Sweetheart Market: 80 Years On

 

AI of original store with real signs added

    While trying to find inspiration for this months post, I thought I would find it at Drivers Village in Cicero, which was Penn-Can Mall in the old days. I didn't see anything new to go on there, but I did see a restored photo of Sweetheart Market from a few miles away on the corner of US 11 and West Taft Road in North Syracuse. From fruit and veg stand with their own ice cream to a large corner shop. It was in 1979 that the store I remember had been built in order to compete with Williams across the street, as well as big names like Wegmans, Price Chopper, the old Tops, and P&C. It was part of the Hometown Markets co-op by 1985 when Williams weren't, but left when the latter were sold to Peters in 1996. By 2003, neither Sweetheart nor Peters could survive in the new century. Eckerd opened at the site and the corner sign remains to this day. Rite Aid is now empty, but could a new Sweetheart Market open inside since getting CVS in there is a longshot at this rate? Now that a large Walmart and ALDI are also now in the picture, it would be more uphill for Sweetheart to stand out in the current climate.

I recently came across a Sweetheart cart earlier this year on Burnet Ave in Eastwood. Not sure how it got all the way over there or stayed intact for over two decades. This was down the street from where Burnet Market, Big M turned onetime fellow Hometown Market and later indie health food store that was also demolished. I even found a Peters cart across from Wegmans in East Syracuse of all places.

If I were shopping at Sweetheart today.

The sign is not the only thing that made it.