A locally-owned grocery store chain will close another one of its locations.
Friedman’s Freshmarkets will shutter their West Brady Street store located in the city of Butler after 117 years. The store will close on Saturday, Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. due to “financial under-performance.”
President Carole Bitter says there will be no employee layoffs. Every associate will be offered the chance to transfer to another Friedman’s store. The Greater Butler Mart, Chicora and Saxonburg locations will remain open and be upgraded.
Facade, signage and parking lot work will be done to the Greater Butler Mart store by the building’s landlord, the Brandywine Agency. The Chicora store is being enlarged and remodeled. The Saxonburg Friedman’s will now include the catering kitchens.
“As Butler’s only remaining hometown grocer, we hope our customers will support us in our other stores- as we have supported the community in tens of thousands of different ways for over 117 years,” Bitter said in a statement.
Jacob Friedman, Bitter’s grandfather, began selling groceries on a pushcart after emigrating to the United States from Austria-Hungary in 1900. He established stores in the West End of Butler in 1900, in Lyndora in 1906 and on West Jefferson Street in Butler in 1918.
Bitter did leave the door open for a new type of grocery store coming to the city of Butler in the future.
“We have a couple of ideas down the road for a new Brady Street store format,” Bitter said in a statement. “More on that later. Actually, small format stores are now outpacing big-box stores by 400 percent.”
Jacob Friedman opened the West Jefferson Street sore on June 25, 1918. This photo was reportedly published in the Butler Eagle on opening day. The store was reportedly called Friedman’s Sanitary Market.
West Jefferson Street Store
