Food Basics (Now Closed), Philadelphia, PA
Deli and Meat departments are all prepackaged. In some Food Basics stores, the meat would be cut and packaged at a nearby Pathmark or A&P/Superfresh and brought in, but the meat-cutters union wasn't fond of that. Eventually, meat-preparation was brought back into one or two local Food Basics stores, which would serve the local cluster.
The "Deli" was no deli at all--the department consisted only of packaged meat products and cheeses. Selection was really poor, IMHO. I loved my local Food Basics, but this department was terrible. PriceRite, Wakefern/ShopRite's limited-assortment banner, has started to bring in a daily assortment of freshly-sliced deli meats and cheeses to some of its stores, and is putting full-fledged service deli's into others. This is the one service department I can't live without.
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We've now covered abandoned stores from 4 of the 6 A&P banners: Waldbaums, Pathmark, A&P and Food Emporium. We now turn our sights to the low-rent end of the A&P family--the discount Food Basics format.
A gloomy, grey day was the perfect setting for this vacant and abandoned store along a blighted stretch of Frankford Avenue in the Upper Holmesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philly. This empty 38,600 sq.ft. Food Basics supermarket sits directly adjacent to another strip mall which has both an abandoned Kmart (82,000 sq. ft.) and an abandoned Pathmark Sav-a-Center (47,000 sq. ft.). As a visitor, it felt like a neighborhood which had definitely seen better days.
The Pathmark was the first to establish itself (as ShopRite) in 1965 and for decades, the store dominated this working-class neighborhood, competing with an Acme and a Superfresh. A&P opened the Superfresh about 2 miles away in the 1980's, but it was closed for underperformance in the late 90's. The company decided to re-enter the neighborhood with its limited-assortment Food Basics concept in 2003. The store was one of the few Food Basics stores to be built from the ground-up and was meant to go head-to-head with Pathmark on price.
Since the Food Basics and Pathmark stores almost share the same parking lot, conventional wisdom held that one of them would be closed when A&P bought Pathmark, but both were kept open. A new ShopRte was built on the site of the old Superfresh, and A&P probably wanted to draw as much business away from it as possible.
To this day, neither store has found a buyer, leaving many in the area with few places to buy fresh groceries. A Save-a-Lot down the road closed in 2010.
Unlike Kmart, whose sign was immediately removed from its building when it closed, there is no money at a bankrupt company to do such things, so the store sits, looking like it is open for business, except for the empty parking lot. It's only when one looks closer that the "For Lease" signs come into view.
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The complete "A&P Abandoned Banner" Photoset:
•A&P
Food Basics (Now Closed), Philadelphia, PA
Deli and Meat departments are all prepackaged. In some Food Basics stores, the meat would be cut and packaged at a nearby Pathmark or A&P/Superfresh and brought in, but the meat-cutters union wasn't fond of that. Eventually, meat-preparation was brought back into one or two local Food Basics stores, which would serve the local cluster.
The "Deli" was no deli at all--the department consisted only of packaged meat products and cheeses. Selection was really poor, IMHO. I loved my local Food Basics, but this department was terrible. PriceRite, Wakefern/ShopRite's limited-assortment banner, has started to bring in a daily assortment of freshly-sliced deli meats and cheeses to some of its stores, and is putting full-fledged service deli's into others. This is the one service department I can't live without.
--------------
We've now covered abandoned stores from 4 of the 6 A&P banners: Waldbaums, Pathmark, A&P and Food Emporium. We now turn our sights to the low-rent end of the A&P family--the discount Food Basics format.
A gloomy, grey day was the perfect setting for this vacant and abandoned store along a blighted stretch of Frankford Avenue in the Upper Holmesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philly. This empty 38,600 sq.ft. Food Basics supermarket sits directly adjacent to another strip mall which has both an abandoned Kmart (82,000 sq. ft.) and an abandoned Pathmark Sav-a-Center (47,000 sq. ft.). As a visitor, it felt like a neighborhood which had definitely seen better days.
The Pathmark was the first to establish itself (as ShopRite) in 1965 and for decades, the store dominated this working-class neighborhood, competing with an Acme and a Superfresh. A&P opened the Superfresh about 2 miles away in the 1980's, but it was closed for underperformance in the late 90's. The company decided to re-enter the neighborhood with its limited-assortment Food Basics concept in 2003. The store was one of the few Food Basics stores to be built from the ground-up and was meant to go head-to-head with Pathmark on price.
Since the Food Basics and Pathmark stores almost share the same parking lot, conventional wisdom held that one of them would be closed when A&P bought Pathmark, but both were kept open. A new ShopRte was built on the site of the old Superfresh, and A&P probably wanted to draw as much business away from it as possible.
To this day, neither store has found a buyer, leaving many in the area with few places to buy fresh groceries. A Save-a-Lot down the road closed in 2010.
Unlike Kmart, whose sign was immediately removed from its building when it closed, there is no money at a bankrupt company to do such things, so the store sits, looking like it is open for business, except for the empty parking lot. It's only when one looks closer that the "For Lease" signs come into view.
-------------------
The complete "A&P Abandoned Banner" Photoset:
•A&P