U. City Thriftway to close this week

The Thriftway on 43rd and Walnut streets announced to its employees earlier this month that it will be closing its doors by the end of the week. It is unclear when exactly the store will close, but it could be as soon as tomorrow, or as late as the weekend.

While undergraduate students who have come to University City since Freshgrocer opened in 2001 may not be as familiar with Thriftway as recent graduates and older students, it has long been an option for less expensive produce and food.

Negotiations are in the works for the purchase of the building by Supremo Supermarkets, a Spanish supermarket chain based in Northern New Jersey, in the near future.

The location has long been one for supermarkets -- before the Thriftway, the space was occupied by Penn Fruit Supermarket.

Supremo General Manager of Operations Miguel Abinader confirmed that his company is "in the middle of negotiations" to purchase the Thriftway building and said that it will be "dedicated to the students and faculty."

It is unclear whether the store's current employees will be rehired by Supremo.

Thriftway's business had been declining since Freshgrocer moved into the neighborhood, and area residents knew something was happening when they noticed the merchant stock was not replenished in recent months.

Management at the store refused to comment on the record about the closing. They did, however, give away coupons earlier this week that do not expire until the end of the year, and purchased a color advertisement in last week's issue of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Freshgrocer representatives believe the store should have seen this coming and adapted accordingly.

"They should have reacted long before we opened to remodel their store to create a superior product," said Ross Delromano, Freshgrocer store manager. "It led to their eventual demise."

Supremo will get the opportunity to be the chief competition for Freshgrocer that Thriftway failed to provide in recent years.

Freshgrocer, owned by Pat Burns, has become a strong force in the area of West Philadelphia, with its triangulated positioning of supermarkets on 54th and Chester streets, 56th and Chestnut and 40th and Walnut.

Currently, Supremo has a supermarket at 4424 North Broad St., and has been gradually moving into Philadelphia from its Northern New Jersey roots.

Although the student body has shifted greatly to patronizing Freshgrocer, the same cannot be said for other residents of the neighborhood.

In all probability, there will soon be a higher volume of traffic at Freshgrocer in the form of neighborhood residents unaffiliated with the University.

"I think we'll see a deserved increase in business," Delromano said.

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