Community Supermarket begins final sale as closing looms in Harrison

Friday marked the beginning of the end for Harrison’s sole independent grocer.

Shoppers meandered their way through a picked over Community Supermarket as its final sale began — 25% off all items — ahead of the store’s closure later this month.

Many of the store’s perishable items, such as meat, fresh produce and baked goods, had already been cleared out by Friday morning, leaving barren shelves throughout much of the market.

Ed Svitek, 66, of Brackenridge said he had been coming to the store for years, often to play the lottery.

As he took a final lap of the store on the hunt for last-minute deals, he said Community Supermarket had provided a gathering place for the community for more than two decades.

“I shop here all the time,” he said. “It’s a shame to see it go.”

After the store finally closes its doors, Svitek said he hopes another grocer will fill its space in the Heights Plaza shopping center, something experts have said is unlikely.

Also from Brackenridge, Dollie Wilson, 65, said she’s worried for local elderly shoppers without access to a vehicle.

“I thank God I’ve got a car,” she said.

Though she’d prefer a more local alternative, Wilson will likely do most of her shopping farther up Freeport Road at Harrison’s Walmart, she said.

But with the nearby Harrison Hi-Rise, an eight-story apartment building run by the Allegheny County Housing Authority for senior citizens and the disabled, it may turn out to be a hard winter for the area’s most vulnerable.

“It’s going to be tough,” Wilson said. “I can’t believe this is what this world is coming to.”

Community Supermarket part-owner Howard Rosenberg, 62, was chatting with deli employees early Friday morning.

As the store’s lease neared its end, Rosenberg said, it simply didn’t prove profitable with a nearby Walmart Supercenter and decreased traffic at the Heights Plaza.

“It’s a tough day,” he said. “It’s sad.”

Among the store’s several dozen employees, a little more than half had opted to relocate to other store locations in Lower Burrell, Penn Hills or a company-owned Giant Eagle in Verona, Rosenberg said.

The store’s general manager, George Sears, worked to consolidate an increasingly slim frozen foods section on Friday as shoppers scanned for deals around him.

He said many community members already had been dreading the store’s closing.

“It’s definitely not what we wanted to do,” Sears said.

Kristen Turner, 42, and John Brentley, 44, of New Kensington said they only heard about the store’s imminent closure on Friday.

When they saw the news, the two headed to the store to grab a few items and show some support.

Turner, who sometimes serves as a shopper for online Instacart orders, said she was very familiar with the location.

“It’s sad. This has been here since I can remember,” she said.

Brentley said the closure will only continue to push customers to larger chains like Walmart and Giant Eagle, placing even more pressure on the surviving local markets.

A resident of Buffalo Township, Becky Chelko, 70, stopped in Friday morning to say goodbye to some friends.

She had been coming to the store since it was a Shop ‘n Save prior to Community Supermarket’s takeover in 2002.

“They’re all my friends; I feel bad for the workers,” Chelko said.

Though she’s still hoping to see some familiar faces at the Lower Burrell location, Chelko said the closure will likely have a harmful impact on the Harrison community.

Management announced in August that the store will tentatively close Oct. 31, though Sears said that date could come sooner depending on how closing procedures go.

It remains unclear what — if anything — will take the store’s place at the plaza.