Groceteria.com

Is anyone here familiar with the historical grocery landscape in Charles Town, WV?

The only historical store I can pinpoint is the Save-A-Lot on Augustine Avenue on the west end of town that was an A&P. link

Martins (Giant-PA) on Flowing Spring is a 1990s mirror front store that got the dual entrance remodel when Ahold was building those. The Weis in Ranson was built in the last 15 years or so. Food Lion on Route 340 across from what is now Walmart was built in the 1990s based on Historic Aerials.

The site at Route 340 and Patrick Henry Way that is now Walmart is intriguing to me. Looking at Historic Aerials, there is a shopping center on the property going back to 1980s. It is an L shaped center with a mid size building along Patrick Henry Way and what could be a building large enough to be a grocery or other mass merchandise store where Walmart is now. Was there ever a grocery store in this center that pre-dated Walmart? Perhaps Acme? Acme had a store in Martinsburg. Or is the Weis in Ranson actually a relocation? The Weis on Route 11 coming out of downtown Martinsburg is the classic brown painted green canopy style 1980s Weis store. Safeway had stores in Winchester and Hagerstown until everything went downhill in the 1980s. There is some evidence based on posts by user xsafeway that Safeway had a store at the site that is now Martins in Keyser, WV. Safeway was in Cumberland going back to the late 60s/early 70s. Charles Town would fill that "rural" hole between Winchester and Frederick for Safeway. However, I didn't think Safeway ever operated stores in West Virginia.

Thank you to anyone who might have any insights.

When I was young, my family used to go to Charles Town a couple of times a year for horse races. I can only speak to the 1970s, but at that point the A&P you mention was pretty much the only game in town, at least in Charles Town proper before it was such a DC bedroom community. There was also a Peoples Drug in the same shopping center.

I keep thinking I’ll research the whole Charles Town area at some point, if only for nostalgia purposes since I spent so much time there as a kid, but I never seem to get around to it. Maybe soon…

There was an Acme at 661 S George St, referenced in this article:
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/story/n ... /44614229/

It probably closed in 1990.

The shopping center where the Walmart now stands had a Foodland, see the location list on the right side of the page here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=HINIAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA19

The original anchor was a Heck's department store.

opacity wrote: ↑20 May 2025 18:48 There was an Acme at 661 S George St, referenced in this article:
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/story/n ... /44614229/

And it was apparently there as early as the mid-1950s per a couple of articles where Google only gives a snippet view. Evidently that one was a little off the beaten path for mom and dad.

There was indeed a Foodland in that shopping center. It is now a Goodwill and Dollar Tree. I believe there were some other small grocery stores in there later. Barnharts maybe?

There was also a Revco drugstore, Radio Shack, shoe store, record store, laundromat, and even a movie theater at the end of the strip.

Heck's discount store was the anchor.

There was was one of those little FotoMats as you went into the shopping center.

There is also a Long John Silvers that is still in operation