Page 1 of 1

One-of-a-kind A&P

Posted: 21 May 2009 18:53
by Ephrata1966
This Big Lots looked like a former Penn Fruit from Live Search Maps. I read, though, it was an A&P. The store is at 239 Concord Road in Aston, PA. Then it was an I Got it at Gary's drugstore, which was acquired by Drug Emporium in 1996. After a little research, I found out this A&P was expanded in 1968. To this day, it still has a 60's feel, and has never been remodeled. When was this style A&P originally built?

Re: One-of-a-kind A&P

Posted: 21 May 2009 22:13
by maynesG
Hi,I believe that i called on this store back in the mid 1980!s.before it was a Drug store it was A Thriftway and it did verry well. The only competition was a small Acme that closed a few years back'it!s demise was that it!s supplier Fleming Foods , became greedy and allowed a brand new Shop & Bag to be built a few blocks up the street from this store ( fleming supplied Shop & Bag as well). The owner couldn!t pay his bills and Fleming had the sheriff pad lock the front door.
Today Giant Carlisle and the Shop & bag are the only two stores servicing this town. i am sorry I can!t place when this store was built by A&P. I can tell you that it closed when A&P closed it!s philadelphia Division. It was first owned by three former A&P managers, who also owned the West Chester A&P nad would goon to own the Thriftways in Bear and Glassgow De.

Re: One-of-a-kind A&P

Posted: 22 May 2009 15:51
by Ephrata1966
maynesG wrote:Hi,I believe that i called on this store back in the mid 1980!s.before it was a Drug store it was A Thriftway and it did verry well. The only competition was a small Acme that closed a few years back'it!s demise was that it!s supplier Fleming Foods , became greedy and allowed a brand new Shop & Bag to be built a few blocks up the street from this store ( fleming supplied Shop & Bag as well). The owner couldn!t pay his bills and Fleming had the sheriff pad lock the front door.
Today Giant Carlisle and the Shop & bag are the only two stores servicing this town. i am sorry I can!t place when this store was built by A&P. I can tell you that it closed when A&P closed it!s philadelphia Division. It was first owned by three former A&P managers, who also owned the West Chester A&P nad would goon to own the Thriftways in Bear and Glassgow De.
According to different sources, I read Thriftway and Shop 'n Bag merged in either 1984 or 1996. What gives? That Shop 'n Bag down the road I heard was The Food Emporium at one point (owned by A&P). Next to that store was an Eckerd which I think relocated to the one at the Five Points intersection in 2004 (now Rite Aid of course). This Eckerd may have been a Thrift Drug (which ironically was started by Thriftway).

Re: One-of-a-kind A&P

Posted: 23 May 2009 00:49
by MikeRa
Ephrata1966 wrote:
maynesG wrote:Hi,I believe that i called on this store back in the mid 1980!s.before it was a Drug store it was A Thriftway and it did verry well. The only competition was a small Acme that closed a few years back'it!s demise was that it!s supplier Fleming Foods , became greedy and allowed a brand new Shop & Bag to be built a few blocks up the street from this store ( fleming supplied Shop & Bag as well). The owner couldn!t pay his bills and Fleming had the sheriff pad lock the front door.
Today Giant Carlisle and the Shop & bag are the only two stores servicing this town. i am sorry I can!t place when this store was built by A&P. I can tell you that it closed when A&P closed it!s philadelphia Division. It was first owned by three former A&P managers, who also owned the West Chester A&P nad would goon to own the Thriftways in Bear and Glassgow De.
According to different sources, I read Thriftway and Shop 'n Bag merged in either 1984 or 1996. What gives? That Shop 'n Bag down the road I heard was The Food Emporium at one point (owned by A&P). Next to that store was an Eckerd which I think relocated to the one at the Five Points intersection in 2004 (now Rite Aid of course). This Eckerd may have been a Thrift Drug (which ironically was started by Thriftway).
Thrift Drug was never started by Thriftway. Thrift Drug started in 1937 in Pittsburgh, and acquired by JC Penney in 1968. Thriftway was started by The William Montgomery Company, of which the Montco store brand came from.

Re: One-of-a-kind A&P

Posted: 23 May 2009 08:35
by maynesG
Hi, Fleming purchased William Montgomery in 1980. Fleming Food who opwned the Triftway Name as a sponsored group
supplied the stores. In 1987 or 88 Fleming purchased The Frankford Quaker Company a Co-op, who owned the Shop & Bag banner after their largest member Browns Shop & Bag pulled out and joined Shop Rite. Fleming then closed Frankfords
Erie Avenue warehouse and merged both venues into their Oaks P.A. location.
A terrible strike with their drivers then took place Fleming lost most of their non banner customers such as Fox!s in Pittsburgh and Genuardi!s in Philly. They created a new banner American Family and strted to finance new construction in
order to regain thelost volume that they lost and thus that is how The Shop & Bag in Aston Twsp came to be. ( I should know as a Quaker Oats account manager responsible for Fleming, I was at the grand opening dressed as The Quaker Oats man! God I needed that job!)
As far as Food Emporium, To the best of my knowledge A&P never introduced them to the phily market, They were the former Shopwell stores that A&P purchased in New York back in the late 70!s early 1980. Kind of upscale for a meat and potatoes area like Aston Township.
Hope that helps

Re: One-of-a-kind A&P

Posted: 20 Jul 2009 01:51
by JoshAustin610
There was actually a gap between the Aston Eckerds; the first one that was near Shop N Bag closed in 2000 when Eckerd was closing a large number of their stores. At some point after they were owned by Brooks they decided to try a store in the area again, with the Five Points store in 2005. That store's now a Rite Aid; surprisingly it's still open despite an existing Rite Aid a mile away (which relocated from near Acme sometime in the late 90s).

Josh

Re: One-of-a-kind A&P

Posted: 08 Nov 2009 14:00
by MikeRa
maynesG wrote:Hi, Fleming purchased William Montgomery in 1980. Fleming Food who opwned the Triftway Name as a sponsored group
supplied the stores. In 1987 or 88 Fleming purchased The Frankford Quaker Company a Co-op, who owned the Shop & Bag banner after their largest member Browns Shop & Bag pulled out and joined Shop Rite. Fleming then closed Frankfords
Erie Avenue warehouse and merged both venues into their Oaks P.A. location.
A terrible strike with their drivers then took place Fleming lost most of their non banner customers such as Fox!s in Pittsburgh and Genuardi!s in Philly. They created a new banner American Family and strted to finance new construction in
order to regain thelost volume that they lost and thus that is how The Shop & Bag in Aston Twsp came to be. ( I should know as a Quaker Oats account manager responsible for Fleming, I was at the grand opening dressed as The Quaker Oats man! God I needed that job!)
As far as Food Emporium, To the best of my knowledge A&P never introduced them to the phily market, They were the former Shopwell stores that A&P purchased in New York back in the late 70!s early 1980. Kind of upscale for a meat and potatoes area like Aston Township.
Hope that helps
A&P actually acquired Shopwell in the mid 1980's. The only banner a&P introduced into the Philadelphia market was the "super Fresh" banner, and was because of the actions of the Grocery Union #1776.

Re: One-of-a-kind A&P

Posted: 19 Jan 2010 12:30
by werememberretail
maynesG wrote:Hi, Fleming purchased William Montgomery in 1980. Fleming Food who opwned the Triftway Name as a sponsored group
supplied the stores. In 1987 or 88 Fleming purchased The Frankford Quaker Company a Co-op, who owned the Shop & Bag banner after their largest member Browns Shop & Bag pulled out and joined Shop Rite. Fleming then closed Frankfords
Erie Avenue warehouse and merged both venues into their Oaks P.A. location.
A terrible strike with their drivers then took place Fleming lost most of their non banner customers such as Fox!s in Pittsburgh and Genuardi!s in Philly. They created a new banner American Family and strted to finance new construction in
order to regain thelost volume that they lost and thus that is how The Shop & Bag in Aston Twsp came to be. ( I should know as a Quaker Oats account manager responsible for Fleming, I was at the grand opening dressed as The Quaker Oats man! God I needed that job!)
As far as Food Emporium, To the best of my knowledge A&P never introduced them to the phily market, They were the former Shopwell stores that A&P purchased in New York back in the late 70!s early 1980. Kind of upscale for a meat and potatoes area like Aston Township.
Hope that helps

Actually Gerry, the William Montgomery Company (aka Thriftway Foods) was purchased by the Fleming organisation in 1965 not 1980
however in 1980 they did pick up a huge load of customers when the Food Fair Bankruptcy left many empty stores in the area.