Warren Tops

As a former Bi-Lo location close to New York state, it makes sense this store would eventually become a Tops. It is kind of surprising that it took them a bit to open under the Tops banner, but evidently as is the case with a bunch of their newer stores, it takes time for them to negotiate with the previous owners.*

This location opened in late 2015, making it the second to newest location in Pennsylvania. Westfield is the newest Pennsylvania Tops. The Warren location, along with an Erie Tops, were apparently pilot stores for the rollout of Beer and wine products in PA supermarkets. That likely explains why there is a separate area here for the alcoholic beverages.

Time for an inside tour which of course uses Tops newest decor package:

One of the largest floral selections I've ever seen at any supermarket

A separate area for the brew market.

*Many of Tops' newer stores are acquisitions from local-franchised owned Big M stores or other grocery distributors. In Warren's case, the Bi-Lo banner was franchised from Penn Traffic before Tops bought Penn Traffic out. 

Meadville's Downtown Mall

With the Meadville Kmart now closed, all memories of the Meadville Mall have ceased to exist. This leaves just one mall in the area which is the focus of this post.

The Downtown Mall currently has Big Lots as an anchor while a Tops supermarket (former Bi-Lo) serves as a shadow anchor in the parking lot. The only other national tenants in the mall besides anchor Big Lots is a mall-based Dollar General and H&R Block. Everything else is locally owned and operated.

The only additional comment to be made on the mall is that Big Lots was a former Fishers Big Wheel department store. I'm unsure of the build date as there isn't a whole lot of information on this mall.

The mall has multiple entrances, but the two that stand out the most are the 'downtown direct' entrance and the mall parking entrance. Both entrances are dramatically different as seen below.

Somewhat modernized entrance to the mall's parking lot.

Very vintage entrance from pedestrians coming from downtown Meadville.

Big Lots (former Weston's)

A long corridor to Dollar General

Dentist at the mall.

Big Lots has a wall that divides furniture and mattresses from the rest of the store. One must navigate through the displays to reach the mall or the rest of Big Lots.

Overall this mall is actually in pretty good shape with a bunch of local businesses. I don't recall seeing many, if any vacancies here. Other malls could learn a thing or two from this mall.