Redner's closing its Doylestown, PA store

Redner's Warehouse Market announced earlier this month that it plans to close its Doylestown Point Plaza store on March 31. Redner's currently operates 44 grocery stores and 21 Quick Shoppes in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.

"The lease on this location is approaching its end and the property owner presented us with an offer to end the lease early," said Redner's President and CEO Ryan Redner. "Based on the offer, non-renewal of said lease would prove to be the most beneficial direction to take for the company."

Doylestown Point Plaza is owned by Goodman Properties.

McCaffrey's planning two new PA stores

McCaffrey's Food Markets announced recently that it would open a new, small format store in Doylestown, as well as a 50,000 square foot store in Blue Bell that was previously occupied by Super Fresh. Both stores are expected to open in the spring.

The Doylestown store will be called Simply Fresh by McCaffrey's and will occupy only 13,000 square feet. It will be located in a restored landmark building and offer gourmet prepared foods and sandwiches, crepes, sushi, cheeses, custom cakes, gourmet coffee, and hundreds of organic and exotic products offerings.

McCaffrey's currently has four stores in PA and NJ.

Peapod opens Bucks County facility

Ahold announced last week that it's Peapod division, which offers online shopping services in support of the Giant and Stop & Shop chains in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, has opened a facility in Coopersburg (Bucks County) that will allow the company to service Doylestown, Quakertown and Coopersburg.

Peapod services the city of Philadelphia and many of its surrounding areas, and considers itself the largest online grocer in the U.S.

Weis Markets targeting Bedminster, PA for new store; to spend $135 million on CapEx this year

Last week Weis Markets presented its plans to the Bedminster Township planning commission for a 63,000 square foot supermarket and adjacent gas station at the corner of Routes 113 and 313 in Bucks County, not far from Doylestown. Meetings with the Board of Supervisors and the town's municipal authority are planned for the coming months.

Township officials have been hoping for some form of new construction at the site that would result in road improvements paid for by the developer. Rite Aid had received approvals to build on the site, but abandoned its plans.

In related news, Weis announced that it would invest $135 million this year towards 37 major projects, including four new stores and 32 remodels. (I'm not quite sure what the 37th project is.)

Weis currently operates 164 stores in PA, NJ, MD, NY and VA.

Weis Markets to close on 3 Genuardi's stores next week

I've written before about Giant's plan to take over 16 Genuardi's stores (The Genuardi's list - sold, closing and still for sale...) and Weis Markets' acquisition of three Genuardi's locations (Weis to buy three PA Genuardi's stores), but not much has been said about when all these changes will take place.

One of the first actual dates I've seen (thanks to the May issue of Food Trade News) is June 11, when Weis Markets plans to close on the Conshohocken, Doylestown and Norristown stores. According to the report, the refurbished units should reopen within a week.

In the last couple months I have also heard that the Federal Trade Commission won't allow Giant to open all 16 of the stores it originally planned to acquire from Genuardi's. And last week I read in the same Food Trade News issue referenced above that Giant will get 15 stores, with the Newtown, PA location going to an independent operator.

Friendly's files for bankruptcy, closes 63 stores

Friendly Ice Cream Corp., which began in 1935 as a neighborhood ice cream shop and grew to more than 600 restaurants, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday and immediately closed 63 stores. Thirty of the closed stores are in the company's home state of Massachusetts. Three stores closed in the Greater Philadelphia area (Trenton, Doylestown and Pottstown).

In a press release, Friendly's said it was a victim of a challenging economy, high supply costs and changing customer preferences. In a phone interview reported yesterday by The Boston Globe, Chief Executive Harsha V. Agadi said the company already has $70 million in financing secured and hopes for a speedy restructuring.

I'm enthusiastically hoping for such a turnaround. Despite applying for a job at the Clifton Park, NY Friendly's as a teenager (didn't get it; ended up at Price Chopper), it was my go-to place after a movie during my high school and college years. There was nothing like a Reese's Pieces Sundae (the five-scoop kind with Cookies'n Cream ice cream) and a side of fries at 11pm. And it seemed I knew half the people in the crowded restaurant, which I once heard was one of the top performing Friendly's in the country.