This seems like an odd phenomenon. A few older grocery stores in my area closed and became independents. Then when those independents failed, another established chain took over and renovated heavily. Here are a few examples:
1. Food Fair/Pantry Pride/ShopRite/Acme, Broomall, PA
2. Food Fair/Pantry Pride/Thriftway/Genuardi's, Cherry Hill, NJ
3. A&P/Thriftway (torn down)/Super G/Acme, Norristown, PA
Great Pumpkin
It's actually not really all that uncommon at all; in fact, it's extremely common for stores to be reused and recycled by other grocers, often by numerous different chains. The message board and this site in general are full of such examples. I think this topic may be way too broad. If someone wants to start threads on any additional specific cases, that would be fine, though.