SELF IMPROVEMENT

weis markets Weis Markets was founded as Weis Pure Foods in 1912 in Sunbury, Pennsylvania by two brothers, Harry and Sigmund Weis. At the time, similar stores operated on credit, allowing customers to build a tab that would be paid periodically. 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.
A Weis supermarket in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania.
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. 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. The company expanded into adjacent states in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. 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. Weis's territorial expansions came with mixed results. 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. Today, Weis thrives in the rural areas, small towns, and third class cities of northeastern, central, and southern Pennsylvania. weis markets