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| Photos courtesy of Catnapped Retail Central (archived) |
Located just off of I-95 in a Philadelphia suburb called Boothwyn-Conchester. Boothwyn is located just a few miles Northeast of the Delaware border. This particular location, originally starting its life off as a SuperFresh as we saw last year, and eventually transitioning to a Pathmark Sav-A-Center in the recession era, which unlike other locations that were transitioned at the time, this one was not due to a changing population in terms of income and demographics, but rather a marketing strategy as there was another Pathmark in nearby Brookhaven, which we have previously toured.
This location has always been on the top of my list to write about. I have no clue why. It has a boring layout, boring decor, boring facade- really, I got nothing. I guess I just always liked the 90s Centennial-ness of this store. It's so ridiculously basic and representative of this model and A&P's eventual transition that I felt a need to tour it.
This is the Pathmark Sav-A-Center decor which debuted in former SuperFresh stores that were converted to the Pathmark banner in the recession era; mostly all in the greater Philadelphia area, as well as one in the Lehigh Valley that I will cover soon.
The store has a PLCB-run Wine & Spirits store adjacent to the left side of the space. I believe that this is the only A&P-built location to feature one.
Overall, despite the space being A&P-built, it is definitely very basic and Pathmark-ish with this decor and lighting downgrade. The 90s Foodmarket decor would have originally taken the stage at this store.
Despite the Pathmark conversion, this store still packs in a gigantic service deli counter that is still larger than a lot of competing stores in the immediate area (I'm looking at you, ShopRite!).
The only thing that has been replaced here besides the decor is the flooring, which is this very basic brown-colored linoleum that seems to mimic polished concrete. This would work great with ACME Markets' decor, which was later put in here.
Oddly enough, when I was looking at photos of the store present-day on Google Maps, I noticed that a portion of the wall here was... angled? I have no clue why that is. My guess is that maybe it held one of those weird, faux-canvas awnings from the 90s Foodmarket decor, like we saw in Budd Lake, but only... painted on? I will say it once again, I honestly have no clue.
In the fashion of a typical 90s Centennial layout, the bakery caps off the East end of the store, making way for a spacious dairy aisle.
These cases look old and (specifically, ivory and yellowed white) to be from when this store first opened in the mid 90s.
The dairy aisle here is quite large in both width and length, which is a good thing. I hate seeing cramped dairy aisles, especially in 90s and 00s built supermarkets. In older locations, I don't care. For instance, the Former A&P in Frenchtown is roughly 12,000 square feet and has six-foot wide aisles while already packing in service meats and boasting a 20-foot deli counter. The designers of the building in the 60s would have never thought that one day there would have to be deep refrigeration cases and large service counters in small spaces. Turn of the 21st century designers, however, that's a different story...
The CSR desk along with the above classic manager's mezzanine creates a good flow for the front end, complete with eight checkouts. The store had to trim down the checkouts here due to the Wine & Spirits space and entrance, which took up the theoretical space for at least five more checkouts, if not more.
As I was just saying, on the other side of the store where we originally entered, is the Pharmacy and Wine & Spirits space in the grey area there (and furthermore, the floral cases all the way to the right of this line here) This odd jumble of departments is I guess what makes Boothwyn so interesting to me. Sure, it's bland. Sure, it's a typical 90s Centennial. But there's little quirks here and there which make it interesting and unique in its own way.
One last look across the front end here to mark the end of this week's store tour. Thanks again to Catnapped Retail Central for these amazing photos!
Next week we will be featuring a very special store just outside of Harrisburg... any guesses?
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