Just returned from a vacation centered around the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Stores were not my primary mission, but I photographed several, including some very early Food Fair locations (note to Steve Landry) and a lot of Penn Fruits.
On Bluesky if you’re interested (does not require an account or login): https://bsky.app/profile/groceteria.bsky.social
Veteran
Amazing stuff SIR!!Groceteria wrote: ↑17 Aug 2025 15:51 Just returned from a vacation centered around the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Stores were not my primary mission, but I photographed several, including some very early Food Fair locations (note to Steve Landry) and a lot of Penn Fruits.
On Bluesky if you’re interested (does not require an account or login): https://bsky.app/profile/groceteria.bsky.social
Is it my imagination that most of these Food Fair stores seem relatively larger for the times back then?
Side note:
That Oregon Av. Penn Fruit photo? Those BLACK registers were the first registers I was trained on to use. We called them The Black Clunkers.
BTW, your contributions continue to be priceless and a treasure (I would say a National Treasure).
The Food Fair Empire
Great Pumpkin
Thanks. I’m just a guy with a website and I’d be quite happy just being a regional treasure 
I’m just glad there are some people who enjoy my geeky hobby.
Actually, these early supermarkets were a mixed bag. A lot of them were really big because they just rented cheap available space and piled up stuff inside it, usually leasing “departments“ like produce and meat to other vendors (though the Friedlands started out with meat markets, so I imagine they kept control of that part of the business in this case). I envision it feeling something like a food-focused indoor swap meet. Which actually sounds kind of fun…
I’m just glad there are some people who enjoy my geeky hobby.Actually, these early supermarkets were a mixed bag. A lot of them were really big because they just rented cheap available space and piled up stuff inside it, usually leasing “departments“ like produce and meat to other vendors (though the Friedlands started out with meat markets, so I imagine they kept control of that part of the business in this case). I envision it feeling something like a food-focused indoor swap meet. Which actually sounds kind of fun…
Great Pumpkin
For the record, I’m planning on doing a deeper dive into the origins of Food Fair over the next couple of weeks. More to come…
Veteran
Groceteria wrote: ↑19 Aug 2025 23:05 For the record, I’m planning on doing a deeper dive into the origins of Food Fair over the next couple of weeks. More to come…
The Food Fair Empire