Weis Markets - History

History

Weis Markets was founded as Weis Pure Foods in 1912 in Sunbury, Pennsylvania by two brothers, Harry and Sigmund Weis. Their store has been noted as "revolutionary", as it did not operate on credit—sales were only for cash. At the time, similar stores operated on credit, allowing customers to build a tab that would be paid periodically. Cash sales were a sign of a growing working class earning steady paychecks—and they also helped lower prices by up to 25%.

The second Weis store opened in 1915 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Harrisburg would remain an important market for Weis, helping to anchor the central Pennsylvania region that Weis would dominate for decades.

The Weis brothers expanded their chain rapidly, opening dozens of small, in-town grocery stores throughout central Pennsylvania. Their chain peaked at 115 stores in 15 central Pennsylvania counties by 1933. At the time, the modern self-service supermarket was coming into its own. The format was pitted against the traditional model, followed by Weis Pure Foods, in which customers gave their orders to a clerk who would retrieve the requested items. As the modern supermarket model began to take hold, the Weis brothers began to adapt. They closed several corner grocery stores in Harrisburg in 1938, replacing them with their first self-service, consolidated supermarket, which they dubbed the Weis Super Market. Over the next two decades, the company continued with this strategy, and it had consolidated all of its corner grocery stores into supermarkets—35 in total—by 1955.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Weis Markets (as it was known by then) expanded out of its familiar territory, first reaching York and then Lancaster by 1960. The company expanded into adjacent states in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. In 1967, the company ventured outside of Pennsylvania for the first time. It opened stores in Hagerstown and Frederick, Maryland, and it also purchased the six-store Albany Public Markets chain based in Albany, New York. Those expansions brought the company to a total of 65 stores. To the west, it expanded to western Pennsylvania, reaching as far west as Altoona and Philipsburg, but has since made no efforts to expand farther west. Weis would later shutter the Albany Public Markets chain. A couple were later occupied by Grand Union. Weis bought at least one former Kings location when the company went out in 1984.

Weis's territorial expansions came with mixed results. A company with rural, central Pennsylvania roots, it was able to expand into the Baltimore, Maryland, region with great success, taking on such established players as Giant (Landover) and Safeway. The company expanded further in Maryland toward Washington, D.C. and Virginia, with much less success. The Woodbridge, Virginia store (#125) was picketed by union members. It retreated from that market, first closing most of its stores in Montgomery County, Maryland, and finally closing its Woodbridge, Virginia (#125) and Manassas, Virginia (#136) stores. By 2006, no stores were left in Virginia. Weis' foray into New Jersey came with mixed results as well, as it was forced to close a new store in Flanders in 2002—only two years after opening it. The three stores currently in New Jersey continue to face stiff competition from Ahold owned Stop & Shop, the ShopRite cooperative, and, to a lesser extent, A&P.

Today, Weis thrives in the rural areas, small towns, and third class cities of northeastern, central, and southern Pennsylvania. It has successfully expanded to the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre markets, and to the Altoona-State College area, but it has been shown less interest in the suburban counties surrounding Philadelphia (though there are a few locations) and Pittsburgh.

Most recently, Weis Markets is participating in an in-store digital advertising network. 2012 marked the supermarket's 100th Anniversary.

In the late spring of 2012, the company acquired three former Genuardi's stores from Safeway and reopened the units, which are located in Conshohocken, Doylestown and Norristown, on June 16. It also announced the acquisition of a former store site in Towson, Maryland, which it plans to open in late 2012. It has also acquired its first Central New Jersey store site in Hillsborough, which it plans to open in 2013.