NEW: Allentown PA, 1925-2021

[Groceteria]

Enjoy.

https://www.groceteria.com/place/pennsy ... allentown/

[Andrew T.]

I'm intrigued by this "American" chain. It utterly dominated the city's market in the 1930s and 1940s...then it shrivelled up at a fast clip and was history by 1960. There's got to be a story behind this.

Even more strangely, none of their stores appear to have been reused by competing chain tenants (save one short-lived Acme). It's as if they disappeared without a trace!

[Groceteria]

American Stores was actually the genesis of Acme. As they closed the smaller stores and converted to supermarkets, they began using the Acme Markets name. The company was still officially known as American Stores until it merged with Albertsons in the late 1990s. American also acquired Alpha Beta, Lucky, Jewel, and Shaw's, among others.

[Steve Landry]

Would be cool if anyone was intrigued with Food Fair........................................lol

Just teasing ;-)

[TW-Upstate NY]

Now that Allentown is in the books, can Scranton be far behind?

[Groceteria]

I do plan to do Scranton and Wilkes-Barre (as well as Harrisburg) at some point, but I can’t say when.

[Groceteria]

I did try to give you a city that had a significant Food Fair presence. And I did feature a Food Fair grand opening ad on Twitter yesterday. I think I’m doing my part here!

Would be cool if anyone was intrigued with Food Fair........................................lol

Just teasing ;-)

[Andrew T.]

You know...I was familiar with American Stores' role as the corporate parent of Acme and Alpha Beta, but it never once before crossed my mind that the name predated the 1979 Skaggs sale, or that Acme itself could have once been called that.

"American Stores" was surely a generic name* that some late 20th-century corporate suit had picked for being as anonymous as possible, which fit in well with their reputation as being a low-profile, hands-off holding company for multiple unintegrated supermarket chains. Right?

Sometimes truth is weirder than fiction.

(*Yes, I also still think of "Food Fair" as a generic name.)

[Steve Landry]

I did try to give you a city that had a significant Food Fair presence. And I did feature a Food Fair grand opening ad on Twitter yesterday. I think I’m doing my part here!

Would be cool if anyone was intrigued with Food Fair........................................lol

Just teasing ;-)

I know you do, always. I was not thinking of you at all :-)

Most folks are just not interested (for many reasons).

xoxoxo

Steve

[Groceteria]

I knew it wasn’t really a complaint :) I did find it interesting that the Allentown stores were the first I remember seeing that we’re initially branded as “Giant Food Fair.“

[Steve Landry]

I knew it wasn’t really a complaint :) I did find it interesting that the Allentown stores were the first I remember seeing that we’re initially branded as “Giant Food Fair.“

Yup!

I think that might be the second iteration.

If memory serves me, it was Giant Quality Discount?

:-)

[rich]

Acme's corporate name was "Acme Markets" for a while (60s until merger with Skagg's, et al.), after which it reverted back to American Stores.