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Just wondering. I go to Downtown Philadelphia from time to time and if I needed to pick up something grocery-wise on the way home I usually go to the Superfreshes on Pine street and South Street or the Wholefoods on South street and I was just wondering , but what I want to speak about is Historical supermarkets in the City Downtown district. I know the Pine Street SF was a 60's A&P and the Rittenhouse Great Scot Market was an old A&P as well. can anyone recall any other historical supermarkets in the Downtown, especially were there any Food Fair or Pantry Pride stores in the downtown.

any info would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
werememberretail

At 23rd and South Streets there was a Best Market. Food Fair acquired the chain in 1957 or 58. It was one of the stores they changed over to Food Fair and later to Pantry Pride. The last I heard it was still a supermarket.

neil mcauliffe wrote:At 23rd and South Streets there was a Best Market. Food Fair acquired the chain in 1957 or 58. It was one of the stores they changed over to Food Fair and later to Pantry Pride. The last I heard it was still a supermarket.

Ah Yes! Youre probably referring to the South Square (Thriftway) Market. This would make sense as a number of smaller Pantry Prides ( and Food Fair owned Penn Fruits) became Thriftways after "the Great Exodus of 1979" If my memory serves me correctly though Neil. Best wasn't purchased by Food Fair until 1964 or 65 with the Pantry Pride branding beginning soon after.

How soon do you mean by "soon"? I thought Food Fair bought a small chain that called its products Pantry Pride in 1967, but the store conversions never began until at least 1969, just maybe 1968.

CORRRECTION: Neil was correct I re-researched on Google news archives and it was 1958 when Best was aquired by FF.

How soon do you mean by "soon"? I thought Food Fair bought a small chain that called its products Pantry Pride in 1967, but the store conversions never began until at least 1969, just maybe 1968.

Ephrata1966
I would like to know your source for that. Maybe there WAS another company that originated the Pantry Pride brand.

Check Wikipedia. And would you know anything else about this store?: http://www.flickr.com/photos/62355920@N ... 211788677/

I saw an ad for the auto center here from 1963 or 1964. Not sure when the store was built though. Out of my neck of the woods, so I do not remember Acme here. By Halloween 2002 I remember the store was a Great Valu. The Checkers restaurant in the parking lot was built in 1992, perhaps on the old FF garage site. Who does it look like last remodeled this store? Acme or Great Valu?

The sale of the Best Markets chain was a little messy. Here is a brief chronology.

July 22, 1958 Penn Fruit announced that it had signed an agreement to purchase the Best Markets for $3.5 million. They paid a deposit of $175,000. This was for 22 stores plus a couple of stores under construction. A few weeks later it was announced the sale was off and in mid-August Food Fair announced they had purchased the chain for an undisclosed amount.

August 26, 1958 Penn Fruit filed a lawsuit against Food Fair and Best Markets to prevent the sale. The suit claimed that Food Fair had full knowledge of Penn Fruit's agreement but still negotiated with Best Markets. Food Fair said that they only entered into negotiations after the Best Markets board failed to ratify the Penn Fruit proposal and were invited by Best Markets stockholders to submit a bid. (I believe another complication was that Best Markets had cashed the deposit check from Penn Fruit).

August 16, 1960 Penn Fruit and Food Fair announced they had reached an out of court settlement with terms undisclosed. Both sides cited the illness of the trial judge which could have dragged the case out for years. Penn Fruit relinquished any claims to Best Markets to Food Fair who had been operating the stores in the interim.

Pantry Pride was the private label for Best Markets.

The first Pantry Pride conversions were in 1964 or 65 and they were in response to the arrival of Shop Rite/Pathmark. The first two stores were 8445 Frankford Avenue (#392) and Grant and Academy (#35).