Odd Happenings in Greater Philly

[specialdad]

Is it just me or is there something really odd about each of these events?

1. An Amelia's Grocery Outlet, replacing the former Acme in Sharon Hill, is opening in May. While this was a very small, very old, very obsolete Acme in a very poor area, normally Acme goes out of their way to prevent other grocers from using their empty spaces.

2. Jo-Ann Fabrics is opening a new store in Cherry Hill NJ to replace their very old and small Westmont NJ store. But Hobby Lobby was supposed to put a store in the same shopping center in Cherry Hill.

3. Walmart is expanding their Kennett Square store to a full Supercenter. This store is barely ten years old and is surrounded by two Giants, which already have Walmart-like grocery prices.

4. Rite Aid is opening a new store in Wayne to replace a very old and decrepit one. This should have already been done years ago.

5. The also very old, decrepit Wine & Spirits store in Wayne is moving to the current Rite Aid building, which will undergo a thorough overhaul. This Wine & Spirits store, despite being in the heart of the rich Main Line, has been neglected for years and years even though other Wine & Spirits stores close by were all upgraded.

6. Giant is opening a new store in Brookhaven to replace the very old, small one across the street. I'm surprised they feel the need to upgrade this one. In other areas this store would seem really dumpy, but it looks like a Wegmans compared to the even older, smaller Pathmark very close by... which is almost next door!

7. Rite Aid is knocking down an abandoned Chevrolet dealership in Newtown Square to build a store to replace a very old Rite Aid in a strip center across the street. Their current store started in the 70's as a Thrift Drug, then was an Eckerd for a long time, and is in horrible shape. Strangely they didn't take the opportunity to build a drive-thru pharmacy store where CVS already did a few years back. But while Newtown Square isn't a big town at all, the CVS site is far enough away (less than a mile though) from the current Rite Aid for a new Rite Aid there to have lost customers by moving.

8. Burlington Coat Factory is opening a store in the former Super G/Shop N Save/Clemens supermarket in the Walmart plaza in Hilltown. Usually Burlington only puts stores in very urban areas, but this is a small town. Really I'm amazed Big Lots didn't take at least part of this space. The location would have been perfect for them.

9. A Goodwill store is filling the spot left empty by a later A&P/earlier Super Fresh store in Lansdowne that closed over a decade ago. I thought this building was beyond repair after sitting abandoned for so long, especially considering how it already was in bad shape before Super Fresh closed, maybe even 10 years earlier.

10. Lord & Taylor is doing a major remodel of its Bala Cynwyd store. I thought when Macy's bought the nearby Strawbridge's (in Ardmore) in 2006 that this Lord & Taylor would close, and it already was rumored to close way back in 1995 (it opened in 1955) when Lord & Taylor opened a new store at King of Prussia Mall not terribly far away.

11. Acme is demolishing and rebuilding its current Beach Haven NJ store on Long Beach Island near Ship Bottom. I thought this store was doing terribly (and it sits in what always has been a bad area), not to mention the fact the new store will be no bigger than 38,000 square feet, which is only slightly bigger than the current store. And the Acme there now, while very small having been built in the 50's, has been remodeled every decade since it was built, and is in decent shape.

12. Whole Foods will be replacing the Genuardi's in Cherry Hill NJ. There already is a Whole Foods in Marlton not far away, and a Genuardi's in Marlton also closed and sits empty, so it would make more sense if Whole Foods moved their current Marlton store (which is looking old and tired) to that site instead of opening a brand new store.

13. Walgreens is opening a store in Vineland NJ at the Delsea/Landis intersection, perhaps the most important intersection in the city. This store will be in a perfect spot because while the town already has a CVS and a Rite Aid (was Eckerd), both of them are looking old and run down. I don't get why CVS wasn't interested in moving their store to this site, while letting their arch rival start there from scratch.

14. The abandoned MacDade Mall in Holmes (part of Ridley Township, Delaware County) is being gutted for a Marshalls/HomeGoods combination store among other new tenants, and a Sonic drive-in is opening in the parking lot. This shopping center (they only called it a mall because it was enclosed like a mall, but was really just a grocery/big-box shopping center) is in a very poor area, not far from Sharon Hill, and Marshalls/HomeGoods doesn't seem to fit at all. Sonic is a perfect fit though, since they prefer to be in smaller towns and more rural areas.

15. Taqueria del Sol, a Mexican restaurant, is opening in a small portion of the former Woolworth/Cloth World/Jo-Ann Fabrics in Springfield, Delaware County. The rest of what was most recently Jo-Ann has been occupied by Empire Beauty School for two years now. I don't get why any restaurant would choose to be in this shopping center. There already is a Chinese restaurant in it, but a very old one that perhaps was once nice but has been run down and disgusting for a long time now. Also, a bar sits in what once was a Howard Johnson's restaurant across the parking lot.

16. The former Rothrock Chevrolet/Lotus dealership in Springfield (owned by an Allentown dealership group) is being torn down for a relocation of the Piazza Honda dealership in Drexel Hill/Upper Darby. I didn't realize Honda sold enough models to need a bigger dealership than they had in this case. Chevrolet has (or at least used to have) a much bigger variety of models than Honda, and while Chevy is known for pickup trucks, big SUVs, and cargo vans, Honda has stayed out of those markets, except for their Ridgeline trucks.

17. The former Swell bubblegum factory in Havertown has been torn down for a YMCA which will open by early 2014. We don't need another YMCA... there already are three in Delaware County, with ones in Philadelphia County, Montgomery County, Chester County, and New Castle County (Delaware) all close to the borders of Delaware County. I was hoping CVS could have built a store on this site to replace the very old, small CVS nearby.

18. The former Rite Aid in Norwood is becoming a firehouse. I'm so disappointed this couldn't have been reused for another retail purpose. Norwood is also a very poor area, bordering Sharon Hill and Holmes, and I understand the age and size of this building, combined with a lack of other interesting retail surrounding it, would make it unattractive to almost any other retail user. But I thought a Wine & Spirits store would have fit the site perfectly. When the one in Folcroft (next to Norwood) closed due to a lease dispute a few years back, residents of several small towns have had to drive at least three miles in any direction to buy wine or spirits!

[ynkeesfn82]

7. Rite Aid is knocking down an abandoned Chevrolet dealership in Newtown Square

That's interesting. Rite Aid knocked down an abandoned Chevrolet Dealership in Southington, Connecticut about 5 years ago. This one is located directly opposite the I-84 Exit 32 Off Ramp and did not replace either of the other 2 aging Rite Aids along Connecticut Route 10 - one in downtown Southington and one in nearby Plainville.

[specialdad]

Speaking of Chevrolet, despite it having been the most popular GM division for such a long time, I wish it had been killed off in the GM bankruptcy. These are 10 divisions GM would have held on to if it were up to me. I put my favorite model made by each of them:

1. Geo (my favorite model: Storm)
2. Pontiac (my favorite model: Trans Sport)
3. Buick (my favorite model: Riviera)
4. Cadillac (my favorite model: Eldorado)
5. Oldsmobile (my favorite model: Cutlass)
6. GMC (my favorite model: Safari)
7. Hummer (my favorite model: H1)
8. Lotus (my favorite model: Elise)
9. Isuzu (my favorite model: Oasis)
10. Suzuki (my favorite model: Sidekick)