Penn Traffic

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

The Penn Traffic Company began in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1854, growing from a mercantile operation tied to the Cambria Iron Company’s company-store tradition. It became a familiar regional department-store name, with its landmark Johnstown building expanded over the first half of the twentieth century. Yes: a grocery empire with department-store bones. That is some premium corporate hauntology.

Penn Traffic pivoted back toward food retail in 1962 with the acquisition of Super Value Corporation and its Riverside supermarket chain. It later added Quality Markets in 1979, entered the Syracuse grocery scene through P&C Food Markets in 1988, and acquired Ohio’s Big Bear Stores in 1989. Its corporate headquarters moved from Johnstown to Syracuse in 1992.

The company eventually concentrated on supermarkets, selling its department-store operations in 1982. Penn Traffic operated banners including P&C Foods, Bi-Lo, Riverside, Quality Markets and Big Bear, while also maintaining wholesale-distribution, dairy and bakery businesses. Growth brought a bigger map—and, unfortunately, a very large pile of debt.

After Chapter 11 reorganizations in 1999 and 2003, Penn Traffic filed again on November 18, 2009. Tops Markets acquired its 79 remaining stores on January 29, 2010; a Chapter 11 liquidation plan was confirmed that October. The checkout lanes survived in new hands, but Penn Traffic itself became aisle history.

Our Penn Traffic collection celebrates the long, strange journey from Johnstown dry goods to Syracuse grocery aisles: shopping carts, paper circulars, neighborhood brands, and one spectacularly durable regional retail ghost.