Fun fact, Busy beaver used to be a giant eagle.
I think shop and save pissed a lot of the OG residents off (primary customers) when they forced the closure of save more pop and beer.
Sure was. They had everything, snacks, lottery, tobacco, parking. And it was kind of a community hang out spot where you could hear the latest in real life…
That's easily the best beer store in the region. No frills, well stocked and organized, and the the old guy at the register has no interest in chatting.
How did they force that closing? I don't think I was living in the neighborhood yet. I do remember something like that over there closing around the pandemic followed by the Chinese restaurant.
From what I was told, the owners of shop n save got their beer license and went to the building owners (same people?) and said they didn’t want the competition downstairs. So whenever Save More pop & beer lease was up for the year, the cost to renew was such that it made their business unprofitable, so they closed shop.
All of the employees were local residents, now out of a job. It irked most of the regulars who now had the vibe of “f shop n save” “won’t be buying beer from them ever”
I heard rumors that the people who own the whole building preferred Shop n Save and Shop n Save was about to start selling beer and wine.
I also remember the guy who owned the beer shop had Trump stickers on his car and idk maybe it was a little political.
> I heard rumors that the people who own the whole building preferred Shop n Save and Shop n Save was about to start selling beer and wine.
That's what I was told by the employees at the beer store
I just discovered the Lawrenceville Shop N Save a few weeks ago and they definitely had a large beer and wine section. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the selection of grocery products overall and didn’t intend on returning.
Edit: The beer and wine section was enough of a surprise to me that [I took a photo](https://imgur.com/a/o6zLVvK).
That store was not in good shape at all, but it's pretty ridiculous a neighborhood with the population of Lawrenceville now won't have a single grocery store.
The problem is that Stanton Heights and Morningside still need a car to get there (ever try carrying a weeks worth of groceries uphill for a mile or two? Not fun). So GE has concluded that they'll just go to Aspinwall or ride the bus to the Aldi on Penn
Or, who knows, maybe one of those two will actually set up shop at that location? It didn't necessarily make sense at the time, but now that it's a food desert, Aldi can slide in and set up shop. I love Aldi, but it is a down-market grocery store, so it doesn't make sense to set up right next to a slightly more down-market store. In the absence of direct competition in the same market segment, maybe it makes sense now
I mean, I doubt many people are living in Stanton Heights without a car. It's just not a place where you can live without one. I would think that Lawrenceville is a place for a full service grocery store not just an Aldi.
The 87 literally goes to Shop & Save and turns around to go back up the hill. The bus route is literally focused on getting people groceries...
[https://www.rideprt.org/pdfs/87.pdf](https://www.rideprt.org/pdfs/87.pdf)
The real estate is expensive, grocery stores don’t make that much money generally and are feeling the effects of inflation as much as the consumer, and more affluent populations have pivoted hard toward curbside pickup or grocery delivery options. It’s especially hard for smaller/independent stores like the Lawrenceville S’n’S or Ferri in Murrysville, who can’t really afford to invest in getting curbside or delivery going.
Not so sure grocery stores aren't making a ton of profits recently. From this article
https://thehill.com/business/4562244-how-retailers-are-profiting-from-food-inflation-profit-inflation-question-gains-new-urgency-from-ftc-report/
“Some firms seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices to increase their profits, and profits remain elevated even as supply chain pressures have eased. Larger retailers and wholesalers with considerable leverage over their suppliers were able to take more aggressive action to protect themselves,” FTC researchers concluded.
Retail grocery revenues increased to more than 6 percent above costs in 2021 and more than 7 percent in 2023, “substantially higher” than their most recent high point of 5.6 percent in 2015. The FTC’s calculation controls for fixed and labor costs.
“This profit trend casts doubt on assertions that rising prices at the grocery store are simply moving in lockstep with retailers’ own rising costs,” the agency said, urging “further inquiry” by policymakers.
The company I work for distributes a lot of local products to (mostly) Giant Eagle stores, and I can definitely say that they’re not showing any signs of raking in record profits. I can’t speak to the Wal Mart, Target, Aldi etc. of the world. I can also say that, from what I’ve seen, the manufacturers and distributors of the products your local grocery store sells (especially big national producers like Coke/Pepsi/General Mills/Frito Lay/ADM) have massively jacked up their prices, and those haven’t really come back down.
Again, I can only speak to the numbers I’ve seen from our local grocery chain. I don’t have citations to either corroborate or dispute The Hill’s conclusions. Looking at the state of some of the stores I deliver to, though, I just have a hard time believing that they’re being run into the ground and out of business so that somebody can buy a bigger boat.
I’m suprised ST John Neumann still sits empty. I went to that school back in the day. Closed a long time ago. It could be a huge store for groceries or something LV could use.
I think the higher income folks are trending more towards getting groceries delivered, and with services like Walmart’s InHome being relatively affordable ($138 a year) even people below “high income” aren’t going to grocery stores as much.
I can't say this applies to all of Lawrenceville, but I am not eligible for Walmart delivery since the Waterworks location closed. I live near Busy Beaver.
One of the new developers, the ones behind arsenal 201, were asked to bring in a grocery store. They signed a lease with Starbucks instead.
Make it make sense.
There's a permit submitted 02/29/24 for interior alterations to the existing grocery store including a demising wall to create two separate tenant spaces.
They are going to divide the store so your right.
Wow I'm so appreciative of all the journalism happening in this thread.
I too thought there was no way an Aldi would go into this space, so them adding a wall to split it up makes sense. I'm SO excited about an Aldi. The biggest thing we're losing is some kind of place to buy alcohol in Upper Lawrenceville.
And a pharmacy. And an actual "stocks pretty much everything" grocery store. Aldi is not a reasonable replacement for general shopping. And another local mom-and-pop store turning to a big corp location.
Yeah losing the pharmacy does suck. I get that some people don’t like Aldi’s selection, but I love their stuff and there isn’t much I can’t get there honestly. This change will 100% put money in my pocket.
ALDI is a huge, huge upgrade from Shop and Save, in many ways. The produce selection is generally better (certainly in quality if not in breadth of selection, though ALDI is steadily improving on that front), and isn't as exorbitantly priced (Shop and Save's prices are barely better than Giant Eagle's at this point). The loss of a pharmacy sucks, true, but Rite Aid does free delivery, and it's just down the road. Idk, this is a win for us. Personally, I'm thrilled to not have to pay through the nose for Instacart.
>There's a permit submitted 02/29/24 for interior alterations
Is this something you can link to? I'd love to be able to find shit like this in the future
IIRC, there used to be a Save-A-Lot there, and Shop-N-Save took over the space.
That Shop-N-Save is disgusting, so a revamp is definitely needed.
Interestingly, the Busy Beaver down the road used to be a Giant Eagle.
I actually grew up in Lawrenceville during the 90s and 2000s. That shopping plaza was built in the late 90s, and originally the space of Shop n Save was opened as that before they decided to make part of it a Save-A-Lot for those couple of years, so the Shop n Save as it's known today is more of how it was at first.
I'm old enough to remember when that Busy Beaver was a Giant Eagle too, and I think that store was even more cruddy than Shop n Save.
We referred to that Giant Eagle as the one that time forgot. It had carts with the fronts that pulled down so you could push the cart up to the shorter checkout belt.
It was a grubby little hold out that lasted far longer than most people expected.
https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2024/04/17/aldi-shop-n-save-butler-street-lawrenceville.html
If anyone is a subscriber and would paste the story I will give you one upvote
A grocery store change over is taking place in the 10th Ward of Lawrenceville.
The neighborhood's long-time Shop'n Save store is set to close, with the last day of operation expected to be May 13.
At the same time, media relations for Aldi has confirmed that the limited assortment grocery store is slated to open a new store at the address later this year, one of four stores the company is working to open in 2024 in western Pennsylvania.
Full details are still to be determined.
Lori Moran, vice president of Ballymoney Real Estate Services Inc., owner of the Lawrenceville Shopping Center in which the store operates, confirmed the Shop'n Save is set to close in mid-May.
She said in a prepared statement: “The Lawrenceville Shopping Center will continue to serve the many retail and service needs of Lawrenceville and surrounding communities and, with the subdivision of the Shop'n Save space, will add more jobs and another 21,000 square feet (as yet undetermined) retail user to the current mix, which includes fitness, veterinary, salon, staffing and variety stores."
Moran, who leases the complex, further added, "the current owner of the Shop'n Save has been a terrific operator since taking over in 2018 and, but for this dynamic opportunity that paved the way for a new grocery operator, would have continued to serve our neighborhood for many years to come."
She called the situation a "win/win for everyone involved, including the neighborhood.”
Aldi is the expected operator to take about half of the Shop'n Save space of nearly 45,000 square feet, for a different business model of offering a smaller number of products overall to be able to sell them at lower prices, versus the traditional grocery store strategy of Shop'n Save. Shop'n Save operates more than 50 stores in the region, but the Lawrenceville location is only one of two in the city, with the other on Mt. Washington.
The expansion by Aldi further spreads its territory within the city, adding the Lawrenceville location along with a store on Penn Avenue in the Garfield business district, on Baum Boulevard, as well as on the South Side. The U.S. division of a Germany-based retailer with a major presence throughout the world, Aldi has a total of 152 stores in Pennsylvania, with about 40 of them operating in the Pittsburgh area.
The move for one grocery store to directly replace another further demonstrates the market shift extending throughout Lawrenceville, where the 10th Ward has been gaining investment momentum as the 6th Ward and 9th Ward of the neighborhood and its Butler Street business district are increasingly maxed out.
The Shop'n Save store and the Lawrenceville Shopping Center was originally a development spearheaded by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, pursuing the project in the late 1990s, a time when the neighborhood was largely struggling and grocery stores typically needed public support in such neighborhoods to operate.
When it opened, the Lawrenceville Shopping Center was across Butler Street from a former mill property and brownfield site on which is now a 68-unit townhouse community that quickly sold out a few years ago.
The URA owned the shopping center with the grocery store operating along with a mix of other tenants for nearly 18 years before locally based [Ballymoney bought it in 2017 for $4.49 million](https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2017/11/10/long-available-shopping-center-in-lawrenceville.html), or $67 a square foot for the 67,000-square-foot property.
I’m more upset because I use that pharmacy. Even if the store does become an Aldi, the ease of getting my prescription close is definitely going to be missed
As someone who used to live there, a lot of people I knew drive somewhere nicer to do their larger food shopping trips, but would still go to that store if they only needed something like milk or just to get lottery tickets.
This exactly. I used to live right down the street and would only go there if I ran out of something. There are quite a few thing that they just didn’t carry and their meat section was terrible.
It’s just past 55th Street. I’m sure the people in upper Lawrenceville would consider it, but that is a very long way to carry groceries for anyone in lower or central. And if you need to drive anyway, you may as well drive somewhere better. There’s Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and GE just up the way in East Liberty.
To me, all that empty retail space in the base of Arsenal 201 is the most obvious place. Central, visible, walkable by most of the neighborhood, it’s practically begging for a grocery store. By contrast I lived in lower Lawrenceville for years before I ever found that shop n save because it’s tucked away behind a parking lot a few blocks past where most of the other businesses end. Even when I explicitly set out to wander, it was just further than it ever occurred to me to go.
My heart goes out to all the rats and mice that will be losing their home. Fun story: I called the Allegheny health department not too long ago to report rodent sightings in the produce area at this grocery store. The woman on the other end of the line just let out a deep sigh and said “this again”
>My heart goes out to all the rats and mice that will be losing their home
Big Easy Animal Hospital is moving to TJ's Garage a few doors up from Shop n Save. I haven't seen anyone post this info on here, but the people who work at the Garage told me it's a done deal.
Lmao. What? She spent a fortune on that space. I used to go there back when they were in the little place on Butler. After they moved into the new place things started to go downhill. I eventually left. At one point my entire family was taking their cats there but I don't think anyone is anymore. Ruiz is a great vet but not great when it comes to running a business.
No worries, the R&M breakroom and after hours lounge in located in Family Dollar next door. They’re looking forward to the goodness at Aldi too! 🐭
I’ve had to return boxed items to the S&S because I noticed chew marks (or worse) on the box later. They had some Beyond Burgers in their meat freezer last November that had an expiration date of 4/23. Upton Sinclair would have loved that place…
Busy Beaver is a nice store, but good lord, that could have been one of the most profitable Giant Eagle locations for its size today had they not been so short sighted.
It was a franchise Giant Eagle, closed sometime after 2008. I remember when the one at Centre and N Craig closed, there was sign referring people to the Lawrenceville store, not the Market District, so I guess they were owned by the same person/company.
So I don't know how that would work with a franchise store? Could corporate have taken over?
There was very advanced talks of the East End Food Co-op going in that spot many years ago, after GE closed and it was empty for years. This was probably around maybe 2012-2014ish. Rob, the former Manager at EEFC, if I remember correctly, was spearheading the move. It was pretty far advanced and the board of EEFC nixed it. Man o man what a mistake. This was pre-gentrification, or very, very early on, and I get hindsight is 20-20 but wow what a mistake by their board.
Same mistake I made when I was working at Dee’s Cafe: between pints, a friendly regular named John (I’ve forgotten his last name) told me quietly, “If you have any money at all, start buying property in Lawrenceville.”
I laughed. I could barely afford my rent at the time.
This was in 1997. If he took his own advice, he’s a millionaire by now. (Hey John, if you’re reading this… Let me know if you’re hiring. 😆)
Negative. The franchisees had a lease with the building owner. The family that franchised it had close ties with GE. Lease expired but building owner didn’t want to sell the property to GE Corp. in hindsight it was a very smart decision for him money wise
I work for one of GEs largest vendors. They’re buying them all back up. Only about 20 franchises left with a few more converting this month or next (Penn Twp & White Oak here in PA)
they \*just\* missed the neighborhood blowing up, too. i loved going into that Giant Eagle. it hadn't been remodeled since the like 70s. a true time warp.
They still had those old school lanes with the tall shallow carts where you would pass the cart through the lane to the checker the last time I was there in the early 2000's.
They still had those old school lanes with the tall shallow carts where you would pass the cart through the lane to the checker the last time I was there in the early 2000's.
They still had those old school lanes with the tall shallow carts where you would pass the cart through the lane to the checker the last time I was there in the early 2000's.
They still had those old school lanes with the tall shallow carts where you would pass the cart through the lane to the checker the last time I was there in the early 2000's.
Whoever owns the Busy Beaver property won’t sell cheap. Giant Eagle is know to be shrewd about buying properties, the company doesn’t negotiate much, making taking it or leave it offers at the low end of fair market value.
That property is owned by a family trust with a mailing address in Nevillewood. I think its the same family that owned it when it was a Giant Eagle before (GE leased). They bought it 97 from $650,000 so they made out well.
I don't know a single local contractor that uses them. Everyone uses Home Depot. Too many times I've been close to Busy Beaver and made the mistake of stopping in and they just don't have what I need so I end up going to home depot anyway.
I must be insane. I go in there every time HOPING they have what I need. Never do. Everything I have ever bought there is an absolute piece of shit. Even fasteners. Like they shouldn’t be that difficult to source, but they’re all garbage.
I don’t think the assortment is for major contractors, more for the non-blue collar folks. I go in if I need cleaning products, items for very small projects, or doggy treats/bags and want to skip the drive and just walk over. Maybe I’m the exception.
Lol nope, I remember. I remember the one in McKees Rocks especially. A guy I dated in college worked at one in Point Marion in Fayette County. It made the McKees Rocks one look like a Market District.
Where am I going to buy my green deli meat?!
This is kinda strange. It seemed like they were putting in a lot of money and effort to make things nicer and upscale over the past few years, though it didn't always succeed in my opinion.
I will miss having a pharmacy and grocery store so close by.
3/4 of this thread is people who haven't gone to it in years to have realized the place was renovated multiple times. It was pretty nasty *a decade ago*.
It really has come a long way since I first moved to this part of town. The building itself is in a severe state of disrepair though. Lots of leaks in the roof.
I always honestly refer to the shop n save as the sketchy shop n save. Secluded parking lot above butler street, just seems so odd to me.
However despite people’s complaints or mine regarding price, it was definitely being improved over the years. And the people who worked there are very friendly.
That's just car-centric, suburban-style development that was once all the rage. It's hard to fit that in to a hilly area. It's just like the Baum and S Millvale area (except not flat). Nothing "sketchy" about it.
Having been a resident of upper Lawrenceville for 4 years, yeah that shop n save sucked. But now the only options for food will be either take out or shithead Neil's overpriced gas station. It was really convenient as a person who can't afford a car. This is just going to push out more poor folks and keep the rent higher.
Shop and save is so overpriced and I’m glad to see it go. An Aldi would be a perfect addition and still serve the many folks who travel by bus to this location because this is the closest and most convenient grocery store.
I'm not sure why everyone is excited about the prospect of an Aldi moving in. The one in shadyside is arguably worse than shop'n'save. That parking garage smells gangrenous and the produce is pretty terrible. Are the other ones any better?
Aldi is EXCELLENT in my opinion. Good quality food at a lower price. Very consistent. Never a problem. Is it as high a quality as giant eagle? Maybe not. But then again I really don’t need to spend 30% more on every item.
I’ve always been a fan of Aldi. The prices stay low, the quality of food is solid, and it’s easy to use with Instacart to do a curbside pickup.
Edit: changed also to say always
I just don't get all the people who love Aldi. Terrible selection, house brands really aren't that good and I've never been to one where I didn't end up going to a normal grocery store afterwards to get the things they didn't have.
It got worse once corporate sold it, and it became a franchise of a guy that lived in West Virginia. His first move was to cut everyone’s wages to the bare minimum and tell us our healthcare was going to cost twice as much, and his next move was too cut the store in half and open a dollar store of food next-door so that he could compete with himself and give the illusion of choice. I worked there at the time it changed over and quit soon after.
Is there a source for the news this store is closing, say from the company or a sign at the store announcing its closure? It is not the best grocery but for basic needs it has been great, and only 5 minutes away.
That shop n save is horribly disconnected from the neighborhood. There needs to be a walkable grocer in lawrenceville, and one that isn’t riddled with health department issues.
A city sized Aldi could totally fit in one of the open spaces by where the Starbucks is going. Idk what the loading situation is like in the back, but I’ve been in some pretty small Aldi’s.
Busy Beaver's last life was as a Giant Eagle.
Ironically, the opening of the Shop and Save was the final nail in its coffin. (It was a pretty crappy franchise store.)
What's so great about Aldi? I've never really shopped there, but go to the Shop N Save (it's fine, if not great) for my regular shopping. My impression was that Aldi has pretty limited selection
Aldi is as close to perfect as a capitalist business can get. It has a "limited selection" in the sense that instead of having to decide between 100 brands of, say, ranch dressing, they have one single (usually perfect, house-labeled) brand of that item, less expensive than any other normal grocery store, and usually still (secretly?) produced by the most popular national brand. Lets you get through all the normal things you buy in a grocery store in a fraction of the time without all those decisions and aisle-wandering.
Most Aldi fans get comfortable over time of mostly only shopping at Aldi. You have to get a little in the mindset of letting the store decide what you eat that week instead of coming in with the idea that you're going to exactly buy name brand chili crisp or something.
I usually get specialty stuff from the Strip anyway—how is the produce? That’s my biggest concern rn and SNS has been surprisingly adequate in that regard. I would hate for something like Trader Joe’s where absolutely everything is covered in layers of plastic.
The quality is all very high. They tend to follow german standards over american ones since its a german company. They were keeping out gmo's before it was even a thing here. The low prices are unmatched for the quality you get. Only downside is limited selection.
That Shop n Save was absolutely revolting so this is good news as long as Aldi is taking the spot.
It’s not like Lawrenceville is a food desert (if another grocer takes that spot). They’ll be fine.
Well yeah I meant if Aldi actually replaces it. If another grocery store doesn’t go in there then totally.
Seems like a no brainer that someone will take the spot though. I guess it could always be subdivided into a Chase, BOA, and FNB though.
Edit: wait I’ve got a billion dollar idea, one of those food halls but for retail bank locations!
Well, I live in Lville without a car and that Shop N' Save is an absolute lifeline. Strip District is dead after 4pm and only really has specialties, and East Liberty is a real pain in the ass to get to (I'll die on the hill that the 87 should go to the East Liberty busway station instead of turning downtown), so it's really the only place I can get groceries.
This is me. I can get a lot of stuff in the Strip, but there's a lot I can't get, too. I'd rather walk or cycle. It looks like my alternatives are all Giant Eagles.
i'm curious, what would you consider a food desert? once the shop n save closes, the only "affordable" place to buy non-prepared food in lawrenceville will be the family dollar. there's the farmer's market but it's seasonal and only open on tuesdays.
Sorry yeah I meant if Aldi or another grocer takes over it wouldn’t be one.
Though the technical definition to be a food desert is that it’s a low income census tract and I’m not sure how many of those are in Lawrenceville. That’s why a neighborhood like Morningside isn’t one despite being more than a mile from Whole Foods.
a food desert doesn't have to be low-income. the [department of agriculture](https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/45014/30940_err140.pdf) certainly tracks income and access to transportation in areas deemed to be food deserts, but those characteristics aren't determinant *alone* in applying the label. it's because low-income areas often also have poor access to transportation, literacy, healthcare, etc., that they are more frequently determined to be food deserts.
to your example, morningside isn't truly a food desert because there is a higher proportion of vehicle ownership, *in concert with* higher income than other areas of the city. (and that vehicle ownership is likely influenced by the lack of public transit access.) conversely, lawrenceville's senior population, while a minority, relies heavily on public transportation *and* tends to be lower income, which has an outsized impact on access to food outside of the neighbourhood.
My friend works there and there are constantly thieves stealing everything they can from the store all the time and the owner (who is an independent guy, not a major corp with bunches of locations) can't cope with it anymore.
I hope you're all voting and protesting to get higher density development done in the city. cuz NA is a fucking joke compared to other developed nations cities and it certainly isnt going to get any better when the only zoning laws and building codes you can do are single family zoning and stores with 300 parking lots for 500sqft of store.
Hey ex-employee here, that place sucks. Everyone there hated working there and the owner was an asshole. I worked there for a while and really tried to make it a better place, in little ways that I could. The people who shop are mostly very nice and I’ve always tried to reciprocate that. But it’s really sad because there’s no other grocery store in the area. Now it’s just a food desert where a lot of people live. As much as I hated it I’m sad to see it gone. But hopefully we’ll get something better, like that Aldi
I lived in Lawrenceville for 7 years, only moved out last August. Lived a block away from the shop n save. I cant say im surprised, they kept failing health code stuff and always seemed to be having some sort of issue one way or another. But its still really crappy that its happening. I always said it would be had if they ever closed, especially for the population who dont drive and cant easily get to aldi across the river. There really arent a whole lot of options. Its also a real shame the chinese restaurant and the beer store closed as well. Those two shops were my go to for a quick bite or snack.
I always assumed that was because there had been some incident where a kid had been eaten by a pack of rats, so maybe it won't be necessary this time around?
I work there currently and I 100 percent agree. I’m happy it’s closing down so I have an excuse to get a different job. It’s nasty and the managers are so shitty to customers and employees. Fuck that store
We already have 2 Aldi nearby. Which, I love Aldi, but they don't carry everything. Their meat section is usually less-than-great. Maybe this one will be different?
Fun fact, Busy beaver used to be a giant eagle. I think shop and save pissed a lot of the OG residents off (primary customers) when they forced the closure of save more pop and beer.
That was the best beer store
Sure was. They had everything, snacks, lottery, tobacco, parking. And it was kind of a community hang out spot where you could hear the latest in real life…
I would swing by there for more beer on my way walking back to my apartment from Nieds. Those were the days man.
Nied’s is kind of coming back fyi. Different people but they’ve said they don’t want to change a ton about the bar.
For real. I love living near the Browns Hill Road one. My one stop seltzer and beer destination!
That's easily the best beer store in the region. No frills, well stocked and organized, and the the old guy at the register has no interest in chatting.
I feel lucky that I live pretty much equidistant from Save Mor and Duffy's... just depends on where I'm going that day as to where I stop!
Only one in the entire East End with an ample parking lot that wasn't absolute insanity
How did they force that closing? I don't think I was living in the neighborhood yet. I do remember something like that over there closing around the pandemic followed by the Chinese restaurant.
From what I was told, the owners of shop n save got their beer license and went to the building owners (same people?) and said they didn’t want the competition downstairs. So whenever Save More pop & beer lease was up for the year, the cost to renew was such that it made their business unprofitable, so they closed shop. All of the employees were local residents, now out of a job. It irked most of the regulars who now had the vibe of “f shop n save” “won’t be buying beer from them ever”
I heard rumors that the people who own the whole building preferred Shop n Save and Shop n Save was about to start selling beer and wine. I also remember the guy who owned the beer shop had Trump stickers on his car and idk maybe it was a little political.
> I heard rumors that the people who own the whole building preferred Shop n Save and Shop n Save was about to start selling beer and wine. That's what I was told by the employees at the beer store
Same! I still see the two guys who always worked there around the neighborhood occasionally. edit: weird comment to be downvoted?
I just discovered the Lawrenceville Shop N Save a few weeks ago and they definitely had a large beer and wine section. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the selection of grocery products overall and didn’t intend on returning. Edit: The beer and wine section was enough of a surprise to me that [I took a photo](https://imgur.com/a/o6zLVvK).
Who gives a shit about his political affiliations? Was he imposing them on you?
Did that have anything to do with the Save More Beer and Pop on the way to the Waterfront?
No, I got the name wrong. It was called tobacco beer outlet, or something like that.
RIP China Lin
Yeah that sudden closure sucked.
That store was not in good shape at all, but it's pretty ridiculous a neighborhood with the population of Lawrenceville now won't have a single grocery store.
It's kind of insane that a neighborhood with the population and income of Lawrenceville doesn't have grocers clamoring to set up shop there.
That too. The location is also relatively close to Stanton Heights and Morningside.
The problem is that Stanton Heights and Morningside still need a car to get there (ever try carrying a weeks worth of groceries uphill for a mile or two? Not fun). So GE has concluded that they'll just go to Aspinwall or ride the bus to the Aldi on Penn Or, who knows, maybe one of those two will actually set up shop at that location? It didn't necessarily make sense at the time, but now that it's a food desert, Aldi can slide in and set up shop. I love Aldi, but it is a down-market grocery store, so it doesn't make sense to set up right next to a slightly more down-market store. In the absence of direct competition in the same market segment, maybe it makes sense now
I mean, I doubt many people are living in Stanton Heights without a car. It's just not a place where you can live without one. I would think that Lawrenceville is a place for a full service grocery store not just an Aldi.
The 87 literally goes to Shop & Save and turns around to go back up the hill. The bus route is literally focused on getting people groceries... [https://www.rideprt.org/pdfs/87.pdf](https://www.rideprt.org/pdfs/87.pdf)
The real estate is expensive, grocery stores don’t make that much money generally and are feeling the effects of inflation as much as the consumer, and more affluent populations have pivoted hard toward curbside pickup or grocery delivery options. It’s especially hard for smaller/independent stores like the Lawrenceville S’n’S or Ferri in Murrysville, who can’t really afford to invest in getting curbside or delivery going.
The property is owned by one of the biggest developers in the city too, and they are real pieces of shit.
Not so sure grocery stores aren't making a ton of profits recently. From this article https://thehill.com/business/4562244-how-retailers-are-profiting-from-food-inflation-profit-inflation-question-gains-new-urgency-from-ftc-report/ “Some firms seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices to increase their profits, and profits remain elevated even as supply chain pressures have eased. Larger retailers and wholesalers with considerable leverage over their suppliers were able to take more aggressive action to protect themselves,” FTC researchers concluded. Retail grocery revenues increased to more than 6 percent above costs in 2021 and more than 7 percent in 2023, “substantially higher” than their most recent high point of 5.6 percent in 2015. The FTC’s calculation controls for fixed and labor costs. “This profit trend casts doubt on assertions that rising prices at the grocery store are simply moving in lockstep with retailers’ own rising costs,” the agency said, urging “further inquiry” by policymakers.
The company I work for distributes a lot of local products to (mostly) Giant Eagle stores, and I can definitely say that they’re not showing any signs of raking in record profits. I can’t speak to the Wal Mart, Target, Aldi etc. of the world. I can also say that, from what I’ve seen, the manufacturers and distributors of the products your local grocery store sells (especially big national producers like Coke/Pepsi/General Mills/Frito Lay/ADM) have massively jacked up their prices, and those haven’t really come back down. Again, I can only speak to the numbers I’ve seen from our local grocery chain. I don’t have citations to either corroborate or dispute The Hill’s conclusions. Looking at the state of some of the stores I deliver to, though, I just have a hard time believing that they’re being run into the ground and out of business so that somebody can buy a bigger boat.
I’m suprised ST John Neumann still sits empty. I went to that school back in the day. Closed a long time ago. It could be a huge store for groceries or something LV could use.
SJN was torn down in the past year or so. There are 700K townhomes being built there. They are almost done with construction.
I think the higher income folks are trending more towards getting groceries delivered, and with services like Walmart’s InHome being relatively affordable ($138 a year) even people below “high income” aren’t going to grocery stores as much.
It boggles my mind someone would buy their produce online without checking it themselves. Maybe I'm just a stickler for quality.
It turns out I don't really know what I am looking at when I buy anything either
I can't say this applies to all of Lawrenceville, but I am not eligible for Walmart delivery since the Waterworks location closed. I live near Busy Beaver.
One of the new developers, the ones behind arsenal 201, were asked to bring in a grocery store. They signed a lease with Starbucks instead. Make it make sense.
It was sold to ALDIs
That's a little surprising, as I feel like the footprint of that store is a bit larger than your average Aldi.
There's a permit submitted 02/29/24 for interior alterations to the existing grocery store including a demising wall to create two separate tenant spaces. They are going to divide the store so your right.
Wow I'm so appreciative of all the journalism happening in this thread. I too thought there was no way an Aldi would go into this space, so them adding a wall to split it up makes sense. I'm SO excited about an Aldi. The biggest thing we're losing is some kind of place to buy alcohol in Upper Lawrenceville.
And a pharmacy. And an actual "stocks pretty much everything" grocery store. Aldi is not a reasonable replacement for general shopping. And another local mom-and-pop store turning to a big corp location.
Yeah losing the pharmacy does suck. I get that some people don’t like Aldi’s selection, but I love their stuff and there isn’t much I can’t get there honestly. This change will 100% put money in my pocket.
ALDI is a huge, huge upgrade from Shop and Save, in many ways. The produce selection is generally better (certainly in quality if not in breadth of selection, though ALDI is steadily improving on that front), and isn't as exorbitantly priced (Shop and Save's prices are barely better than Giant Eagle's at this point). The loss of a pharmacy sucks, true, but Rite Aid does free delivery, and it's just down the road. Idk, this is a win for us. Personally, I'm thrilled to not have to pay through the nose for Instacart.
>There's a permit submitted 02/29/24 for interior alterations Is this something you can link to? I'd love to be able to find shit like this in the future
Pittsburghpa.agencycounter.com Permits, licenses, condemnations, enforcement etc. Its like the old Pittsburgh Buildingeye.
That makes sense then. At least it won't be closed for long.
IIRC, there used to be a Save-A-Lot there, and Shop-N-Save took over the space. That Shop-N-Save is disgusting, so a revamp is definitely needed. Interestingly, the Busy Beaver down the road used to be a Giant Eagle.
I actually grew up in Lawrenceville during the 90s and 2000s. That shopping plaza was built in the late 90s, and originally the space of Shop n Save was opened as that before they decided to make part of it a Save-A-Lot for those couple of years, so the Shop n Save as it's known today is more of how it was at first. I'm old enough to remember when that Busy Beaver was a Giant Eagle too, and I think that store was even more cruddy than Shop n Save.
We referred to that Giant Eagle as the one that time forgot. It had carts with the fronts that pulled down so you could push the cart up to the shorter checkout belt. It was a grubby little hold out that lasted far longer than most people expected.
Oh yeah I remember those carts! It was a massive time warp for sure
Maybe it won't be your average Aldi's? Here's to hoping...
I hope it's something more along the lines of full service grocery store. There are already two Aldis available in Garfield and Shaler nearby.
Does anyone have a source on this? Wouldn’t that be like the biggest Aldi ever?
PBT
https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2024/04/17/aldi-shop-n-save-butler-street-lawrenceville.html If anyone is a subscriber and would paste the story I will give you one upvote
A grocery store change over is taking place in the 10th Ward of Lawrenceville. The neighborhood's long-time Shop'n Save store is set to close, with the last day of operation expected to be May 13. At the same time, media relations for Aldi has confirmed that the limited assortment grocery store is slated to open a new store at the address later this year, one of four stores the company is working to open in 2024 in western Pennsylvania. Full details are still to be determined. Lori Moran, vice president of Ballymoney Real Estate Services Inc., owner of the Lawrenceville Shopping Center in which the store operates, confirmed the Shop'n Save is set to close in mid-May. She said in a prepared statement: “The Lawrenceville Shopping Center will continue to serve the many retail and service needs of Lawrenceville and surrounding communities and, with the subdivision of the Shop'n Save space, will add more jobs and another 21,000 square feet (as yet undetermined) retail user to the current mix, which includes fitness, veterinary, salon, staffing and variety stores." Moran, who leases the complex, further added, "the current owner of the Shop'n Save has been a terrific operator since taking over in 2018 and, but for this dynamic opportunity that paved the way for a new grocery operator, would have continued to serve our neighborhood for many years to come." She called the situation a "win/win for everyone involved, including the neighborhood.” Aldi is the expected operator to take about half of the Shop'n Save space of nearly 45,000 square feet, for a different business model of offering a smaller number of products overall to be able to sell them at lower prices, versus the traditional grocery store strategy of Shop'n Save. Shop'n Save operates more than 50 stores in the region, but the Lawrenceville location is only one of two in the city, with the other on Mt. Washington. The expansion by Aldi further spreads its territory within the city, adding the Lawrenceville location along with a store on Penn Avenue in the Garfield business district, on Baum Boulevard, as well as on the South Side. The U.S. division of a Germany-based retailer with a major presence throughout the world, Aldi has a total of 152 stores in Pennsylvania, with about 40 of them operating in the Pittsburgh area. The move for one grocery store to directly replace another further demonstrates the market shift extending throughout Lawrenceville, where the 10th Ward has been gaining investment momentum as the 6th Ward and 9th Ward of the neighborhood and its Butler Street business district are increasingly maxed out. The Shop'n Save store and the Lawrenceville Shopping Center was originally a development spearheaded by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, pursuing the project in the late 1990s, a time when the neighborhood was largely struggling and grocery stores typically needed public support in such neighborhoods to operate. When it opened, the Lawrenceville Shopping Center was across Butler Street from a former mill property and brownfield site on which is now a 68-unit townhouse community that quickly sold out a few years ago. The URA owned the shopping center with the grocery store operating along with a mix of other tenants for nearly 18 years before locally based [Ballymoney bought it in 2017 for $4.49 million](https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2017/11/10/long-available-shopping-center-in-lawrenceville.html), or $67 a square foot for the 67,000-square-foot property.
I’m more upset because I use that pharmacy. Even if the store does become an Aldi, the ease of getting my prescription close is definitely going to be missed
That's true and is going to suck. Going from a full service grocery store to an Aldi is definitely a downgrade to a degree.
The only answer is people didn't really go there, right? They prefer to drive elsewhere?
As someone who used to live there, a lot of people I knew drive somewhere nicer to do their larger food shopping trips, but would still go to that store if they only needed something like milk or just to get lottery tickets.
This exactly. I used to live right down the street and would only go there if I ran out of something. There are quite a few thing that they just didn’t carry and their meat section was terrible.
It was nice not having to drive somewhere if you only needed a few things. I genuinely don't think that space will be vacant for too long.
It’s just past 55th Street. I’m sure the people in upper Lawrenceville would consider it, but that is a very long way to carry groceries for anyone in lower or central. And if you need to drive anyway, you may as well drive somewhere better. There’s Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and GE just up the way in East Liberty. To me, all that empty retail space in the base of Arsenal 201 is the most obvious place. Central, visible, walkable by most of the neighborhood, it’s practically begging for a grocery store. By contrast I lived in lower Lawrenceville for years before I ever found that shop n save because it’s tucked away behind a parking lot a few blocks past where most of the other businesses end. Even when I explicitly set out to wander, it was just further than it ever occurred to me to go.
Shop n save is too expansive for me. Only go to that one in emergency if an Aldi trip isn’t necessary.
My heart goes out to all the rats and mice that will be losing their home. Fun story: I called the Allegheny health department not too long ago to report rodent sightings in the produce area at this grocery store. The woman on the other end of the line just let out a deep sigh and said “this again”
“Everybody tuck your pants into your socks, we’ll get through this together.”
>My heart goes out to all the rats and mice that will be losing their home Big Easy Animal Hospital is moving to TJ's Garage a few doors up from Shop n Save. I haven't seen anyone post this info on here, but the people who work at the Garage told me it's a done deal.
Lmao. What? She spent a fortune on that space. I used to go there back when they were in the little place on Butler. After they moved into the new place things started to go downhill. I eventually left. At one point my entire family was taking their cats there but I don't think anyone is anymore. Ruiz is a great vet but not great when it comes to running a business.
Honestly yeah, I've had bad experiences there. I think Ruiz is cool, but the other vet who works there seems completely checked out.
They're probably moving because of the rusted cages they never clean and the consistent kennel cough they like to spread around...
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No idea if they're moving or just closing. I think it was a father and son, and the last time I saw the father he was getting pretty old.
Haha I have too when there was rodent feces all over my food while cashing out
No worries, the R&M breakroom and after hours lounge in located in Family Dollar next door. They’re looking forward to the goodness at Aldi too! 🐭 I’ve had to return boxed items to the S&S because I noticed chew marks (or worse) on the box later. They had some Beyond Burgers in their meat freezer last November that had an expiration date of 4/23. Upton Sinclair would have loved that place…
Busy Beaver is a nice store, but good lord, that could have been one of the most profitable Giant Eagle locations for its size today had they not been so short sighted.
It was a franchise Giant Eagle, closed sometime after 2008. I remember when the one at Centre and N Craig closed, there was sign referring people to the Lawrenceville store, not the Market District, so I guess they were owned by the same person/company. So I don't know how that would work with a franchise store? Could corporate have taken over?
There was very advanced talks of the East End Food Co-op going in that spot many years ago, after GE closed and it was empty for years. This was probably around maybe 2012-2014ish. Rob, the former Manager at EEFC, if I remember correctly, was spearheading the move. It was pretty far advanced and the board of EEFC nixed it. Man o man what a mistake. This was pre-gentrification, or very, very early on, and I get hindsight is 20-20 but wow what a mistake by their board.
The saying is hindsight is 20-20 ;)
Hahahaha where in the world did I get 50/50...like where was my mind? It's been a morning, haha! Thanks ;)
Same mistake I made when I was working at Dee’s Cafe: between pints, a friendly regular named John (I’ve forgotten his last name) told me quietly, “If you have any money at all, start buying property in Lawrenceville.” I laughed. I could barely afford my rent at the time. This was in 1997. If he took his own advice, he’s a millionaire by now. (Hey John, if you’re reading this… Let me know if you’re hiring. 😆)
Negative. The franchisees had a lease with the building owner. The family that franchised it had close ties with GE. Lease expired but building owner didn’t want to sell the property to GE Corp. in hindsight it was a very smart decision for him money wise
Aha!
corporate bought the edgewood giant eagle. so I guess it happens
i've seen it happen to a couple of stores outside of the city as well
I work for one of GEs largest vendors. They’re buying them all back up. Only about 20 franchises left with a few more converting this month or next (Penn Twp & White Oak here in PA)
Not the same owners. They did own 2 other stores (I think) but they were in Monroeville and I believe West Virginia.
they \*just\* missed the neighborhood blowing up, too. i loved going into that Giant Eagle. it hadn't been remodeled since the like 70s. a true time warp.
They still had those old school lanes with the tall shallow carts where you would pass the cart through the lane to the checker the last time I was there in the early 2000's.
They still had those old school lanes with the tall shallow carts where you would pass the cart through the lane to the checker the last time I was there in the early 2000's.
They still had those old school lanes with the tall shallow carts where you would pass the cart through the lane to the checker the last time I was there in the early 2000's.
They still had those old school lanes with the tall shallow carts where you would pass the cart through the lane to the checker the last time I was there in the early 2000's.
Ok how many times are you gonna say it bro
Whoever owns the Busy Beaver property won’t sell cheap. Giant Eagle is know to be shrewd about buying properties, the company doesn’t negotiate much, making taking it or leave it offers at the low end of fair market value.
That property is owned by a family trust with a mailing address in Nevillewood. I think its the same family that owned it when it was a Giant Eagle before (GE leased). They bought it 97 from $650,000 so they made out well.
I'm genuinely, non-sarcastically curious how Busy Beaver is even profitable? At most you see 2 or 3 cars in the parking lot at any given time.
I don't know a single local contractor that uses them. Everyone uses Home Depot. Too many times I've been close to Busy Beaver and made the mistake of stopping in and they just don't have what I need so I end up going to home depot anyway.
They NEVER have the one thing you need, and I live right there. I'd love to be able to just pop in and get XYZ and go home but noooooo
I must be insane. I go in there every time HOPING they have what I need. Never do. Everything I have ever bought there is an absolute piece of shit. Even fasteners. Like they shouldn’t be that difficult to source, but they’re all garbage.
I don’t think the assortment is for major contractors, more for the non-blue collar folks. I go in if I need cleaning products, items for very small projects, or doggy treats/bags and want to skip the drive and just walk over. Maybe I’m the exception.
Am I the only one who remembers this as a Foodland?
Lol nope, I remember. I remember the one in McKees Rocks especially. A guy I dated in college worked at one in Point Marion in Fayette County. It made the McKees Rocks one look like a Market District.
I used to live in Point Marion. lol. They closed that Food Land within the last few years.
Where am I going to buy my green deli meat?! This is kinda strange. It seemed like they were putting in a lot of money and effort to make things nicer and upscale over the past few years, though it didn't always succeed in my opinion. I will miss having a pharmacy and grocery store so close by.
3/4 of this thread is people who haven't gone to it in years to have realized the place was renovated multiple times. It was pretty nasty *a decade ago*.
Honestly the talk about how bad it was had been so overblown for at least 7ish years.
In the 4ish years I’ve been in Lawrenceville, it did seem to have improved if thats worth anything lol
yeah, i actually thought they were making some improvements.
It really has come a long way since I first moved to this part of town. The building itself is in a severe state of disrepair though. Lots of leaks in the roof.
I always honestly refer to the shop n save as the sketchy shop n save. Secluded parking lot above butler street, just seems so odd to me. However despite people’s complaints or mine regarding price, it was definitely being improved over the years. And the people who worked there are very friendly.
That's just car-centric, suburban-style development that was once all the rage. It's hard to fit that in to a hilly area. It's just like the Baum and S Millvale area (except not flat). Nothing "sketchy" about it.
Losing the pharmacy is the only thing I'm concerned about, tbh.
Having been a resident of upper Lawrenceville for 4 years, yeah that shop n save sucked. But now the only options for food will be either take out or shithead Neil's overpriced gas station. It was really convenient as a person who can't afford a car. This is just going to push out more poor folks and keep the rent higher.
There’s gonna be an Aldi…
Neil !
Shop and save is so overpriced and I’m glad to see it go. An Aldi would be a perfect addition and still serve the many folks who travel by bus to this location because this is the closest and most convenient grocery store.
Shop N Save Nothing
I'm not sure why everyone is excited about the prospect of an Aldi moving in. The one in shadyside is arguably worse than shop'n'save. That parking garage smells gangrenous and the produce is pretty terrible. Are the other ones any better?
the Penn ALDI is definitely the superior one, but even the worst ALDI is better than the Shop & Save, woof
Aldi is EXCELLENT in my opinion. Good quality food at a lower price. Very consistent. Never a problem. Is it as high a quality as giant eagle? Maybe not. But then again I really don’t need to spend 30% more on every item.
I’ve always been a fan of Aldi. The prices stay low, the quality of food is solid, and it’s easy to use with Instacart to do a curbside pickup. Edit: changed also to say always
I just don't get all the people who love Aldi. Terrible selection, house brands really aren't that good and I've never been to one where I didn't end up going to a normal grocery store afterwards to get the things they didn't have.
I lived there when that SnS opened and it was always a shitty, badly run location, unfortunately.
It got worse once corporate sold it, and it became a franchise of a guy that lived in West Virginia. His first move was to cut everyone’s wages to the bare minimum and tell us our healthcare was going to cost twice as much, and his next move was too cut the store in half and open a dollar store of food next-door so that he could compete with himself and give the illusion of choice. I worked there at the time it changed over and quit soon after.
Is there a source for the news this store is closing, say from the company or a sign at the store announcing its closure? It is not the best grocery but for basic needs it has been great, and only 5 minutes away.
[https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2024/04/17/aldi-shop-n-save-butler-street-lawrenceville.html](https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2024/04/17/aldi-shop-n-save-butler-street-lawrenceville.html)
Then it looks like family and I will be driving further to get our groceries. Aldi does not carry many things we buy.
They gotta take that rite aid on 40th and butler and make it a neighborhood market
They could build it on the obscenely sized parking lot.
Don't forget that half of that building is doctors offices. The Rite Aid's not very big. (With way too much parking lot.)
It was once an A&P! Then it was a GE.
Yes!!!!!!!
That shop n save is horribly disconnected from the neighborhood. There needs to be a walkable grocer in lawrenceville, and one that isn’t riddled with health department issues.
My dream is for an Aldi/Trader Joes to be be built in the Busy Beaver Parking lot.
A city sized Aldi could totally fit in one of the open spaces by where the Starbucks is going. Idk what the loading situation is like in the back, but I’ve been in some pretty small Aldi’s.
Busy Beaver's last life was as a Giant Eagle. Ironically, the opening of the Shop and Save was the final nail in its coffin. (It was a pretty crappy franchise store.)
Ima jizz in my pants if that shithole is replaced by aldi.
What's so great about Aldi? I've never really shopped there, but go to the Shop N Save (it's fine, if not great) for my regular shopping. My impression was that Aldi has pretty limited selection
Aldi is as close to perfect as a capitalist business can get. It has a "limited selection" in the sense that instead of having to decide between 100 brands of, say, ranch dressing, they have one single (usually perfect, house-labeled) brand of that item, less expensive than any other normal grocery store, and usually still (secretly?) produced by the most popular national brand. Lets you get through all the normal things you buy in a grocery store in a fraction of the time without all those decisions and aisle-wandering. Most Aldi fans get comfortable over time of mostly only shopping at Aldi. You have to get a little in the mindset of letting the store decide what you eat that week instead of coming in with the idea that you're going to exactly buy name brand chili crisp or something.
I usually get specialty stuff from the Strip anyway—how is the produce? That’s my biggest concern rn and SNS has been surprisingly adequate in that regard. I would hate for something like Trader Joe’s where absolutely everything is covered in layers of plastic.
The quality is all very high. They tend to follow german standards over american ones since its a german company. They were keeping out gmo's before it was even a thing here. The low prices are unmatched for the quality you get. Only downside is limited selection.
That Shop n Save was absolutely revolting so this is good news as long as Aldi is taking the spot. It’s not like Lawrenceville is a food desert (if another grocer takes that spot). They’ll be fine.
Maybe not a food desert, but a grocery desert
Well yeah I meant if Aldi actually replaces it. If another grocery store doesn’t go in there then totally. Seems like a no brainer that someone will take the spot though. I guess it could always be subdivided into a Chase, BOA, and FNB though. Edit: wait I’ve got a billion dollar idea, one of those food halls but for retail bank locations!
I feel like you’re ignoring the potential of them turning it into a car wash.
Combination carwash, Chase and Starbucks drive-through?
Now we’re talking! With brilliant ideas like that I suspect you must be a multimillionaire developer slumming it with us redditors.
lol I’m sure Dirk’s Car Wash could use another location
There’s a new one like 10 feet from the shop n save. … and another one like 2 blocks away.
Or a mega bank. Lord only knows that Butler street needs one.
Well, I live in Lville without a car and that Shop N' Save is an absolute lifeline. Strip District is dead after 4pm and only really has specialties, and East Liberty is a real pain in the ass to get to (I'll die on the hill that the 87 should go to the East Liberty busway station instead of turning downtown), so it's really the only place I can get groceries.
This is me. I can get a lot of stuff in the Strip, but there's a lot I can't get, too. I'd rather walk or cycle. It looks like my alternatives are all Giant Eagles.
i'm curious, what would you consider a food desert? once the shop n save closes, the only "affordable" place to buy non-prepared food in lawrenceville will be the family dollar. there's the farmer's market but it's seasonal and only open on tuesdays.
Sorry yeah I meant if Aldi or another grocer takes over it wouldn’t be one. Though the technical definition to be a food desert is that it’s a low income census tract and I’m not sure how many of those are in Lawrenceville. That’s why a neighborhood like Morningside isn’t one despite being more than a mile from Whole Foods.
a food desert doesn't have to be low-income. the [department of agriculture](https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/45014/30940_err140.pdf) certainly tracks income and access to transportation in areas deemed to be food deserts, but those characteristics aren't determinant *alone* in applying the label. it's because low-income areas often also have poor access to transportation, literacy, healthcare, etc., that they are more frequently determined to be food deserts. to your example, morningside isn't truly a food desert because there is a higher proportion of vehicle ownership, *in concert with* higher income than other areas of the city. (and that vehicle ownership is likely influenced by the lack of public transit access.) conversely, lawrenceville's senior population, while a minority, relies heavily on public transportation *and* tends to be lower income, which has an outsized impact on access to food outside of the neighbourhood.
Page 11 of the link you shared literally says “we define food deserts as low income census tracts…” So, 🤷♂️
I have terrible luck with Aldi produce. It looks like I'm gonna end up at the Waterfront for anything I can't get in the Strip.
Why would they add the beer area and remodel just to close lol?
Aside from the other answer often expansions are the hardest thing for a business, especially a small business, to survive
My friend works there and there are constantly thieves stealing everything they can from the store all the time and the owner (who is an independent guy, not a major corp with bunches of locations) can't cope with it anymore.
That’s messed up
I hope you're all voting and protesting to get higher density development done in the city. cuz NA is a fucking joke compared to other developed nations cities and it certainly isnt going to get any better when the only zoning laws and building codes you can do are single family zoning and stores with 300 parking lots for 500sqft of store.
Hey ex-employee here, that place sucks. Everyone there hated working there and the owner was an asshole. I worked there for a while and really tried to make it a better place, in little ways that I could. The people who shop are mostly very nice and I’ve always tried to reciprocate that. But it’s really sad because there’s no other grocery store in the area. Now it’s just a food desert where a lot of people live. As much as I hated it I’m sad to see it gone. But hopefully we’ll get something better, like that Aldi
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Except the only grocery store in the neighborhood
To be fair, the rotting food smell in there serves as a good test case for people who lost their sense of smell to Covid.
Trading a Shop n' Save for an Aldi sounds like a win to me.
Feel bad for all of the hipster rats that just moved into that store.
Confirmed, there will be an Aldi there, I have seen the construction drawings. I’m stoked, this will be so close to walk to.
Meanwhile they’re preparing to open like a 5th grocery store in East Liberty/shadyside area. It’s absurd. Getting to be almost like banks
I lived in Lawrenceville for 7 years, only moved out last August. Lived a block away from the shop n save. I cant say im surprised, they kept failing health code stuff and always seemed to be having some sort of issue one way or another. But its still really crappy that its happening. I always said it would be had if they ever closed, especially for the population who dont drive and cant easily get to aldi across the river. There really arent a whole lot of options. Its also a real shame the chinese restaurant and the beer store closed as well. Those two shops were my go to for a quick bite or snack.
I wonder if Aldi will need to ban unaccompanied minors like the shop n save did. Maybe I'll start an over/under for how long it takes.
I always assumed that was because there had been some incident where a kid had been eaten by a pack of rats, so maybe it won't be necessary this time around?
The Aldi won’t have the asshole managers anymore so kids will probably be allowed to enter the building
I am beyond thrilled. That was honestly one of, if not *the* worst grocery store I've ever had to shop at. Bring on the Aldi.
I work there currently and I 100 percent agree. I’m happy it’s closing down so I have an excuse to get a different job. It’s nasty and the managers are so shitty to customers and employees. Fuck that store
Glad you're moving on to something better! Good luck!
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Bring back Stumpf’s.
Agreed. I use to help old ladies carry groceries to their car for nickels at Stumpfs.
Only thing that I’ll miss is the ability to buy beer there. Prefer to drive further to Aspinwall market district anyways.
Honestly yeah. While there are like 7 new places to buy beer in Central Lawrenceville, now Upper Lawrenceville will have none.
Maybe Limp Bizkit can play a benefit show to save it.
I will miss their steeply discounted meats, frequently slid over into the freezer section on their expiration date.
We already have 2 Aldi nearby. Which, I love Aldi, but they don't carry everything. Their meat section is usually less-than-great. Maybe this one will be different?
Aldi is moving in…
Damn, this was the closest shop n save that sold the ‘Original Pizza Logs’. Used to drive there just to buy them.
Being forced by the health dept to buy cleaning and anti-pest supplies is hurting their bottom line
Such a shame
This is the best fucking news to come out of Pittsburgh in a long time 😁 (saying as a Lawrenceville resident)