Introduction to Outlet Grocery Shopping - Part 5: Neither fish nor fowl, The Grocery Outlet Store

What IS it?
These are the Highlanders, the Tribecas, the Subaru Foresters of the discounted grocery world... crossovers between true pallet store salvage and the limited assortment discount groceries: some salvage goods, some private label stock, some manufacturer overstock, label changes and close dated product but all of it priced 30 - 60% less than you've been paying at your local, friendly big box supermarket...

In Mooville, the players in this sandbox are Amelia's and the Sharp Shopper.

Amelia's Grocery Outlet
Clemont Plaza / 600 North Mountain Rd.
Harrisburg, PA 17112-2398
Just off Exit 72B of I-81N
Phone: 717-724-2223

1951 Lincoln Highway East
Lancaster, PA 17602-3343
(New location - across from Wal-Mart)
Phone: 717-392-0635

Hours: Mon. - Sat. 8:00 am - 9:00 pm
You get free bags and they'll bag your groceries up for you.
Cash, local checks and debit cards only.

Amelia's has eleven locations including two Mooville stores in Harrisburg and Lancaster. They are proud to be actual manufacturer's outlets for national brands like Kraft, Sara lee, General Mills and Proctor and Gamble to name a few. This arrangement lets Amelia put close-out lots on her shelves that are still in pretty good shape.

I know they have a deal with Hershey because you can find red and green foil wrapped Christmas Candy there until the following Halloween... Hey... it's chocolate and it's half the price you'll find at The Giant. Does your kid know what a Sell By date is? I didn't think so.


Sharp Shopper
1595 Jamesway Plaza
Middletown, PA 17057
Phone #: (717) 944-6606

Rt. 322, 1041 Sharp Avenue
Ephrata, PA 17522
Phone #: (717) 738-4948

340 West Main Street
Leola, PA 17540
Phone #: (717) 656-2156

Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday: 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Cash, local checks, debit AND credit cards
They give you free bags and bag your groceries, too!

Six stores make up this group including two in Virginia for some reason. The ones I've got listed are in our neck of the pasture.

You'll find fewer dented cans and taped up cartons at these places... and you will find a lot more private labels... in fact, you can almost do your regular weekly grocery shopping at one of these stores if you're not hung up on fresh meat... they generally have at least one flavor of just about everything else. You won't find 5 brands of sliced peaches, say, but there will be cans of sliced peaches for .69 to .89 cents.

When I was cooking Brutus the Giant Boxer's food myself, I used to get some outstanding marinated frozen pork loins and beef loins there... Brutus spent his last days eating lime marinated beef stew courtesy of Butterball and Sharp Shopper at something like $1.99 for a 3 pound roast.

Amelia's are smaller; about the size of an Aldi's or a Save-A-Lot. Sharp Shoppers seem mostly to have taken over the old Ames and Jamesway Discount Department store buildings. Those chains fell victim to the Wal-Mart march to the sea 15 years ago so the footprint is larger and there's a lot more stuff in them.

You still are better off shopping early in the week and early in the day.

And there you have it.
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, either. People in Central Pennsylvania have elevated grocery shopping to a kind of participatory performance art. Only in Mooville.

Let me know if you find one I haven't, would you?

Next time: A big fat list of these places.