Economy of Philadelphia

The Italian Market in South Philadelphia is a major Philadelphian landmark.

The Reading Terminal Market in Center City is one of America's oldest and largest public markets.

Shopping options in Center City include Fashion District Philadelphia, The Shops at Liberty Place, Jewelers' Row, South Street, Old City's 3rd Street Corridor, and a wide variety of standalone independent retailers. The Rittenhouse area, known as Philadelphia's outdoor shopping mall, includes Rittenhouse Row, a four-block section of Walnut Street, which has higher-end clothing chain stores and some hipster-inspired clothing stores. The parallel streets of Sansom and Chestnut have some high-end boutiques and clothing retailers. Old City, especially the 3rd Street corridor, has locally owned independent boutiques and art/design galleries. Midway between Old City and Broad Street is the Reading Terminal Market, with dozens of take-out restaurants, specialty food vendors, and small grocery store operators, a few of which are operated by Amish farmers from nearby Lancaster County.

Philadelphia has a few eclectic neighborhood shopping districts, which generally consist of a few blocks along a major neighborhood thoroughfare, such as in Manayunk or Chestnut Hill. The Italian Market in South Philadelphia offers groceries, meats, cheeses and housewares, historically from Italy, but now from many nationalities. Two famed cheesesteak restaurants, Geno's and Pat's, are located nearby.

There are several large shopping malls and strip malls in the region, including Philadelphia Mills in Northeast Philadelphia, and many in the suburbs, most notably the King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19 miles (31 km) from the heart of the city. The King of Prussia mall is the largest shopping mall on the U.S. East Coast[9] and the largest in the country in terms of leasable retail space.

During the 20th century, the city was a focal point of retail innovation. Suburban Square in Ardmore, Montgomery County, is sometimes considered the first modern shopping center in the world. Built in stages from 1927 to 1931, it was one of the first institutions to define the Pennsylvania Main Line in the 1920s. More importantly, it contains one of the oldest surviving department store branches in the country, a Strawbridge & Clothier, now a Macy's as of recently. Since then, large malls such as Cherry Hill Mall and King of Prussia have opened nearby.

Some of the first modern discount stores followed. Much of Kmart's earlier growth was in the Philadelphia area during the early 1960s. Defunct chains such as Bradlees, Caldor, Jamesway, Ames, Woolco, Two Guys, Hills Department Stores, Zayre, Richway, Korvettes, Nichols, Gaylords, Murphy Mart, and later Value City were concentrated in Philadelphia and other East Coast markets. This growth occurred largely during the 1950s–1970s, before the national growth of Wal-Mart and Target in the 1980s. Another was Strawbridge's own, Clover.

Philadelphia was the home of many pioneering supermarket chains during the same period, many of which had trademark architecture. The longest-running of these is Acme, formerly known as American Stores and Super Saver. Other examples are long-defunct Food Fair (Pantry Pride) and Penn Fruit, but Acme has closed many stores and was sold to Albertsons. They have however acquired many stores from their failed rivals. A&P, based in New York City, once had Philadelphia as a core market. After many previous store closings, the company shuttered its entire Philadelphia division in 1982. Due to a union outcry, it built some new stores and reopened others as Super Fresh from 1982 to 1985. The A&P name lives on in the nearby New York/New England market. More recently, the company acquired established Philadelphia/New York chain Pathmark. Many of these stores that have closed were replaced by franchises such as Shur-Fine, Supervalu, IGA, and Thriftway/Shop 'n Bag. Many other former supermarkets have become off-price stores such as Big Lots, Family Dollar, and Dollar General. Current major players in the region today include ShopRite, Save-a-Lot, Aldi, Giant-Carlisle, and local chain Genuardi's. Failed family-owned chains are Clemens and Giunta's. Newer upscale chains include Whole Foods, Wegmans, and Trader Joe's. There are few Wal-Mart Supercenters in the immediate area. In nearby markets, Safeway, Stop & Shop, Giant-Landover, Kroger, Food Lion, and formerly Grand Union operate.

Drug chains CVS, Rite Aid, and formerly Eckerd and Drug Emporium are common in the region. JCPenney also for many years operated the leading Thrift Drug chain. All these chains often anchored shopping centers along with a supermarket. Acme for many years also owned "Rea & Derick" drugstores under this arrangement, in partnership with the Rexall chain. In recent decades, supermarkets have added pharmacies of their own. At the same time, drugstores have relocated to corner locations or "inherited" obsolete supermarkets. Similar trends have occurred in other cities. Food Fair/Pantry Pride and Stop & Shop also shared many shopping centers with subsidiaries J.M. Fields and Bradlees, often with the stores directly connected. In fact, both divisions were acquired the same year, in 1961. Several J.M. Fields stores gave way to Bradlees as well. There once were many small enclosed malls in the area with a similar style, such as MacDade Mall.

Pennsylvania is also unique in that it has a "State Store" system for non-beer alcohol sales. Wine and spirits are only sold at stores operated by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, which are ubiquitous in Philadelphia. For many years, these stores were called "State Store", only had "counter" service, and were strictly closed on Sundays. Many of them were and still are small but important anchors in shopping centers. In the 1970s, all but a few "urban" locations were made into conventional stores with aisles. Later, their hours, selection, and square footage have greatly been expanded. To this day, however, the stores lack a consistent name and logo. Some are called simply "liquor store", while most have some variation on the words "Wine & Spirits" or "Wine & Spirits Shoppe". The state also allows winery retail stores.

Also important to the local economy are Wawa, Comcast, Citizens Bank, Sunoco, and Lukoil. These companies all have many major sponsorships. Philadelphia has had its share of local retailers as well, many of which have been bought out or closed. Many national big-box and mall retailers have arrived since the 1980s.

Philadelphia was the location of the first examples in the United States of a number of institutions, including:[10][11]