Groceries, Grocery stores, & Supermarkets (Philadelphia, Reading: shopping center, ferry, suburban)

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by campion

I live in the suburbs and work off of Rittenhouse Square. As Acme has declined and Genuardi's disappeared, I find myself buying more and more at Rittenhouse Market. If Acme's having a sale on boneless, skinless chicken breast, good luck finding bone-in chicken breast that week. But generally, I can find the cuts of meat I want at RM, and they will get things from their stock that aren't on the shelf Just last week I asked for a tenderloin roast - they brought one right out for me. At Acme I'd have waited ten minutes to find a butcher, another ten while they checked their stock, and then they'd have come out and told me they didn't have any (this literally happened to me with the bone-in chicken breast).

For produce, I pop by Sue's produce Market on 18th street (across from Rittenhouse DiBrunos). Considering I can't get a fresh head of cauliflower that doesn't have black spots on it at Acme, I don't really have a choice.

RM is lacking in the varieties when it comes to canned goods, packaged goods, dry goods (toilet paper, trash bags, etc.).

Insert a "T" between the "R" and the "M" and you have the place where I buy my produce.

Granted, it's not convenient to Rittenhouse, but it still offers the best balance between quality and price I've seen anywhere other than the Russian supermarkets in the Far Northeast. You can get it cheaper on 9th Street, and the vendors have learned that the customers want to pick their own, but the quality's still hit-or-miss at most of the produce vendors there.

There are also a good butcher, a specialty sausage shop, two fish markets and a German specialty foods place, among others, at the RTM (this isn't all).

I suggest you check it out sometime, and I would say that even if I hadn't been part of an RTM marketing campaign in the mid-2000s.

[selhars]

^^ Interesting that you'd say Reading Terminal isn't convenient to Rittenhouse.

While no, I don't know that I'd go from Rittenhouse to RTM for one bag of paprika, I'd say it's certainly convenient and close enough for weekly shopping. It's NOT far at all. What do people want a Wegman's on every corner? RH to RTM is certainly closer than many, many people have to go for grocery shopping.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by selhars

^^ Interesting that you'd say Reading Terminal isn't convenient to Rittenhouse.

While no, I don't know that I'd go from Rittenhouse to RTM for one bag of paprika, I'd say it's certainly convenient and close enough for weekly shopping. It's NOT far at all. What do people want a Wegman's on every corner? RH to RTM is certainly closer than many, many people have to go for grocery shopping.

I guess never having lived in an area where I've had to walk more than five blocks to a supermarket (save Oxford Circle, where the closest supermarket was a 15-minute trek) since moving here spoiled me.

The RTM is actually far, far less convenient to me where I now live than it is to me where I work, which is two blocks north of Rittenhouse Square. And it's less convenient to me where I live now than it was to where I lived in Wash West, a 4- (earlier, 6-)block straight shot up 12th Street. Yet I still shop there regularly because I can work it into my journeys between home and work, or between errands in Center City and work and/or home - it's two blocks from the subway I take to and from Germantown.

The Rittenhouse Market is smack in the middle of the neighborhood. I don't think you could beat that for convenience from a Rittenhouse Square perspective. Still, you're right that I should have said "as convenient to" rather than "convenient to".

[southbound_295]

Has anyone seen construction start on any Lidls?

[campion]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Insert a "T" between the "R" and the "M" and you have the place where I buy my produce.

Granted, it's not convenient to Rittenhouse, but it still offers the best balance between quality and price I've seen anywhere other than the Russian supermarkets in the Far Northeast. You can get it cheaper on 9th Street, and the vendors have learned that the customers want to pick their own, but the quality's still hit-or-miss at most of the produce vendors there.

There are also a good butcher, a specialty sausage shop, two fish markets and a German specialty foods place, among others, at the RTM (this isn't all).

I suggest you check it out sometime, and I would say that even if I hadn't been part of an RTM marketing campaign in the mid-2000s.

I have an hour-long lunch. Occasionally, I will go down there, but the walk there, the shopping, and the walk back are rather a squeeze in that hour. I do like it, but it's really not convenient for me given that I live in the suburbs.

[campion]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

Has anyone seen construction start on any Lidls?

I just got this message on a local Facebook group today:

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP >> Waterside dining in the township? Oh,yeah, it’s coming, according to reports at a recent commissioners meeting...
Willert noted others transitions are for Taco Bell to move into the former KFC near Fairview Road, and for the former Pathmark to become a Lidl, European grocery chain arriving in the U.S. market.
“Cracker Barrel is still in the pipeline and has approved plans. And that’s what’s going on along MacDade Boulevard,” said Willert, anticipating a busy commercial summer.

I'm so happy to see something going in where that Pathmark was. So tell me about Lidl.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by campion

I just got this message on a local Facebook group today:




I'm so happy to see something going in where that Pathmark was. So tell me about Lidl.

Thanks. I'm aware of 2 Lidls being built from the ground up near Charlotte.

Lidl is similar to Aldi. The US stores will be larger than most Aldis have been. They don't mind building in very close proximity to Aldi. Aldi has been countering by enlarging & doing remodels. I don't know exactly what the US stock will be, but considering that the 2 chains are doing considerable damage to traditional grocers in the UK, my guess is that their addition will greatly increase the availability of good but cheap food.

[selhars]

1) You mean the Parthmark that was at MacDade, where Morton and Swarthmore meet (near the Home Depot and the Staples? That's going to be a Lidi's. That's good.

2) And by "waterside" -- where exactly is that supposed to be? Crum Creek is near there I suppose, but is there really space for "waterside" dining.

I get that sometimes you stretch the boundaries of an area to try to cash in on the cache of certain development….like trying to call 20th and Washington Avenue "SW Center City" or "Graduate Hospital area" (back in the day) -- or trying to say a certain area is the "Main Line area" -- but waterside dining in Ridley Township…THIS I'd have to see

I could see something called waterside if it were on the wide stretch of Darby Creek, but that's not where they're talking about, I don't think.

IDLEY TOWNSHIP >> Waterside dining in the township? Oh,yeah, it’s coming, according to reports at a recent commissioners meeting...
Willert noted others transitions are for Taco Bell to move into the former KFC near Fairview Road, and for the former Pathmark to become a Lidl, European grocery chain arriving in the U.S. market.
“Cracker Barrel is still in the pipeline and has approved plans. And that’s what’s going on along MacDade Boulevard,” said Willert, anticipating a busy commercial summer.

[Bass7]

Waterside dining will be at the Ridley marina, the old Morrows marina at the foot of Swarthmore Ave.
Ridley Township

[selhars]

Thanks.
I thought that would have to be where they were talking about. But I was confused because it was mentioned with the Lidis and the other "development changes" that are more toward the MacDade Blvd area -- so I thought they were talking about waterfront dining over there. But I knew there was no water over there, so as I said, I was just a bit confused.