Supermarket

Before there was Wegmans, there was Genuardi's Family Markets. And that's where the tragedy of what was once one of the region's most revered supermarket chains begins and ends. Few in the supermarket industry were surprised when Giant Food Stores L.L.C. announced Thursday that it was buying and converting 16 of the region's 27 Genuardi's locations - or that California-based Safeway Inc. was looking to unload eight others to prospective buyers, shut down three more, and leave Philadelphia entirely.

Dietitian Christine Hazewski picked up a jar of a popular brand of peanut butter and read aloud its ingredients - other than peanuts. "Molasses, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, mono- and diglycerides, salt. Do you want to eat that?" Hazewski asked a group of 10 people. No way, they answered, even though the extras were present in small amounts. Hazewski then pointed out natural peanut butters that contained only peanuts. The founder and owner of "Eating for Life" Nutrition Counseling Services L.L.C., Hazewski was leading a supermarket tour in December at the Fresh Grocer in East Germantown.

Every Friday morning, Betty Crymes heads to the lobby of her senior residence with bags in hand and waits for the $4 weekly shuttle that will ferry her five miles to the ShopRite in Brooklawn. Like many of her carless neighbors in Camden - who ride the shuttle, take two buses to get to the city's only large supermarket, or pay someone to drive them to a suburban store - Crymes needs a full day to get basic provisions. The nine-square-mile city, home to nearly 80,000, has only one chain grocery - a Pathmark at the southeast edge of town - and few midsize independent groceries.

The opening of a renovated Shop Rite in Cheltenham is the latest success story in recent efforts to open thriving grocery stores in poor neighborhoods to change the landscape and lifestyles. Fourth-generation grocer Jeff Brown, who operates 11 stores in the region, has used his social conscience to create a business model that has won accolades from the White House. The newest venture, a 76,000-square-foot renovated store, is part of a $12 million project in Cheltenham that was financed with state and private funding.

Are you worried about the antibiotics that U.S. farmers are using to produce the meat and poultry you buy at the supermarket?

Peter F. McGoldrick, 82, president and chief executive officer of Acme Markets from 1974 to 1980, died Saturday, Oct. 22, at Bryn Mawr Hospital after suffering a stroke at his Bryn Mawr home. Mr. McGoldrick's daughter, Beth, said in biographical notes that during his time at its Philadelphia headquarters, "Acme was one of the largest supermarket chains in the eastern United States, operating 362 stores and employing more than 20,000 people in seven states. " She wrote that her father, while at Acme, "was especially proud of his work on nutrition programs and youth employment in concert with his dear friend Alphonso Deal, a former city policeman who headed the NAACP's Philadelphia branch.

Wakefern Food Corp., the New Jersey cooperative comprised of Shop Rite supermarket owners, announced Thursday that it had named Joseph Sheridan, a 35-year company veteran, president and chief operating officer. He replaces Dean Janeway. In a report coinciding with its annual meeting, the Keasbey, N.J.-based corporation also said it logged a record $12.8 billion in retail sales during the fiscal year that ended Oct. 1. That represented an 8.5 percent increase, and it came during a year when 10 new Shop Rites and 2 new Price Rite stores opened to the public.

Charles Genuardi, 102, eldest of five brothers who founded in 1954 what became a chain of suburban supermarkets, died of kidney failure Friday, Sept. 16, at his home in Meadowood, a retirement community in Worcester Township. After buying a small New Jersey grocery chain in 1997, Genuardi's Family Markets Inc. operated 33 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The firm, noted for its customer service, was sold in 2001 to Safeway Inc. Born in Norristown, Mr. Genuardi left elementary school to help support the family, but graduated from a business school there in the 1930s, a son, Charles A., said.

SINCE ITS 2010 groundbreaking, the 51,000-square-foot building at 2nd Street and Girard Avenue that was supposed to anchor the final piece of developer Bart Blatstein's Northern Liberties vision has remained empty. It was a Northern Liberties dream deferred, possibly forever, especially after Pathmark's parent company, A&P, declared bankruptcy last winter. But this morning, rebranded as a Superfresh and staffed by 120 area residents, the new supermarket opens - offering fresh seafood from the Philadelphia Fish Market, regionally raised poultry and beef, locally grown produce, an in-store bakery, and a pharmacy with patient counseling, immunizations and free home delivery.