Weis-Logan Valley Mall-Altoona, Penn.-U.S. Supreme Court

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Jason B.
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Weis-Logan Valley Mall-Altoona, Penn.-U.S. Supreme Court

Post by Jason B. »

Does anyone know what has become of the Weis supermarket that operated at Logan Valley Mall near Altoona, Pennsylvania?

It was the subject of a landmark 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the "public forum doctrine." Amalgamated Food Employees Union v. Logan Valley Plaza, Inc., 391 U.S. 308 (1968). According to the opinion, that supermarket opened for business as a non-union operation on December 8, 1965. The union began a picket on December 17, 1965 and continued until a state court issued an injunction limited picketing to a berm along the public roads outside of the shopping center. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed.
danielh_512
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Re: Weis-Logan Valley Mall-Altoona, Penn.-U.S. Supreme Court

Post by danielh_512 »

Jason, I'm very familiar with Altoona. Granted, I never knew of a Weis on the premises of Logan Valley Mall.

The mall opened in 1960 with the existing Sears and a JCPenney that was converted into mall space. I suspect that the Weis store may have been located in the area that was used to expand the mall in the 1970's with Hess's (then Kaufmann's/now Macy's).

Weis moved across Plank Rd. at some point to Park Hills Plaza, locating with Gee Bee. This store was somewhat older, as I distinctly remember the old red Weis signage (not the typical cooper font associated w/the chain). This store was remodeled extensively and expanded around the existing shell in the mid-90's into their current "green-and-red" superstore format. It exists there today.

It is now the only supermarket along the busy Plank Rd. corridor as the Giant Eagle across Plank Rd. has moved to the new Logan Town Center, not counting the Wal-Mart Supercenter down toward Duncansville.
Jason B.
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Re: Weis-Logan Valley Mall-Altoona, Penn.-U.S. Supreme Court

Post by Jason B. »

Here are some quotes from the Supreme Court opinion involving picketing at the Weis supermarket that opened at Logan Valley Mall near Altoona, Penn. in December 1965. It apparently was Store No. 40. It had a covered porch -- I'm uncertain as to whether that was a common feature of Pennsylvania supermarket architecture in the '60s:

"Logan Valley Plaza, Inc. ... owns a large, newly developed shopping center complex, known as the Logan Valley Mall, located near the City of Altoona, Pennsylvania. The shopping center is situated at the intersection of Plank Road, which is to the east of the center, and Good's Lane, which is to the south. Plank Road, also known as U.S. Route 220, is a heavily traveled highway along which traffic moves at a fairly high rate of speed. There are five entrance roads into the center, three from Plank Road and two from Good's Lane. Aside from these five entrances, the shopping center is totally separated from the adjoining roads by earthen berms. The berms are 15 feet wide along Good's Lane and 12 feet wide along Plank Road.

At the time of the events in this case, Logan Valley Mall was occupied by two businesses, Weis Markets, Inc. (Weis), the other respondent herein, and Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Sears), although other enterprises were then expected and have since moved into the center. Weis operates a supermarket and Sears operates both a department store and an automobile service center. The Weis property consists of the enclosed supermarket building, an open but covered porch along the front of the building, and an approximately five-foot-wide parcel pickup zone that runs 30 to 40 feet along the porch. The porch functions as a sidewalk in front of the building and the pickup zone is used as a temporary parking place for the loading of purchases into customers' cars by Weis employees.

Between the Weis building and the highway berms are extensive macadam parking lots with parking spaces and driveways lined off thereon. These areas, to which Logan retains title, provide common parking facilities for all the businesses in the shopping center. The distance across the parking lots to the Weis store from the entrances on Good's Lane is approximately 350 feet and from the entrances on Plank Road approximately 400 to 500 feet. The entrance on Plank Road farthest from the Weis property is the main entrance to the shopping center as a whole and is regularly used by customers of Weis. The entrance on Plank Road nearest to Weis is almost exclusively used by patrons of the Sears automobile service station into which it leads directly.

On December 8, 1965, Weis opened for business, employing a wholly nonunion staff of employees. A few days after it opened for business, Weis posted a sign on the exterior of its building prohibiting trespassing or soliciting by anyone other than its employees on its porch or parking lot. On December 17, 1965, members of Amalgamated Food Employees Union, Local 590, began picketing Weis. They carried signs stating that the Weis market was nonunion and that its employees were not "receiving union wages or other union benefits." The pickets did not include any employees of Weis, but rather were all employees of competitors of Weis. The picketing continued until December 27, during which time the number of pickets varied between four and 13 and averaged around six. The picketing was carried out almost entirely in the parcel pickup area and that portion of the parking lot immediately adjacent thereto. Although some congestion of the parcel pickup area occurred, such congestion was sporadic and infrequent. ...

Logan Valley Mall is the functional equivalent of a "business block," and, for First Amendment purposes, must be treated in substantially the same manner. "
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Re: Weis-Logan Valley Mall-Altoona, Penn.-U.S. Supreme Court

Post by runchadrun »

This is a reminder that labor issues are not allowed on this board, and this thread has the potential of heading in that direction. The information from the court case regarding the layout of the stores, mall, etc, are appropriate but let's not let this evolve into a discussion of the union's and store's actions and whether the court was right.

Thanks!
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