Laneco was a supermarket chain operating in eastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and northern

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. At one time it operated four types of stores. The older stores were called Food Lane, which were former Food Fair stores with the least square footage and only carried food products. There were also Laneco's and Laneco SuperCenters (The Clinton, NJ store was known as a "Laneco Dept Store") these stores were much larger than Food Lanes and offered general merchandise.

Sam Walton Samuel Moore Walton (March 29, 1918 – April 5, 1992) was an American business magnate best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in 1962 and 1983 respectively. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew to be the world's ...

actually worked with Raymond A. Bartolacci Sr. to develop the

Wal-Mart Supercenter Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

. Laneco also operated CR Pharmacies which were often located in Laneco Supercenters.

History

Laneco was founded by Raymond A. Bartolacci Sr. in 1946. The first store opened as Paramount Foods in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware R ...

, and completed its first day of business with a total of less than $20 in sales. The stores were acquired by Supervalu in October 1992, and were closed by them in 2001. The stores were scaled down for the last several years until they were closed. The stores operated with a union and several thousand employees were laid off at the closure of the stores. Laneco had around 16 stores at the time of closure. Many stores were purchased by and converted to

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such as the Lehighton, PA location, while Redner's picked up a few locations, Country Junction took over the Wind Gap store, Ahart's Market operated a few locations such as the former Food Lanes in Allentown and Bethlehem PA and Phillipsburg, NJ (all of which have since closed). The Clinton and the

Whitehouse Whitehouse may refer to: People * Charles S. Whitehouse (1921-2001), American diplomat * Cornelius Whitehouse (1796–1883), English engineer and inventor * E. Sheldon Whitehouse (1883-1965), American diplomat * Elliott Whitehouse (born 1993), ...

(now closed) SuperCenters in New Jersey are now

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

stores and the Laneco in Phillipsburg was demolished, with a

, a White Castle, a Wawa, and a

Quaker Steak & Lube Quaker Steak & Lube is a casual dining restaurant chain based in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1974, in Sharon, Pennsylvania. The original restaurant was built by George "Jig" Warren and Gary "Mo" Massaro's in an abandoned gas stati ...

which got replaced by Stone Tavern now occupying the redeveloped site. The Hometown, PA Laneco would become a TJ Bart's location before eventually closing and the lot being used to build a Wal-Mart. Giant refused to hire any of the ex-Laneco workers because they were members of a union. In 1997 TJ Bart's acquired the Laneco in Southside Easton and eventually selling it to C-town in 2006.

Products

Laneco carried a store brand of many grocery products called Why Pay More?. The logo for Why Pay More? items was a smiling woman holding a receipt in her left hand and cash in her right, the latter presumably having been spared by the former.

References

{{reflist}
Laneco Food Lane Supermarkets
at web.archive.org Defunct supermarkets of the United States Defunct discount stores of the United States