BB's Grocery Outlet
Route 419 N.
Schaefferstown, PA
No phone, no pool, no pets
M - F: 8 AM to 5 PM
SAT: 8 AM - 3 PM
Cash and local checks only
They bag your groceries in FREE bags!
Now, like many of these charmers, you will not find much more than a State Route Number when you go looking for an address. These Amish are crafty marketing geniuses and they know that a large part of the attraction of these smash and dent places is that not everyone knows about them, damned plain elitists that they are. You need a connection to find one. It took me YEARS to find the first BB's and now if, like Lou Reed, you've been waiting on your Man to hook you up on the BB's East location... well, here I am:
Mostly How To Get There:
From Mooville Proper, get on Rt. 322E from Harrisburg towards Hershey. Stay on Rt. 322 no matter how tempting the signs or the Google maps might make that 419N, Schaefferstown address... on the other side of Hershey, past the conference center at the Lodge and the Milton Hershey School and all that you will see a thing looming on the right that will set your nose to twitching...
it's called the Country View Grocery and it is just that sort of mixed-use looking building that these salvage places set themselves up in... It might have been a little diner once... one that was too clean and couldn't find anyone to make any decent pie, you know the kind... and it is a grocery all right... I found some 2 for $1 L'Eggs control top pantyhose on a shelf and there is a little room in the back with all kindsa Amish noodles and whatnot back there... lots of bagged up and containerized bulk foodstuffs...
DO NOT BE FOOLED... this trompe l'oeil trifle is NOT the real deal. I did get a big bag of Spring mix lettuce for 75 cents that would’a set me back $3.69 at The Giant but I digress... Stay on 322E, you hear?
Eventually you will pass a road (Starner Rd.) and the very next turn off to the left will be for 419: TAKE THAT LEFT. You will very shortly hit Rt. 72/Quentin Rd. (big intersection, big ass gas station and a HUGE horse riding school place on the left... lots of very beautiful horses and girls spending Daddy's money on lessons and tack and snoot long before he strokes out from getting the bill) cross over 72/Quentin Rd. and keep on 419 which sometimes will be east and sometimes north but stay with 419 even as you have to dog-leg sort of left past a lovely old redstone church where they have a peach festival in August and then right and quickly left again at the Cornwall Furnace...
ALL OF THIS IS RT. 419... right about here is where you may catch a glimpse of a sign that says Schaeffer Rd, no matter...
Follow 419 past some utterly lovely homes and a stinky farm where this Saturday morning I saw an actual calf with an actual collar on it on a lead of some kind that was attached to a big igloo-looking thing right in the front yard by the road. I am against chained dogs in principal and in fact but I have not yet thought out my humane treatment of cows ethic and I was trying to get to BB's before all the good stuff was gone so I didn't stop to nose around (i.e. get shot)... finally you will see a large sign for 501N which will be disorienting because it will appear to be heading west.. PAY NO ATTENTION TO RT. 501!
A second later you will see another sign for 501S or some such and then you must begin to watch... (don't turn onto 501, you hear!?) VERY shortly after this you will come to a little bitty town square... right will take you past a cute and likely over-priced antique shop. It is called Market St. but there is nothing that way but a cool old rotted out Distillery and there is no liquor there any more... I looked, believe it. Straight ahead will take you onto Rt. 897 and god knows where. Instead, go LEFT onto Market St. In two shakes of a lamb's tail on the right you will see the familiar low to the ground yellow sign that you've been looking for: BB's Bents, Bumps & Bunch of Bargains.
It is on the right and it is MUCH smaller that the home office out between Newville and Newburg...
The Goods
More cramped for space but many of the same goods were here, from the looks of the assortment yesterday, as the stuff I looked over last week in Newburg... The COLDEST freaking freezer, check... Spices in a buncha boxes you have to go through every one to find what you're after for 25 cents or 50 cents, check... 8 oz. salad dressings @ 4 / $1, check. They've got a shipment of banged up super-premium dog food in and I picked up a 26# bag of Wellness CORE dog food that runs $40 at Superpetz on sale for, get this: $9.50.
And pint cartons of Woodstock Farms organic half and half: 3/$1!! OH, ALL RIGHT! They went out of date on Valentine's Day but I opened one in the parking lot and there was NOTHING wrong with it, I tell you... I went back in and bought the rest so there aren't any more of those, sorry. And VERY FRIENDLY shoppers! Very!
9 Stars. It's not the Newburg B.B.'s, but what is? Incredibly Highly Recommended. Bring your cooler if you're coming from very far away.
How To Leave
If I hadn't stopped, I could have been back in Harrisburg in 40 minutes. No lie.
4 comments:
The next time your in our little town, plan a little extra time to explore! Just south of the square on S. Market St. you will find a park with the oldest waterworks in the county...and it still works!!
I loved reading this. I've patronized this BB's twice. You should try the one near Quarryville: they are now open 8 AM-8PM Monday through Friday and 8-4 Saturdays. Reason? Propane jets that light the facility. This is written tongue-in-cheek, but, might as well try this one too! :)
Oh, I forgot to add that if you had gone back on Route 501, you would have passed two Horning's Discount grocery stores. One is south (I think) of Myerstown and the other is south of Bethel. That would be heading north on 501 towards I-78. Alright, I feel supremely lame about doing this, but there you go...I've gotten some good deals at those two places.
Oh, I've BEEN to one of those Hornung's! I found 5# bags of seconds Reese's peanut butter cups for something ridiculous like $2.99.
I must write that one up... They had 4 nice sized cantaloupe for a dollar, too!
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