Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

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maynesG
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Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by maynesG »

Hi, The Formans Mills store that is housed in the former Brandywine IGA/PennFruit building on the Philadelphia Pike. in Wilmington is to close at the end of this month. The building itself as well as the strip cnter it is in adjacent to The old Sears building is rumored to be torn down.
From the 50!s till the early 90!s this store was a viable supermarket. Then Harold Friedlander
decided to take the entire ground floor and basement of the vacant Sears building and build a Thriftway. The net results was the A&P/SuperFresh around the corner on Miller Road closed as well as The IGA. The Thriftway closed a short time after it opened and was purchased by Super Fresh, who also failed at this location.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by Ephrata1966 »

That's funny, the Penn Fruit in Norristown, PA was also next to a Sears! And starting in 1964, it was across from a Centennial A&P too, later run by the Genuardi family for 20 years. And the Forman Mills in Morton, PA was in a former Boeing building, later a Mr. Good Buys home center. Most of this space is BJ's Wholesale Club. Last summer Forman Mills lost their lease and had to move to the old Rickel/National Wholesale Liquidators in Glenolden, PA (next to a Pathmark). The old Forman Mills space is right now a book wholesaler.

What other Penn Fruits were in Delaware? This is the only one I know of. A Save-A-Lot or a decent liquor store would be nice here.
maynesG
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Re: Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by maynesG »

Hi, The only one that I know of, was in the Prices Corner Shopping Center. It is now a Bridal store and at one time part of a five store Delaware chain of Toy stores. I simply cannot remember the name of. But I can remember buying stuff there at Christmas for my Kids,When they were little.
I think there could have been one in Dover, that became and IGA, then a Farm Fresh and then an IGA again before it closed on Route 13. This migth have been a Penn Fruit or it could have been a Food Fair. But that would have given them three stores witin three miles of each other.
The other stores being the one adjacent to the Dover Downs, that was a Cooks Thriftway
and was adjacent to a Fields( it was torn down for the Home Depo) and the Traditional towered
Brick Food Fair about one mile south , now divided among several small stores. It just migth be
that the white brick store was closed, in favor of having two stores in major shopping centers.
I havent run into any one who knows for sure.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Gerry, do you know what this store is now?: http://www.blurtit.com/q449749.html

This is just bizarre. Their store closed at the same time as A&P...
maynesG
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Re: Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by maynesG »

Hi, I believe the Woolco Store was located Across from the Blue Hen Mall, in the now closed Value City Store. This center had the original Shoppers Paradise Store that was housed in the Sav A Lot. It would close and the company after a two year wait would try again with a new Metro unit that lasted ten Years until Super Valu last year decided tthat with a Sav A Lot, a Metro and an Acme all with in a three mile run on the same road, it was time to close the Metro.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Thanks! Are you familiar with the Big Lots in Dover? Because I wonder if that was the original Acme in the neighborhood, now in front of Dover Downs. Or perhaps it could have been an A&P, and the current Acme had an older design?
maynesG
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Re: Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by maynesG »

Hi, That Big Lots store was built as a Foodland/Meat Land store by the Camilia brothers, eastern shore chain. They have had their up and downs and there are about ten stores left under the Meatland and Fresh Farm name.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Around when did those stores open/close? I think I heard the Acme A Frames in Seaford DE and Salisbury MD were Meat Land before Save-A-Lot came in.
maynesG
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Re: Former Penn Fruit/Brandywine IGA/ Forman Mills to be closed

Post by maynesG »

Hi, The Foodland/Meat Land in Dover about 1990, sometime after the Acme was open. The Shoppers Paradise in 1989, that end of town with the nearly empty Dover Mall, and the strip center they were in almost 70% empty killed them.
Yes, the locations you have mentioned were all Meatlands ( the Acme in Marydel, the former A&P in Harrington and abandonded chain locations and new builds all over the Delmarva
Penninsular.
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