NEW: Scranton, 1925-2021

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

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Groceteria
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NEW: Scranton, 1925-2021

Post by Groceteria »

Scranton is the hometown of President Joe Biden and urbanist Jane Jacobs, and is home to a branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. It is also the birthplace of Grand Union, though the company abandoned Scranton in 1940.

Here is my list of its chain grocers from 1925 to present:

https://www.groceteria.com/place/pennsylvania/scranton/
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: NEW: Scranton, 1925-2021

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

First off, THANK YOU for posting this. I grew up in this area and it brings back a lot of good memories. Don't really have time to take this apart right now but one correction to begin with would be 601 Wyoming Ave. which is listed as A+P. Those were the offices of the Scranton Unit and later the Scranton Division and to the best of my knowledge they did not operate a store there. The offices were located there prior to 1956 because I found a legal notice from a July 1954 Elmira, NY newspaper about a NYS liquor license being issued for a local store there and the 601 Wyoming Ave. address was listed in the notice which would make sense because the Southern Tier stores in NYS were part of the Scranton Unit. Today the building houses an auto parts store. I'll have more to say about this list as time goes on because I'm sure as I look it over further I'll have even more recollections. I've waited for this one for a long time and from what little I've studied it, it was well worth it.
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Re: NEW: Scranton, 1925-2021

Post by Groceteria »

Thanks!

I figured 601 was an office/warehouse and I usually strip those out but I neglected to catch this one. And I'm anxious to hear any thoughts/corrections. The directories were a little dicey for some years and I had to do some backup with newspapers. There's probably still more of that I could do!
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Re: NEW: Scranton, 1925-2021

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Easiest way for me to do this is to work on the surrounding areas first which would be Moosic and Dunmore.

-3512 Birney Ave. in Moosic was indeed an A+P and actually was rebranded as A-Mart when they were experimenting with that concept. Closure date seems about right. It actually was an outparcel by "default" because Birney Plaza was built behind and to the side of it in the early 70's after A+P arrived.

-3500 and 3409 Birney Ave. were (and are) part of Birney Plaza. I remember Food Lane (3500) opening to great fanfare (they must've spent a fortune on advertising) but they were gone in short order.

-3409 Birney Ave. began life as an Arlans dept. store and became K-Mart around late 1974 or so and closed in the last few years with Shop-Rite coming in shortly afterwards. NOTE: Birney Plaza is L-Shaped which accounts for it having both odd and even addresses.

-4015 Birney Ave. is now a Gerrity's which is a pretty popular local chain. And the fact this was a Giant back in the day makes sense because Gerrity's took over several Giant locations over the years. Interesting note about this store is I saw a recent picture of it and was beyond shocked to see they were using the same very unique roadside sign post which was there in the 70's when it was Warehouse Foods. It was outdated then but it's still in use today.

Now on to Dunmore and my observations/questions of 1200 and 1228 O'Neil Hwy. Acme/Super Saver did indeed have a store at 1200 for many years and Price Chopper is pretty much right next door. Here's where it gets murky for me though. Acme pulled out of NE Pa. and sold their stores to Penn Traffic in the mid-90's. Did they even buy this one or if they did then sell it to Price Chopper and they operated there for a few years until they built a new store a few years later? In other words, did either Penn Traffic or Price Chopper ever use the Acme space? In that area, Penn Traffic would've operated under the Bi-Lo Foods banner. That question has bugged me since whenever and I've never found any definitive info. on it. The Acme space is still there and is divided between medical offices and an Advance Auto Parts. Oh, and the Price Chopper is now Market 32 with a renovation/remodel of the store currently in progress according to a friend in the area who shops there.

That's all I have for now. Still working on Scranton proper so when I finish that, I'll have more to say. This list does take me back-good times.
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