Shop ’n Save to close, reopen under new ownership / By Martha Knight

The main source of groceries and related household items in Port Allegany, the Shop ’n Save supermarket, will close its doors Sunday. But it will reopen under new ownership in a few weeks, after extensive renovation and re-equipping.

Longtime owner of the business, Ralph Ayers, has confirmed that he did not seek a new lease from the owners, the Muto Family, based in Pittsburgh. Ayers noted that he had been in the business for 47 years, but due to health challenges he decided he would not complete the 50 years he had originally set as his goal.

Ayers said he is not at liberty to disclose who the new owner of the business will be, but did say the owner also has several other stores in the area. “They will announce their plans closer to the reopening,” he said.

Ayers is not selling the business to the new lease holder, as such, but the remaining inventory will change hands. He said he understands that the store will continue to have the various departments it has had for many years, and operate very much the same. It will be a Shop ’n Save.

The store employs about two dozen persons. They have been notified that their employment will end as he leaves the business. He expects the next owner will have a workforce of similar force and will accept job applications. “They would want people with experience,” he predicted.

The sweeping renovation is the first since 1978, Ayers said. There will be new flooring and lighting, along with other enhancements, and new refrigeration and freezer units, gondolas and appliances.

The store has operated as a Market Basket, a Jubilee and most recently as a Shop ’n Save.

It is the anchor store of Lillibridge Place, off West Mill Street, which is also the home of a First National Bank of Port Allegany branch office. The strip mall was created with the help of the McKean County Redevelopment Authority after the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood damaged a number of properties in that area.

While the supermarket is closed, Port Allegany shoppers’ local grocery sources will be Munchies, Sheetz, a modest food department at the Dollar General and a smaller one at Rite Aid. Carlson’s Store at Turtlepoint (which delivers in Port Allegany once a week) and Costa’s in Smethport, Eldred and Coudersport, and a Shop ’n Save in Coudersport are other options.

The last mom-and-pop grocery stores serving the community have been gone for more than a decade, as has a compact, no-frills grocery called H&C Cash and Carry.

Asked how he felt about leaving the business after all these years, Ayers said he felt good about having stepped up to keep the store going when it was about to close in 2000, a decade or so ago. He added that he wanted to convey his thanks to the store's many customers for their patronage through the years.