more than a month passing through this area. It's a total distance from east to west of roughly 40 miles so it's not too long but it is a significant enough distance that we will be moving from Philadelphia suburbs to the beginning of more rural areas to the west of Philadelphia. And once we're done with this, we'll be on to the Lancaster area! Tomorrow, we begin here on The Independent Edition for the first post.

I try to gather my stores into groups that make sense geographically, but in this case the only thing I could come up with is stores clustered around the interstate, route 276, between Morrisville and Audubon! We will be starting on the eastern side in Morrisville and making stops in Fairless Hills, Bristol, Bensalem, Feasterville-Trevose, Horsham, Dresher, Ambler, Lafayette Hill, Conshohocken, Norristown, West Norriton, and Audubon. It's a lot of stops, so we'll be spending a little more than a month passing through this area. It's a total distance from east to west of roughly 40 miles so it's not too long but it is a significant enough distance that we will be moving from Philadelphia suburbs to the beginning of more rural areas to the west of Philadelphia. And once we're done with this, we'll be on to the Lancaster area! Tomorrow, we begin over on The Independent Edition for the first post.

ACME Markets Opened: 1997 Previous Tenants:  Lord & Taylor (closed by 1997) Location:  323 Old York Rd, Jenkintown, PA Photographed:  July 30, 2021 It's time for our final store in the Lower Montgomery county area! Yesterday we saw the Whole Foods in Jenkintown, and that store was an ACME until 1997. At that time, they moved into part of a former Lord & Taylor store about a mile and a half away. This has to be one of the larger ACMEs, too, at over 70,000 square feet (roughly 78,000 to be exact). Acme Style had a wonderful post on this store, but that seems to have vanished with all traces of Acme Style. In case the blog ever comes back, though, here's the link . Acme Style points out that the former entrance for the department store, seen here, is not the main entrance to the supermarket anymore. The main entrance is just to the right . This is actually the back of the building, and the front (facing the street) has no entrances. This store is about the same era...