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Summer camps offered at St. Jude’s

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Diamond City Partnership Q&A: ‘It’s up to us’

<p>SUGARLOAF TWP. &#8212; The decor hasn&#8217;t changed much at Gould&#8217;s supermarket in the past few decades.</p><p>It&#8217;s what&#8217;s behind the scenes that counts most.</p><p>At least that&#8217;s how owner/manager John Cara sees it.</p><p>He can oversee the temperatures of the store&#8217;s cases for frozen foods and dairy products from any computer in the world via a cloud-based program. The meat-packing machine &#8220;costs more than your car, unless you drive a Lexus,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The continuing effort to invest in state-of-the-art technology to save customers money is one that Cara takes seriously.</p><p>Gould&#8217;s is one of a dozen independent grocers in Northeastern Pennsylvania that make up the ShurSave Markets group. The purchasing cooperative formed about 25 years ago and works to make decisions about advertising, consumer trends and pricing.</p><p>Staying independent in a sea of national competition has been challenging. For some, it means investing in high-tech machinery. For others, it means focusing on the basics, like cleanliness and a smiling staff.</p><p>But for all of these businesses, family comes first &#8212; personally and professionally.</p><p>&#8220;One advantage which I think we have over our competitors is the ability to communicate with our customers,&#8221; said Frank Carone, who owns Carone&#8217;s Market with his brother Stephen and acts as chairperson of the ShurSave group. &#8220;&#8230; ShurSave owners are accessible. We live in these communities.&#8221;</p><p>Like Carone, Cara is a second-generation business owner. His in-laws, John and Ruth Gould, built the business from 10,000 square feet on State Route 93 in Sugarloaf Township in 1971 to its current footprint of 50,000. Now, Cara&#8217;s wife, Debbie, is president of the company.</p><p>Store owners say profitability is low in the grocery store industry, because the way to remain competitive is passing savings to the customer. Competition from supercenters, traditional grocery stores, dollar stores, convenience stores and online retailers has affected stores&#8217; bottoms lines in the past decade.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of people selling what we&#8217;re selling,&#8221; Carone said. &#8220;We are in a very competitive industry. Not a lot of people realize how large some of these chain stores are. So we&#8217;re working with the owners from ShurSave and our wholesaler (C&amp;S), and we try to keep up with or get ahead of trends and different programs to help our costs.&#8221;</p><p>Family is what got Schiel&#8217;s Family Market started in Wilkes-Barre. Gary Schiel said he was nearing the end of his four-year teaching-degree program at Wilkes University when his siblings &#8212; Frank, Fred, Connie and Carleen &#8212; bought a building on Hanover Street to start the first Schiel&#8217;s in 2000.</p><p>&#8220;We all grew up in the business working for other companies at the time,&#8221; Gary Schiel said. &#8220;&#8230; (The business was) something we knew and something we thought we could do for ourselves instead of someone else.&#8221;</p><p>The operation expanded to another store &#8212; twice the original&#8217;s size &#8212; on George Avenue in 2005, and a beer distributor business off South Main Street in 2015.</p><p>&#8220;We thought (the beer distributor) was an opportunity to try something different and diversify a little bit,&#8221; Gary Schiel said.</p><p>He credited the stores&#8217; customer service with keeping ahead of the competition, saying: &#8220;Our customer service, freshness, cleanliness; hopefully that, right now, is it,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Just because the businesses keep their focus on customers doesn&#8217;t mean they aren&#8217;t moving forward with new consumer trends.</p><p>Carone said the ShurSave group is working on creating apps and using other tech-based programs, such as Fetch, an app that encourages customers to scan items as they shop &#8212; an approach that leads to special savings and rewards points.</p><p>Gerrity&#8217;s Supermarkets, the largest member of the ShurSave group with nine locations, uses Fetch in all its stores &#8212; three in Scranton, and one each in Hanover Township, Luzerne, Wyoming, West Pittston, Moosic and Clarks Summit.</p><p>Gerrity&#8217;s last month was named by Times Leader readers as the <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/uncategorized/647911/gerritys-supermarkets-focus-on-customers" target="_blank">best grocery store in the area</a>.</p><p>Despite all the advancements at ShurSave markets, Gould&#8217;s has some signs of earlier technological advancements in its store, too.</p><p>Near the frozen-foods section are two kiddie rides that were located in front of the store during its first years in the 1970s &#8212; an aluminum horse and a red, white and blue boat.</p><p>What once may have cost a young customer a nickel to ride is now free.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Co-owner Joe Fasula chats inside the Gerrity&#8217;s Supermarket in Luzerne. With nine locations, Gerrity&#8217;s is the largest member of the ShurSave group. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_gerritys04.jpg</photo0><caption0>Co-owner Joe Fasula chats inside the Gerrity&#8217;s Supermarket in Luzerne. With nine locations, Gerrity&#8217;s is the largest member of the ShurSave group. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL043017XXXXShurSave1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Schiel&#8217;s Family Market is a family-owned grocery store and part of the Northeastern Pennsylvania-based ShurSave group. The purchasing cooperative formed more than 25 years ago and works together to make decisions about advertising, consumer trends and pricing. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL043017XXXXShurSave1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Schiel&#8217;s Family Market is a family-owned grocery store and part of the Northeastern Pennsylvania-based ShurSave group. The purchasing cooperative formed more than 25 years ago and works together to make decisions about advertising, consumer trends and pricing. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_IMG_5215.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The kiddie rides at Gould&#8217;s supermarket in Sugarloaf Township are free for the youngest patrons. The rides have been part of the store since its early days in the 1970s. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_IMG_5215.jpg</photo2><caption2>The kiddie rides at Gould&#8217;s supermarket in Sugarloaf Township are free for the youngest patrons. The rides have been part of the store since its early days in the 1970s. </caption2><photoCredit2>Submitted photo </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL043017XXXXShurSave2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Gary Schiel started Schiel&#8217;s Family Markets with his siblings in 2000. The business has expanded to include two Wilkes-Barre locations and a beer distributor business. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL043017XXXXShurSave2.jpg</photo3><caption3>Gary Schiel started Schiel&#8217;s Family Markets with his siblings in 2000. The business has expanded to include two Wilkes-Barre locations and a beer distributor business. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Sarah Hite Hando</p><p>shando@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>SHURSAVE</strong></p><p><strong>MARKETS GROUP</strong></p><p><strong>Founded:</strong> About 25 years ago (date unavailable)</p><p><strong>Chairman:</strong> Frank Carone of Carone&#8217;s Market</p><p><strong>Website: </strong><a href="http://www.shursavemarkets.com" target="_blank">shursavemarkets.com</a></p><p><strong>Notable:</strong> The group contains 12 family-owned supermarket businesses &#8212; Brick&#8217;s Market, Carone&#8217;s Market, Dutch&#8217;s Market, Gerrity&#8217;s Supermarkets, Gould&#8217;s supermarket, Jim Thorpe Market, Mountain Fresh Supermarket, Quinn&#8217;s Market, Ray&#8217;s Supermarkets, Riccardo&#8217;s Market, Rob&#8217;s Market, Schiel&#8217;s Family Market &#8212; and is a member of one of the largest cooperatives in the United States.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Sarah Hite Hando at 570-704-3945.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Communicating with customers a key to success at ShurSave Markets