Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address:  431 Delaware Ave, Palmerton, PA Opened:  1947 Closed:  1963 Later Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed:  December 22, 2018 It's our final stop in Palmerton, a small town of around 5400. Today there's just one supermarket, the Country Harvest Family Market , which was previously a 1970s-era ACME. ACME moved there from this location just west on the main street through town, and Country Harvest may have been a move for the former Golden Key IGA between that store and this one. Though the former ACME today is religious offices, we can see the basic structure of ACME's storefront is still intact. Now from Palmerton we're headed about seven miles northwest to Lehighton, which has a small independent grocery store going strong right downtown just like Palmerton. Check it out tomorrow on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant:  Golden Key IGA Address: 493 Delaware Ave, Palmerton, PA Opened:  ca. 1960s Closed:  ca. 2010 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  December 22, 2018 A very brief look today at the former Golden Key IGA in downtown Palmerton! It's just kind of diagonally across the street from Country Harvest, and was owned by the same people who own Country Harvest. My guess is that when ACME closed, they moved in there but decided to keep the older store too, which lasted for around 10 years beyond the opening of Country Harvest. In fact, in the 2009 street view , you can catch a glimpse of the Golden Key IGA in business. Notice the shopping carts in the window! These days, the former Golden Key is a Chinese restaurant, which appears to fill only the front half or so of the 7,000 square foot space, but as of 2021, the Golden Key IGA sign was still up ! Just west of this store in the same block is another former grocery store, where we're headed tomorr...