Groceteria.com

I was wondering if anyone else ever visited--or knows anything about--two of my favorite supermarkets from my childhood. I'm especially interested in finding out when these two stores opened.

Hellertown is located very near Bethlehem. As a young child, I lived in this area, and fondly remember going to the Hellertown Super Fresh with my mother. Although I lived in this area from 1980 to 1984, I don't have any memories of this store being an A&P (which it obviously was prior to 1982).

The Hellertown Super Fresh was a Centennial building that was located in the Springhill Shopping Center on Main Street. In December 1998 (or perhaps another month later), it closed after the chain opened a brand new superstore on Rt. 378 in Bethlehem. Actually, I recently saw a picture of this former Super Fresh (on the Internet), and it is now a True Value Hardware Store. (True Value had long had a small store in the Springhill Shopping Center.) Sadly, the building now looks completely different, with the exception of the roof.

Another Centennial A&P/Super Fresh I remember fondly happened to be located in Berwyn's Gateway Shopping Center. (Berwyn is a suburban Philadelphia town located near King of Prussia.) I became very familiar with this location because it was in close proximity to where relatives of mine were living at the time. The Gateway Shopping Center was a massive shopping center (actually, it was the largest one I have ever seen), and the Super Fresh was right in the middle of it.

This Super Fresh closed circa 1996, when the chain opened a new superstore that was also located in Berwyn. I am very curious as to what store(s) replaced the Super Fresh at the Gateway Shopping Center.

I used to go to the Superfresh/A&P in Hellertown when I was a kid, during those same years that you did. I remember it quite well. I think there was a Dollar General store there before the True Value went in (Remember the True Value fire that happened around 1984?), or the dollar store shares the building with the True Value. They did give the entire shopping center a long overdue facelift a year or two ago. What is interesting is that they put a couple of points on top of some of the other stores to resemble the centennial style that the A&P had.

I remember the switch from A&P to Superfresh, even though I was 8 years old at the time. The shelves were run down almost empty, and I asked a cashier if they were going out of business.

I lived on Henry Street from 1982-1987.

The one in Berwyn is now a T.J. Maxx, like the one at Bucks County Mall in Feasterville.

UPDATE 2/8/09: This store is now Pathmark Sav-a-Center.

As of last week, the Rt 378 store is also being remodeled into a Pathmark; the cashier told me they were supposed to be switched last year but were delayed. The store isn't particularly busy , so I guess they weren't considered a priority.

Also, the Dollar General and True Value share the former A&P spot; Dollar General opened around 2000 before the center was remodeled. True Value moved in sometime around 05 or so, after Eckerd had also moved down the street. That spot was divided into a few spaces, which I believe are all still empty.