Weis Markets

Not to be confused withWise FoodsorWeis (disambiguation).

Weis Markets, Inc.

A Weis Markets location inSolomons,Maryland.
Formerly	Weis Pure Foods (1912-1933)
Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE:WMK Russell 2000 Indexcomponent
Industry	Retail grocery
Founded	1912(1912)(Sunbury, Pennsylvania,U.S.)
Founders	Harry and Sigmund Weis
Headquarters	Sunbury, Pennsylvania,U.S.
Number of locations	200
Areas served	Pennsylvania Maryland New York New Jersey West Virginia Virginia Delaware
Key people	Jonathan Weis, chairman, president and CEO
Products	Bakery, delicatessen, seafood, meat, produce, snacks, drinks, frozen foods, health & beauty, general merchandise, pharmacy
Revenue	US$3,543.3 Million(2020)
Operating income	US$76.4 million(2017)
Net income	US$98.4 million(2017)
Total assets	US$1. 441 million(2017)
Total equity	US$992.8 million(2017)
Owner	Weis Family (65%)
Number of employees	23,000(2017)
Website	weismarkets

Weis Markets, Inc.(/waɪz/), or (/waɪzɪz/) doing business asWeisand stylized asweis,is an Americanfood retailerheadquartered inSunbury, Pennsylvania.It currently operates 200 stores with over 23,000 employees inPennsylvania,Maryland,New York,New Jersey,West Virginia,Virginia,andDelaware.

History

20th century

A map of Weis stores as of 2011

Weis Markets location inConshohocken, Pennsylvania,formerly aGenuardi's

Weis Markets was founded as Weis Pure Foods in 1912 inSunbury, Pennsylvania,by two brothers, Harry and Sigmund Weis.Their store has been noted as "revolutionary" since it did not operate on credit; sales were only for cash. At the time, similar stores operated on credit, allowing customers to build a tab that would be paid periodically. Cash sales were a sign of a growing working class earning steady paychecks, and they also helped lower prices by up to 25%.

Three years later, in 1915, a second Weis store opened inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The Weis brothers expanded the chain rapidly, opening dozens of small, in-town grocery stores throughout centralPennsylvania,ultimately peaking at 115 stores in 15 central Pennsylvania counties in 1933.

As the supermarket industry shifted to larger, self-service stores, Weis adapted the format of its stores. The company closed several corner grocery stores in Harrisburg in 1938, replacing them with their first self-service, consolidated supermarket. In newspaper ads during the 1940s, Weis referred to its stores first as Weis Super Markets,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 toYorkand thenLancasterby 1960. Weis expanded toMarylandin July 1967, opening its first non-Pennsylvania store inHagerstown,followed by a store inFrederickin AugustIts first store in theWilkes-Barrearea opened in 1967.

In November 1967, the company purchased the five-store Albany Public Markets chain based inAlbany, 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 toGrand Union.

Weis also expanded toWestern Pennsylvania,opening stores as far west asAltoona,Everett,andPhilipsburg,and expanded throughoutNortheastern Pennsylvania.The company purchased two regional chains in thePoconosandLehigh Valleyregion: Mr. Z's, a 14-store chain of IGA supermarkets, in 1992,and King's, a six-store chain based inHamburg,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 theBaltimore,market was successful, but expansions into theWashington, D.C.market were less successful. Weis opened stores inNorthern Virginiabefore retreating from that market, first closing most of its stores inMontgomery County, Maryland,and finally closing all stores inVirginia.

Weis also expanded intoNorth Jersey,beginning with a store opened inNewtonin 1992.

21st century

The produce section of a Weis Markets location

In 2000, another store opened inFlanders;it closed in 2002, two years after its opening. Weis returned to Flanders in 2014, in a formerA&Pstore adjacent to the location of its first Flanders store.

In 2009, Weis expanded into theSouthern Tierof New York with the acquisition of the 11-storeGiant Marketschain.Weis closed one former Giant Market inBinghamtonin 2012, along with two others in 2014. Eight former Giant Markets continue to operate.

In 2012, eastern expansion continued as Weis acquired three formerGenuardi'sstores fromSafeway,in thePhiladelphiasuburbs ofConshohocken,DoylestownandNorristown,on June 16. A formerSuperfreshstore inTowson, Maryland,opened as a Weis in 2012. Weis enteredcentral New Jerseywith the purchase of a formerPathmarkstore inHillsboroughin August 2013.

In November 2013, Weis opened its closest store toPhiladelphiafollowing its acquisition of a former Pathmark store inHuntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.In July 2015, Weis purchased the location and assets of Nell's Shur-fine Market from C&S Wholesale Grocers inPenn Township, York County, Pennsylvaniaand followed that up in October 2016 with the purchase of a second Nell's location inEast 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 theChernobyl disasterto makealiyah,and served as treasurer of the Sunbury chapter of theUnited 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 fromMarsinBaltimore 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 withAholdandDelhaize Groupfor 38Food Lionlocations inMaryland,Delaware,andVirginiaas part of the divestiture of stores to gain clearance from theFederal Trade Commissionfor the impending Ahold/Delhaize merger.

On October 5, 2016, Weis announced the purchase of Nell's Shur-fine Market in East Berlin, Pennsylvania, from C&S Wholesale Grocers.The company completed the acquisition and conversion of the 44 stores in early November 2016.

On March 9, 2017, Weis Markets opened a 65,000-square-foot (6,039 m²) store inHampden 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 inDallas, Pennsylvaniaand another inShavertown, Pennsylvania,reopening the Dallas location under the Weis banner and closing the Shavertown location.

On July 19, 2018 Weis Markets opened a second store inMorris County NJin thetown 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 alongU.S. Route 220inAltoona, Pennsylvania,was the subject of a key 1960sUnited States Supreme Courtcase 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 inLogan 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

Main article:Eaton Township Weis Markets shooting

In the early hours on the morning of June 8, 2017, employees at aWeis MarketssupermarketinEaton 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.

Banners

In addition to the Weis Markets banner, the company once operated supermarkets under the King's and Mr. Z's banners. Those two banners were centered primarily in the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos, respectively, and were acquired in 1993 (Mr.Z's) and 1994 (King's).Since their acquisitions, these stores have been remodeled or replaced. In 2009, they were rebranded to the Weis banner, as was its Cressler's store in Shippensburg. In 2011, it converted its three Scot's Lo-Cost stores, a warehouse store concept, located in Montoursville, Mill Hall, and Coal Township, to the Weis banner.

At one time, the company operated a few stores asBig-Top Market,but as of 2006, no more stores exist under this banner.

Weis Markets owned a majority-stake in, and operated, a chain of pet supply warehouse stores calledSuperPetz.The first SuperPetz store opened in 1991 in Dayton, Ohio. Weis Markets acquired an 80% stake in the chain in late 1993.Some stores included grooming services, dog training, and veterinary clinics. While their now-defunct website indicated they had 33 pet stores in eleven states in 2003, their footprint shrunk to only seven stores in June 2011, all of which were in Pennsylvania. None remain today.

Private brand labels

Weis Markets store inHuntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania,formerly aPathmark

Weis Markets sells a variety of house brands under the following private brand labels:

• Weis Quality (Advertised as equivalent to national brands)
• Weis Organic (Organic Fruits and Vegetables)
• Weis Signature (Premium)
• Weis Quality Premium Meats (Deli Meat)
• Paws Premium (Dog food)
• TopCare (Health and Beauty Care Products)
• Full Circle (Fair-Trade Certified food)
• Weis 360 (Organic staples such as oatmeal and bread)
• Weis Simply Great

References

• DeKok, David. "The Weis Dynasty."The Patriot-News,February 20, 1994.
• Southall, Brook. "Old-Line Weis Plans Basket of Changes."Central Penn Business Journal,June 14, 1996.
• Weis Markets Annual Report, 1967[1]Archived2006-05-25 at theWayback Machine

External links

• Weis Markets Corporate Site