Thorofare Markets

[TheFugitive]

This was a chain of around 40 supermarkets that operated in the Pittsburgh area
and in eastern Ohio.  Founded in Pittsburgh in 1936, the headquarters eventually
moved to Youngstown, Ohio after repeated clashes with the union locals in Pittsburgh.
(when I was a kid we had a neighbor who was a truck driver for this chain, and it seemed
he was out on strike nearly as much as he was working). Youngstown was in a different
local and I guess union leadership over there was not quite as hard-headed.






The Thorofare in my old neighborhood was actually at the bottom of a dead-end street!
The street came down and basically emptied into their parking lot.  I remember going there
with my grandparents back in the days when Pennsylvania still had blue laws which required
them to be closed on Sunday.  Rushing to get there before they closed on Saturday so that
my grandmother could buy what she needed to make Sunday dinner was a regular outing.

In 1982 Thorofare closed most of their stores and sold the remainder to Fox Grocery,
which converted them to Foodland stores.  Long before this however the Foodland on our
dead-end street became a Shop and Save location.  After several mysterious fires the owner
could no longer buy insurance, so it closed and then re-opened as a Giant Eagle.  That closed
sometime in the 1990's.   The building was torn down around 2008 and a new housing development
went up on that property.

A Fresh Market now sits on the site of another former Thorofare I remember.

[JimSawhill]

This was a chain of around 40 supermarkets that operated in the Pittsburgh area
and in eastern Ohio.  Founded in Pittsburgh in 1936, the headquarters eventually
moved to Youngstown, Ohio after repeated clashes with the union locals in Pittsburgh.
(when I was a kid we had a neighbor who was a truck driver for this chain, and it seemed
he was out on strike nearly as much as he was working). Youngstown was in a different
local and I guess union leadership over there was not quite as hard-headed.






The Thorofare in my old neighborhood was actually at the bottom of a dead-end street!
The street came down and basically emptied into their parking lot.  I remember going there
with my grandparents back in the days when Pennsylvania still had blue laws which required
them to be closed on Sunday.  Rushing to get there before they closed on Saturday so that
my grandmother could buy what she needed to make Sunday dinner was a regular outing.

In 1982 Thorofare closed most of their stores and sold the remainder to Fox Grocery,
which converted them to Foodland stores.  Long before this however the Foodland on our
dead-end street became a Shop and Save location.  After several mysterious fires the owner
could no longer buy insurance, so it closed and then re-opened as a Giant Eagle.  That closed
sometime in the 1990's.   The building was torn down around 2008 and a new housing development
went up on that property.

A Fresh Market now sits on the site of another former Thorofare I remember.

Nice pics...thanks...