Come what maaaaay!

We admit it- we’re fans of the Grays Ferry Pathmark. It’s large for a city supermarket, has a decent selection of products, offers some pretty good sales, is relatively clean, and the people who work there are generally friendly and pleasant.

Feels like home

For residents of Graduate Hospital, Point Breeze, and Grays Ferry, it’s the most convenient option for shopping for large quantities of food, though without a car (or car share), it’s considerably tougher to appreciate. Then again, with the high prices and poor selection at South Square Market and the never-ending lines at Trader Joe’s, signing up for Zipcar to go to the Pathmark a couple times a month seems like a no-brainer.

Considering our fondness for the Pathmark, it’s with a good bit of shock that we tell you that there’s some surprising competition on the…

As you’re probably aware, we scour the zoning applications every week to find new and exciting development news to pass along to you good people. We see all kinds of requests for variances, but rarely do we see an application like that for 1103 S. 31st St., a request to create an Adult Cabaret in an existing Auto Body & Fender Shop. Our first task in finding out more about this application was to actually locate this address. If you have a poor sense of direction like we do, you’ll agree that the diagonal-then-horizontal nature of Grays Ferry Ave. sometimes makes it a little tough to find what you’re looking for in that neck of the woods. And that is why God made maps.

Thanks, Google!

The address is question in on the eastern side of 31st St., just north of Grays…

Jumbo Theater in all its glory

After two (or was it three?) brief turns as a thrift store, and an aborted attempt by Avram Hornik to turn it into a restaurant/venue, the old Jumbo theater at Front and Girard in Fishtown is all set to become the newest Deal$ outlet store. Deal$, if you were unaware, is a variety store chain that was founded in 1999 in St. Louis, but was bought out by Dollar Tree in 2006 and now has over 138 stores across the United States. They sell everything from frozen meats to vitamins and may actually serve as a temporary alternative to the yet unfinished Pathmark at 2nd and Girard. Or maybe it’ll just be a glorified dollar store.

Dilapidated Jumbo. Photo from Cinema Treasures.

Either way, residents of Northern Liberties…

Photo courtesy of Paul Drzal

It appears that the shiny new proposed grocery store adjacent to Bart Blatstein’s Piazza compound is going to require a few more months of waiting from the developer and the eager denizens of Northern Liberties. The unraveling and bankrupt parent company of Pathmark, A&P, is dawdling over their lease and creating havoc for the much-anticipated venue. According to Maria Panarits’ article in the Inquirer, A&P’s apparent torpor has prompted Schmidts Retail L.P. (the company behind the project at the corner of Girard and Germanton Avenues) to file a motion in the US Bankruptcy Court to force Pathmark to either move forward and open a grocery store or to abrogate their lease to allow for Blatstein and co. to find a suitable replacement.

So, as far as we can tell, until Pathmark figures out if…