Supermarket

Three teens were charged in the assault and robbery of a 47-year-old man at a Northeast Philadelphia supermarket, the District Attorney's Office said Thursday. Tomas Eanes, 18; Jose Ruiz, 17; and Kevin Tavarez, 17, were charged with aggravated assault, robbery, conspiracy, and related offenses for the attack Saturday night at the Franklin Mills Pathmark. Ruiz and Taverez were charged as adults. Video shows a group surrounding the man in the frozen-food aisle and then assaulting him. The victim, who lost $100 to his attackers, suffered a broken nose and cheekbone.

THAT'S JUST COLD. Surveillance video released by police on Tuesday gives a bird's-eye view of a pack of four teenage hoodlums approaching a 47-year-old man as he shopped in the frozen-food aisle of the Franklin Mills Pathmark about 10 p.m. Saturday, taunting him, then punching him in the face. During the unprovoked attack, police said, the teens continued to kick and punch the man after he fell to the ground, and took his money clip with $100 cash before running out of the store and fleeing in a small hatchback car, possibly a Chevrolet Aveo.

A 47-year-old man was beaten and robbed in the frozen-food aisle of a Northeast Philadelphia supermarket, police said Tuesday. The attack occurred at 9:55 p.m. Monday at the Pathmark on Franklin Mills Boulevard, police said. Three men and a woman surrounded the shopper, assaulted him, and took $100 from a money clip. Surveillance video showed the suspects arrived at the Pathmark in a small hatchback car, possibly a Chevrolet Aveo. Anyone with information on the suspects can call 911, or 215-686-TIPS (8477)

FreshDirect.com, the Internet-only grocer that has built a devoted flock of click-and-buy shoppers in the high-rises of New York and across its suburbs, rolled delivery trucks into Philadelphia on Monday to launch its first expansion beyond the Big Apple. Although initially delivering only to households in and around Center City, the company that hawks farm-to-doorstep produce, meticulously selected seafood, and prepared dinners, along with supermarket staples, hopes to expand deeper next year into the Philadelphia region, building upon this area's reputation as a food lovers' haven.

The A&P was just three blocks from where Joseph M. Bail Jr. grew up in downtown Chester. A Food Fair was within about three blocks of the Bail residence, as was the Edgmont Beef Co., whose orange trucks would deliver groceries right to doorsteps. That was 50 years ago. Today, Delaware County's only city has nothing even approaching the level of a "grocery store. " "It's just shocking," said Bail, 62, now the city's police commissioner. At a time when food-market wars are raging in some suburbs, Chester transcends the government definition of "food desert," said Marty Meloche, a food-marketing professor at St. Joseph's University.

Cooking classes - the one-off, loosely structured gatherings of food fans around a chef's counter - have become a form of entertainment in this region. Yes, we watch Food Network, the Cooking Channel, and Bravo. Iron Chef , Good Eats , and Top Chef are immensely popular. "But if you have a question, you can't ask the TV, of course, and you can't taste the food," said Ed Countey, who runs the culinary school for Kitchen Kapers stores. Thus the popularity of live cooking classes at community centers, supermarkets, cooking schools, and even church kitchens.

Two New Jersey supermarket employees killed during a rampage by a co-worker Friday died from single gunshot wounds, according to autopsies performed Saturday. Cristina LoBrutto, 18, and Bryan Breen, 24, were shot at a Pathmark store in Old Bridge Township by 23-year-old Terence Tyler, who then shot himself in the head. All were pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities were investigating a possible motive, but relatives said that Tyler - who once tweeted about killing "everyone I see" - was discharged from the Marine Corps two years ago after suffering from depression and that he had never gotten over his mother's death about five years ago. Tyler left his job at the supermarket at 3:30 a.m., then returned with a handgun and assault rifle.

AN EX-MARINE wearing desert camouflage opened fire at a New Jersey supermarket early Friday, killing two of his co-workers and himself as other terrified store employees ran for cover, authorities said. Terence Tyler, 23, left his shift at a Pathmark store in Old Bridge Township - in central New Jersey - about 3:30 a.m., drove off and returned 20 minutes later to the closed store with a handgun and an assault rifle similar to an AK-47, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said. About 12 to 14 workers were still there.

Let's call this a Tale of the Little Supermarket Chain That Couldn't, and then Could — thanks to federal regulators and a thing called competition. McCaffrey's Supermarkets, a three-store operation founded 26 years ago in Bucks County by a South Philadelphia native named James J. McCaffrey III, took a shot at acquiring two Genuardi's Family Markets earlier this year when owner Safeway Inc. said it was selling the popular chain with 27 locations across the region. McCaffrey, 60, was in talks to buy a Genuardi's in Newtown and one in Doylestown when, with little warning, talks ended.