January 1954:
Before transforming into a Rainbow – and long before its current redevelopment – a South Abington Twp. grocery store dominated the area as a Giant.
Located in the Chinchilla area, the store opened in January 1954 as the ninth Giant Market operated by M.L. and Sam Hodin. Giant Markets was an independent grocery store chain based in Scranton.
In 1982, Giant Markets was struggling, though. The company announced in October that it wanted to close and sell its stores in West Hazleton and South Abington Twp. Within days of this announcement, however, two longtime Giant Markets employees, James Size and Steve Kutch, bought the Abingtons store. By the end of November, it had reopened with a new name: Rainbow Market.
TIMES-TRIBUNE ARCHIVES A view of the Rainbow Market on Northern Boulevard in South Abington Twp. in 1986. The store closed in September 1998.
Just three years later, the store had landed on the Honor Roll of Outstanding Independent Grocers, presented by Progressive Grocer, an industry publication. The honor roll recognized 200 grocers.
“We have a nice position in the community,” Size told the Times. “We support a lot of things that go on here, and I’ve got plaques all over the walls from places like the South Abington Fire Company and others.”
Rainbow offered a large variety of products that went beyond a typical grocery store, such as real durum semolina, used in making homemade pasta. It also rented videos and had fresh coffee for customers to enjoy while shopping.
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- An advertisement for the Giant Markets that appeared in the Scranton Times on Jan. 28, 1954. The ad announced that all Giant Markets will be celebrating the opening of their latest store in Chinchilla. TIMES-TRIBUNE ARCHIVES
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- Grand opening advertisement for the Rainbow Market that appeared in the Sunday Times on Nov. 28, 1982. TIMES-TRIBUNE ARCHIVES
Rainbow’s business started to fade in 1998, however, after Walmart opened in Dickson City. Rainbow joined the Independent Grocers Alliance in March in hopes of offering prices to compete with Walmart.
In late September, though, Size and Kutch decided to close the store; Size noted that their overhead was too high.
“We tried everything we knew how to do,” he said. “We worked hard, but we just couldn’t make it.”
The Rev. Nancy Pitely, pastor of the United Methodist Church in Chinchilla, told the Times that Rainbow “was like a family.”
“People in my church are heartsick,” she said. “We had prayer for them today, you know, for the owners and for the people losing their jobs.”
This is what’s left of the former Rainbow Market in Chinchilla as of Friday, Feb. 19, 2000. The building appears to be about half or more torn down; the old sign lies in the forground. TIMES-TRIBUNE ARCHIVES
For many years following the building’s demolition in early 2000, the property lay unused except for when it hosted the seasonal Abington Farmer’s Market.
In 2019, Mike Noto of Rainbow Land Co. bought the site and then worked with the state Department of Environmental Protection to remediate the property, which was contaminated by gasoline. Noto’s company recently started additional work on the property.
Brian Fulton has been the librarian at The Times-Tribune for the past 15 years. On his blog, Historically Hip, he writes about the great concerts, plays/musicals and celebrity happenings that have taken place throughout NEPA. He is also the co-host of the local history podcast, Historically Hip. He competed and was crowned grand champion on an episode of NPR quiz show “Ask Me Another.” Contact: bfulton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9140; or @TTPagesPast
