Grocery Archaeology

  We are getting closer and closer to Worcester! This time we're to the southwest of the city, in the southwestern part of Worcester County. We're starting in Sturbridge, about 18 miles southwest of the city, then continuing east into Southbridge with a brief detour to the north for Charlton, then back south for Dudley and Webster. Then we'll circle north towards Worcester for Oxford and Auburn! We've got quite a few former supermarkets around these areas, some chains, and some independents. We have about three weeks' worth of stores, so we'll be spending about the rest of the month in this area before we move on. Our first post is over on  The Independent Edition  tomorrow!

    Worcester, here we come! Or very soon, at least. For right now we're approaching Worcester, the second-largest city in New England, from the west. We're going to start in Palmer, about 30 miles west of Worcester on the Mass Pike, then head north to follow route 9 east through Ware, North Brookfield, Spencer, and Leicester. There's not a lot in this part of the state, so we'll take a quick look at a few places in the small towns along this corridor. We're starting in Palmer tomorrow with a post each here on Grocery Archaeology and on  The Market Report !

  Welcome to Massachusetts! I hope you had a great spring break, and check out the  Spring Memorabilia Extravaganza  if you haven't yet! It's time to get serious about New England, and that means starting Massachusetts. Given that I lived here for five years (most of that time in Worcester, but some time in Boston), my coverage is pretty extensive in and around those cities -- but limited in some areas, like here in western Massachusetts, because I didn't have a car and my trusty bike would only get me so far. For the next two weeks or so, we'll be in western Mass a little and then around Springfield for a longer time. We're going to make stops in Lee, which is in the Berkshires, and then near Springfield in South Hadley, Holyoke, Chicopee, and then into Springfield itself, with one final stop in Ludlow just east of the city for good measure. This is Big Y country, with the regional chain's headquarters in Springfield, but there are also other chains out here an...

  The smallest state in the union has only 105 supermarkets (for reference, that's less than half of the number of supermarkets in Manhattan alone). But we're going to be taking a look at a few of them, even though my coverage isn't too extensive. There's still a lot of fun things to see here! We'll be spending about two weeks in the Bay State, moving from north to south through Burrillville, North Smithfield, Smithfield, North Scituate, then a few stops in Providence (but of course nowhere near a full tour of all the stores in Providence), with two final stops in the Newport area in Portsmouth and Tiverton. Like Connecticut, Rhode Island has quite a few independent stores that are really fun to visit. In fact, we won't be seeing any big-chain supermarkets here in Rhode Island (but rest assured, there are plenty of Stop & Shops and Shaw's). We're starting with our first store tomorrow on  The Independent Edition  in Burrillville!

Moving right along to our next stops along the southern part of New England! My density is not wonderful in this region, since it's kind of too far for me to get to from my home in New Jersey and it's kind of too far for me when I lived in central Massachusetts, too. But nevertheless, we have around two weeks' worth of stuff to see from Hartford and some northern and eastern suburbs, then a look at the quaint town of Putnam in the northeastern corner of Connecticut. When we're finished with this, it'll be on to Rhode Island. Let's start in Hartford with a store tour right on  The Market Report  on Monday!

    Up next we're headed into Connecticut! This is the beginning of my fairly extensive New England coverage, but my coverage here in Connecticut is a little limited. So we're going to see basically the whole state to the west of Hartford, where I have 22 stores which will take us about a month to see. You can get an idea of our stops from the (fairly crude, I know) map I made for this section. The counties are marked in the light blue, the larger cities in dark blue, and other places we're stopping in white. We'll start in Greenwich, then jump over to Bridgeport before turning north for stops in Newtown (roughly 2/3 of the way between Bridgeport and New Fairfield), New Fairfield, and Sherman, then east to Northville, Washington, Bethlehem, Watertown, and Waterbury. Then, in the greater Hartford area, we'll see Southington, Plainville, New Britain, Newington, and West Hartford, and then New Hartford to the north. There's some really interesting stores here -- so...

  It's time for our last county in New York before we move into New England, starting with Connecticut! We've spent a fair amount of time in Westchester County already, so this is a relatively quick group of stores. Starting tomorrow, we're going to spend just around a week taking a trip through Westchester County from the south, near where it borders the Bronx in Yonkers, up through Mamaroneck, Armonk, Katonah, Goldens Bridge, and ending in Somers. But also we have a brief interruption for a very special Leap Day feature on February 29th! And some maneuvering to accommodate a late addition with some more stores in Mount Vernon, so expect a weekend post or two. We're going to begin with a snapshot on  The Market Report  tomorrow!

  Welcome (back) to Rockland County! This is now our third time here, having visited before with a selection of stores across the county, but this time we'll be seeing all different stores we've never checked out before, including some new ones. We'll start in Suffern in the southwestern part of the county, then pass through Spring Valley, Nanuet, and Nyack along route 59 on our way east to the Hudson River, which separates Rockland County from its eastern neighbor Westchester County. Then we're turning north and moving inland a bit for Pomona and Garnerville, then along the river for Haverstraw, West Haverstraw, and Stony Point. This county has a large Orthodox Jewish population, as does much of the Hudson Valley, so we'll be seeing some kosher stores along with a variety of other supermarkets around the towns. We'll begin tomorrow with a former supermarket here on Grocery Archaeology!

  Happy new year, and welcome back to New York state! We are here to visit quite a few stores beginning in Sullivan and Orange Counties. We're about 75 miles northwest of New York City, just about 50 miles east of the Wyoming Valley, and around 90 miles south of Albany. These counties are mostly very spread out with large amounts of wilderness, but there are also some larger towns like Liberty, Monticello, Port Jervis, and Middletown, and one larger city, Newburgh. We'll be checking out stores in all of those places, but also in the tiny towns around the counties. We're going to start in Port Jervis and loop through Sullivan County to the northwest, stopping in Eldred, Narrowsburg, Callicoon, Jeffersonville, Liberty, Monticello, Rock Hill, Wurtsboro, Middletown, Newburgh, and Warwick. It's a good survey, but there's plenty more out here we're not seeing. But there's a lot of variety and it's going to make for an exciting couple of weeks! We're jumpin...

Happy winter! I'm going to take some time off from posting, but we'll be back strong starting our look at the southeastern part of New York State (excluding, of course, New York City) on January 1st. Enjoy your holiday season, and I can't wait to see you all at the beginning of next month! In the meantime, don't miss our last few posts and the  Back in Time  feature here on Grocery Archaeology! And of course, keep your eye out for some special reports and updates over the next few weeks, too! Key Food - Upper West Side ACME Markets - Allendale, NJ Giant Farmers Market - Waldwick, NJ Trader Joe's - Forest Hills CTown - Morris Heights Antillana SuperFood - Morris Heights Food Bazaar - Ridgewood, Bushwick West, Bushwick East, and Inwood

  This December... step back in time with Grocery Archaeology! During our winter break, don't miss a collection of old photos, ads, postcards, and more related to grocery stores here on Grocery Archaeology! Regular posting will resume on January 1st with jumping into the start of New York State, but in the meantime, enjoy this historical collection and then some time off for our winter break. Enjoy!

  Welcome to the Poconos! The Poconos are the mountains running between Stroudsburg and the Wyoming Valley. We're going to start to the east of Carbondale in Waymart, where we'll see a store that recently changed ownership. Then we'll roughly continue east along route 6 with some stops to the south in Greentown, Daleville, Blakeslee, Mount Pocono, and Mountainhome, then moving east to the Port Jervis area for Milford and Matamoras. Believe it or not, then we're completely done with Pennsylvania! Of course, not nearly all of the grocery stores in Pennsylvania, but just the relatively few stores I've actually been to and have pictures of. There's a lot of wilderness in this area, with state forests and game lands surrounding us, so we'll be seeing a lot of small stores in small towns. But it means a lot of interesting stuff, including lots of independent stores! We're going to begin with a store in Waymart tomorrow on  The Independent Edition !

    Moving on to the northern part of the Wyoming Valley! This time we're looking at stores in and around Scranton, ranging from Moosic to the southwest of the city, into the city itself, and then to the northeast of the city through Peckville, Archbald, Mayfield, Carbondale, and Forest City. It's a relatively brief survey of the area, but we'll see a fair number of stores in the time we're here which will be a little less than a month. With around 76,000 people, Scranton is the largest city in this part of Pennsylvania, and the seventh-largest in Pennsylvania overall. Like the Wilkes-Barre area, we'll be touring quite a few Gerrity's, but there are also a lot of independents in this area. Lots of exciting stuff is coming soon, starting with a Gerrity's tomorrow on  The Market Report ! Also today... two special reports over in Manhattan! Wegmans - Astor Place, Manhattan, NY SuperFresh - Two Bridges, Manhattan, NY

    We're now back in the northeastern corner of the state of Pennsylvania, for the southern part of the Wyoming Valley! The valley roughly stretches 30 miles southwest to northeast, with Wilkes-Barre in the southwestern part of the valley and Scranton in the northeastern corner. We're going to look at the area around Wilkes-Barre first, starting in Mountain Top (which, yes as you can assume, is not actually  in  the valley) and then through Nanticoke, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre itself, Luzerne, Plains, Pittston, and Duryea. GIANT and Weis are the two big chains present in this area, although regional favorite Gerrity's is present too, as well as quite a few independents and former supermarkets that we'll be checking out! Tomorrow is our first store in Mountain Top on  The Independent Edition !

  I admittedly haven't spent a whole lot of time in the western part of Pennsylvania, but we are going to nevertheless take a little bit of time to look around this part of the state! On the map above I've placed the large cities (Erie and Pittsburgh) for reference, but we're going to be spending our time in Snow Shoe, Clearfield, Clarion, and Johnstown -- the first three along the I-80 corridor in northern PA, then Johnstown roughly 1/3 of the way from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg. Unfortunately, I've never been to Johnstown, but I have a friend from there and we have a quick look at two interesting stores from there thanks to them. We're going to start in Snow Shoe, with a look at a former supermarket (the only grocer in town) here on Grocery Archaeology tomorrow!

    Moving right along! We are following the Susquehanna River from south to north and then west along the West Branch, stopping in at Sunbury, Northumberland, Lewisburg, Watsontown, Montgomery, Williamsport, Faxon, and Montoursville, then north and northeast to Hughesville, Forksville, Dushore, Canton and Towanda. Sunbury, where we begin, is 24 miles north of  Millersburg , and Towanda is 15 miles south of the New York state border. There's a lot of small towns in this area, many of which have only one or two grocery stores. After this group, we're headed to the west for a few stores in the western half of Pennsylvania before finishing up the Wyoming Valley and the Poconos in northeastern Pennsylvania. North Central PA will take us around a month, so let's get started! Tomorrow we begin with our first stop over on  The Market Report  in Sunbury!

  Welcome back from summer break! We are back in the Coal Region now, where we  left off  before the Harrisburg area, and in fact our first stop is just under 10 miles from Mahanoy City. Most of our time in this part of the Coal Region will be spent in and around Hazleton, with a few stops outside the city in White Haven, Freeland, Conyngham, and Berwick, from east to west. Hazleton has an interesting mix of supermarkets, ranging from little independent grocers that have been in business for a long time to newcomers from outside the city, and we'll be seeing eight interesting current and former stores in Hazleton before checking out the others. We'll be spending just under three weeks here, and then we're headed north. Head over to The Market Report tomorrow to check out our first stop just to the south of Hazleton!

  Having completed the Harrisburg area, we're now headed off to summer break! We've got three weeks off from regular posting, during which time we might be checking out some updates and other notable news, but on July 17th we're back and resuming our visit to the Coal Region. Lots more to come (and to be honest... I didn't have a lot of time in the spring to write, so this is also to help me catch up writing)! In the meantime, enjoy the weather and the beach, or however you might be spending your summer and I'll see you soon!

Buckle up, we're headed to the state capital! Harrisburg and its surroundings are our next location to stop by, or about 35 miles west of Pine Grove where we saw the  BG's  and  Berger's . It's not a particularly exhaustive look at the grocers in and around Harrisburg, but we will be seeing some very new and very old stores in the area. We're going to start by moving through the city north to south, then crossing the Susquehanna to the west to Camp Hill, Mechanicsburg, and Enola, then one final stop about 16 miles north in Millersburg. (It doesn't make a lot of sense to group it with Harrisburg, but there's nowhere else I could really put it.) Once we're done here, we're back to the Coal Region, but there's a lot of fun stuff to see in this part of the state. Get ready and check out our first store on Monday here on Grocery Archaeology!

  Moving to the west of the Stroudsburg area (and please note that the map above is approximate...) we're in the Coal Region! This area is named for obvious reasons, given that the area to the southwest of the Poconos was and still is a large coal production area. We're making a lot of stops in this area, mostly heading west along US-209. We start in Palmerton, then through Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Lansford, Tamaqua, New Philadelphia, Saint Clair, Pottsville (the largest town in the area), and Minersville, before turning south to stop by Pine Grove. We then circle north on the northern side of INT-81 for Ashland, Frackville, Shenandoah, and Mahanoy City. When we're in Pine Grove, we'll be only 35 miles outside of Harrisburg, which is our next group of stores. But before then, we've got a lot of small towns in the lower Coal Region area with a lot of independent and small chain stores, starting with one over on  The Independent Edition  tomorrow!