A going out of business sale is underway at the long-standing Shop ’n Save grocery in West Deer.
The store in Deer Lakes Plaza off of Little Deer Creek Road is expected to remain open into February, with discounts gradually increasing from 10%, and will close when everything is gone, said Jamie Baker, the store’s front end manager who has worked for owners Tom and Liz Beter for going on 40 years.
The Beters were not at the store when a reporter visited on Friday and Saturday.
Asked why the store is closing, Baker said, “Business isn’t good enough to support the store.”
She cited competition from Walmart and Aldi, not far away in the Pittsburgh Mills shopping complex in Frazer.
The Shop ’n Save, in West Deer’s Russellton area, serves residents in its rural area, many of whom are older, Baker said.
“They’re sad,” she said of customers. “It’s a staple of the community.”
Julie and Joe Hazard of West Deer have been shopping there since moving to West Deer 15 years ago. Joe Hazard said the news came as a shock.
“(The store) always seems relatively busy to me, but if you go to some of the bigger stores on Route 8, they’re a lot busier than here,” he said.
The couple said the next closest grocery store is about 8 miles farther away.
“(It’s not) so bad for us, because we have the ability to drive,” Joe Hazard said. “But a lot of people in Russellton, there’s a lot of senior citizens and a lot of older people that don’t have the ability to drive.”
Scott Miller of Saxonburg has regularly visited the location for about 30 years.
He visits the area fairly often, and Shop ’n Save is a convenient location to stop at on the way home. Miller said prices at the store are lower than the stores closer to his home.
Miller hopes there’s some way the location is saved from closing.
“I really like the place,” Miller said. “I’ve been coming here a while. It’s a shame.”
The store was founded by Tom Beter’s parents, Thomas and Gladys Beter, as Tom’s Red & White before becoming a Shop ’n Save. In addition to the West Deer location, they also had owned Shop ’n Saves in Harrison and Kittanning.
Thomas Beter was 87 when he died in May 2016; Gladys Beter was 92 when she died in October 2017.
Two of Tom and Liz Beter’s children, Elliot and Lauren, took over the New Kensington Shop ’n Save from their parents and owned it for about five years before closing it in 2020.
Alex Beter owns Brewski’s Distributing, located beside his parents’ Shop ’n Save. There since 1999, it will be remaining open, he said Saturday.
As it prepares to close, hours for Shop ’n Save have been changed to 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Coupons will not be doubled, no gas perks will be issued, and the store will not honor weekly sale items in Shop ’n Save flyers.
