Grocery Outlet bargain grocery store coming to Vernon Township
VERNON TOWNSHIP — A new grocery store is planned at the Park Avenue Plaza.
Grocery Outlet will be housed in the Vernon Township shopping center’s former Valu Home Center hardware store space, Scott Phillis, owner of the shopping center, told The Meadville Tribune.
Valu Home Center, a Buffalo, New York-based hardware retailer, closed its Meadville-area location in January. The store had been open since 1988 in the plaza, but its lease was to expire this year.
Preliminary renovations to the approximately 29,000-square-foot space already have started, according to Phillis.
Regarding the store’s planned opening date, Phillis referred the Tribune to Grocery Outlet’s corporate offices in California. Kyle Noble, the company’s marketing director, was unavailable due vacation and the July 4 holiday, according to an automatic reply email.
Grocery Outlet is a bargain market-style grocery chain based in Emeryville, California.
It was founded in 1946 by Jim Read, selling military surplus at deep discount prices, according to the company’s website.
Grocery Outlet sells name-brand items through a network of independently operated stores.
The company buys excess inventory from packaging changes or manufacturing overruns, according to the website. Each local store owner chooses products from the inventory to personalize selection to the local community.
Grocery Outlet locations also sell basic food items like milk, eggs and meat that are sourced conventionally like other grocery stores, according to the site.
Grocery Outlet has more than 500 stores including Grocery Outlet stores in California, Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington; and United Grocery Outlet stores, a closeout grocery retailer with stores in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, according to the website.
In October 2023, a Grocery Outlet store opened north of New Castle in Lawrence County.
