Results tagged “shopping” from Only in York County

It's been a LONG time coming, but work has begun in earnest on the property along Route 74 in Dover Township across from McDonald's - which was long ago home to a Jay's supermarket, plus a bunch of other odds and ends since - that is slated to become a Royal Farms convenience store.

While driving by today, I got a couple of shots on my cell camera of the demolition of the old building there.

Take a look:

This is a view from the rear of the store, taken from along Grenway Road. You can see that a lot of the building has already been demolished.

This is the view from along Fox Run Road to the side. Action shot, of the heavy equipment knocking stuff down! Yes, don't laugh at my photo skills, that cell phone camera is pretty hard to use.

So anyway, does anyone remember the Jay's at this site? And even better, does anyone know what it was before it was Jay's?

Here's a blast from the past: Does anyone remember Hess's, the department store that used to be at one end of the (then-new) West Manchester Mall? I believe it was at the end that they expanded out and built the Wal-Mart at, but I could be wrong - I was pretty little.

Anyway, I was looking that up today and didn't realize until now that the Hess's chain, when it went out of business, was bought out by several other retailers, and among them was The Bon-Ton. Our location wasn't included in that, of course; it just closed, but still. While I had been sitting around today thinking it's a shame that Hess's is gone, I'm now sort of happy to know that it lives on through another York County retailer.

Anyone else remember Hess's? I think if SOMEONE IN MY FAMILY is reading this blog, they might have some memories to share, say of working there for a good bit of my childhood??

Subtle, aren't I?

Biz reporter Sean Adkins recently blogged about and wrote a story about York County's "big box" dilemma, in which we have an awful lot of large-scale retail space sitting empty.

Some examples, and I'm sure you can come up with more:

- The old Circuit City in Springettsbury Township
- The former Giant next to the mall in West Manchester Township
- The previous Linens N Things in The Crossroads in Manchester Township

After many jokes with Hubby - who suggests we put a "zombie laser tag" game where the Giant used to be - I have come up with what I think is a decent idea for the space.

Why not turn it into a farmers' market? Many of you know that my family, for years, had baked-goods and candy stands in the Market & Penn Farmers Market.

And while I love the market - and its historic old building - there are a lot of "downs." Some people, whether fairly or unfairly, don't want to visit the city to shop. It's always been terribly hard to park in the market's lot when it's busy. And the building, while a treasure of history, has needed a new roof since before I was born - and it's not exactly a wonder of modern air-conditioning, either. (Try selling chocolates there in the summer - ugh!)

And don't get me started on the city's rules for selling home-cooked food. I fully support the concept of a clean place for food preparation, but from personal experience, there are some technicalities - like, say, needing two completely separate kitchens in your home - that used to be in place that made it nearly impossible for a small business to succeed. I'm not up to date on the current rules, so I can only hope some of this has changed.

Anyway, off that soapbox. Back to the old Giant building.

Assuming it wasn't totally gutted, it would have setups for deli and produce departments, as well as for a seafood vendor. A small luncheonette/restaurant could use the former "cafe" area. Other vendors could fill the center, with neat aisles.

Add in the good lighting, the modern ventilation system, and nice restrooms, and it definitely seems like somewhere I'd spend my time. It's on the bus route, too - so anyone who, say, is used to shopping in the city because they don't have a car, could get here by way of bus! (And if you do drive - there's certainly plenty of parking!)

As an aside, this is an idea that was tried - with mixed success - a bit north of here. For a time, there was a former big-box store in the Colonial Park area near Harrisburg that had been made into a market, and we were vendors there, too. The down-side, besides the somewhat lengthy commute, was the higher stand rent. Hey, that air-conditioning system came at a price!

So do you think a farmers' market could work in the old Giant building? I'm really interested in what you have to say.

And I mean "I suck" in the best way possible. How is that good, exactly?

Well, yesterday, our old vacuum gave up the ghost. The poor thing is about 10 years old, and it just wasn't working any more at all. Let me add that I am really not at all domestic, so the idea of finding a vacuum - and picking up the mess that the old one made as it died - really didn't make me jump for joy. Vacuuming - yuck!

But one thing my non-domestic little heart has always wanted is a Dyson. These vacuums are supposed to remove a ton fo allergens and are supposedly great on pet hair. Since we have four cats and a dog... that always seemed pretty good to me.

Well. Lo and behold, Sears had a sale. This weekend. On Dysons.

So now, you're reading about the proud owner of a brand-new Dyson DC-14. The best testimonial I could give? I actually went around LOOKING for things to vacuum. I did my whole downstairs (laminate floor and ceramic tile), then went upstairs and tackled the carpets. I have to admit I was pretty grossed out by the seven or so canisters full of ick that it picked up, but WOW - my floors look better than they have since we moved in, pretty much.

I have to say, most of this post is NOT York County-centric other than that it's about me. That said, I do have a note for those of you who live locally. I want to say especially that the customer service I got at Sears was great; the woman who helped me was named Noel and she gave me her direct number to call back in case I had any questions. She walked us through how to use all the features, and most importantly, she DIDN'T try to talk us into the most expensive model. That, to me, is good customer service, and I would definitely say that you don't find that everywhere. That's what I like so much about York County!

Here's one for you:

Only in York County can you go to Wal-Mart at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday night and run into three or more families from your church - including the pastor's wife.

Also, a money-saving tip: Wal-Mart has 2-liter bottles of Pepsi products for $1 each this week, a pretty good buy. We stocked up. You might remember I'm a little crazy about Diet Pepsi.

(If you'd like, the Jiffy people will send you a free, good-sized recipe book. I got mine about three weeks ago, hence the search for raspberry mix.)

Sorry. Done my Tuesday morning "cheap and free stuff" advertisement now. Speaking of free stuff... did anyone get their free piece of "Kentucky Grilled Chicken" yesterday?

It's Saturday in York County. (And heavens, we've had "bad weather." We need bread, toilet paper and milk, ain't so?) So where do you go?

Well, if you're MY family, it's definitely here:

In our case, we headed out to the West York Wal-Mart today for our big grocery order. Holy cow, was that place packed. And the turkey section... boy, was that a madhouse!!While we were there, we ran into my friend Nina's parents and younger brother, doing their shopping.

So what's with the bread-milk-toilet paper phenomenon? I don't know, but our commenters on the winter weather story yesterday even picked up on it.

Guess that qualifies as a true "Only in York County."

OK, next quiz: What way do locals mispronounce the name of this staple of middle-of-the-night York County shopping goodness?

I'm guilty of this one myself, and I can see no good reason why we do this.

For some reason, we say Wal-Mark. (Oh, and don't get me started on Weis and Lowe's. Wees. Lowell's. Whatever.)

You ever heard any of those gems of business pronunciation?

My mom and I decided to take a trip out to SaveSmart last Wednesday, just to see how it was.

I was a little surprised that, for just having opened two days before, it wasn't packed. I hope that doesn't mean it'll close, because we had a great - and cheap - trip.

All in all, we got 37 items for a grand total of $55.28. So what were some of the best buys?

More news from this week: Monday marked the opening day of SaveSmart, a discount grocery that took the place of Shur-Fine on Carlisle Road in Dover Township.

I'm hoping to get over there to check it out sometime this week, but I'm wondering if any of my loyal readers have been there yet, and if so, what do you think? Is it like PriceRite on South Queen Street in York Township?

Yesterday's big news was that Lifetime Brands, the owner of the Pfaltzgraff brand, is closing all its remaining outlet stores, as well as a distribution center in West Manchester Township.

I'm a huge outlet shopper, so this comes as a hard hit. In fact, one of my favorite ways to get Christmas gifts for my (admittedly large) family had always been to attend the Pfaltzgraff tent sale at the Expo Center and buy a dozen salad bowl sets/knife blocks/glass pitchers/door decorations and give one to each branch of the family.

I don't think they've had the tent sale in the last couple of years, but I had fallen back on outlet shopping to achieve the same goals... it was a staple of visiting the Rockvale Square and Rehoboth outlets on vacation, too.

We'll miss you, Pfaltzgraff outlets!

Just because I can, I wanted to make a special post showing off the work of my friend Tiffypop, an East Berlin native who's roaming the country selling her way-cool, handmade clothes at shows and festivals.

(And, a little birdie tells me she's getting MARRIED this month, too!)

I was thinking of Tiffy today because I'm wearing one of her "swirly skirts," patterned after some hippie classics. The picture is Tiffy on the beach, wearing one of the swirlies.

Shameless promotion: Check out her Etsy store if you want to order any of her homemade goodies yourself.

No, she's not paying me to do this. I'm just soooo comfy in this swirly today that I wanted to share the love.