20th century , formerly a
Genuardi's Weis Markets was founded as Weis Pure Foods in 1912 in
Sunbury, Pennsylvania, by two brothers, Harry and Sigmund Weis. then Weis Self-Service Markets, and finally Weis Markets. Over the next two decades, the company continued with this strategy, and it had consolidated all of its corner grocery stores into supermarkets, with 35 stores by 1955. In the 1950s and 1960s, Weis expanded its reach, first to
York and then
Lancaster by 1960. Weis expanded to
Maryland in July 1967, opening its first non-Pennsylvania store in
Hagerstown, followed by a store in
Frederick in August Its first store in the
Wilkes-Barre area opened in 1967. In November 1967, the company purchased the five-store Albany Public Markets chain based in
Albany, New York, in an all-cash transaction. It operated Albany Public Markets as a subsidiary, keeping the company's management team intact. Weis closed its Albany Public Markets chain in October 1986, leasing the nine stores to
Grand Union. Weis also expanded to
Western Pennsylvania, opening stores as far west as
Altoona,
Everett, and
Philipsburg, and expanded throughout
Northeastern Pennsylvania. The company purchased two regional chains in the
Poconos and
Lehigh Valley region: Mr. Z's, a 14-store chain of IGA supermarkets, in 1992, and King's, a six-store chain based in
Hamburg, in 1994. Mr. Z's and King's were operated under separate banners for years before all stores were re-branded as Weis. The westernmost extent of Weis's expansion is along old route 220 with the two stores in Altoona, one on 7th street and one in Park Hills. Weis's expansion into the
Baltimore market was successful, but expansions into the
Washington, D.C. market were less successful. Weis opened stores in
Northern Virginia before retreating from that market, first closing most of its stores in
Montgomery County, Maryland, and finally closing all stores in
Virginia. Weis also expanded into
North Jersey, beginning with a store opened in
Newton in 1992. In 2009, Weis expanded into the
Southern Tier of New York with the acquisition of the 11-store
Giant Markets chain. Weis closed one former Giant Market in
Binghamton in 2012, along with two others in 2014. Eight former Giant Markets continue to operate. In 2012, eastern expansion continued as Weis acquired three former
Genuardi's stores from
Safeway, in the
Philadelphia suburbs of
Conshohocken,
Doylestown and
Norristown, on June 16. A former
Superfresh store in
Towson, Maryland, opened as a Weis in 2012. Weis entered
central New Jersey with the purchase of a former
Pathmark store in
Hillsborough in August 2013. In November 2013, Weis opened its closest store to
Philadelphia following its acquisition of a former Pathmark store in
Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. In July 2015, Weis purchased the location and assets of Nell's Shur-fine Market from C&S Wholesale Grocers in
Penn Township, York County, Pennsylvania and followed that up in October 2016 with the purchase of a second Nell's location in
East Berlin, Pennsylvania. Robert F. Weis, the son of Harry Weis, died in October 2015 at the age of 96. A philanthropist, Weis donated millions of dollars to charities, food banks, and other organizations in Sunbury, the Central Susquehanna Valley, and elsewhere. A strong supporter of Israel, he sponsored a flight of Jewish survivors of the
Chernobyl disaster to make
aliyah, and served as treasurer of the Sunbury chapter of the
United Jewish Appeal. Weis was a member of Sunbury's Congregation Beth El and he helped found the Department of Judaic Studies at Yale University. In May 2016, Weis Markets announced the purchase of five stores from
Mars in
Baltimore County, Maryland, after that chain announced it was closing all its stores. In July 2016, it was announced that Weis Markets entered into a purchase agreement with
Ahold and
Delhaize Group for 38
Food Lion locations in
Maryland,
Delaware, and
Virginia as part of the divestiture of stores to gain clearance from the
Federal Trade Commission for the impending Ahold/Delhaize merger. The company completed the acquisition and conversion of the stores in early November 2016. On March 9, 2017, Weis Markets opened a store in
Hampden Township, Pennsylvania, that features a pub, ice cream parlor, expanded takeout food selection, a drive-thru pharmacy, and a beer cafe selling 900 varieties of beer and 500 varieties of wine. In late September 2019, Weis acquired two Thomas' Food Market stores, one in
Dallas, Pennsylvania and another in
Shavertown, Pennsylvania, reopening the Dallas location under the Weis banner and closing the Shavertown location. On July 19, 2018 Weis Markets opened a second store in
Morris County NJ in the
town of Randolph (where a former A&P used to operate before A&P's bankruptcy in 2015).
Legal case The Weis supermarket located in Park Hills Plaza along
U.S. Route 220 in
Altoona, Pennsylvania, was the subject of a key 1960s
United States Supreme Court case concerning the "public forum doctrine." The Court held that a union picket in the supermarket parcel pickup area and parking lot was permissible because the "shopping center here is clearly the functional equivalent to the business district" of a city. At the time of the picketing, the Weis store was located in
Logan Valley Mall, the Park Hills Plaza was not built until the mid-1970s, at which time Weis moved across U.S. Route 220 to its current location.
Shooting In the early hours of June 8, 2017, employees at a Weis Markets
supermarket in
Eaton Township, Pennsylvania, United States, were stocking and closing the store for the night. Shortly before 1:00 a.m., 24-year-old Randy Stair barricaded the exits of the store and proceeded to shoot and kill three of his co-workers before fatally shooting himself over the belief that he would be reborn as a "ghost girl" character from
Danny Phantom. ==Banners==