The answer is simple: Weis Markets is a fascinating company. An old supermarket chain, Weis features an extremely diverse collection of stores that spans many eras. Its stores reflect the historical backgrounds of the markets in which they operate, and they also reflect many changes in the retail grocery industry.

Number of stores (2004): 158
Founded: 1912
Operates in: Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia
Banners: Weis, King's, Mr. Z's, Cressler's, Scot's, Save-a-Lot, Superpetz
Headquarters: Sunbury, Pa.

The Weis Project has two basic parts: a presentation of articles and artifacts from the company's history (secondary research), and an ever-expanding collection of store photographs and descriptions (primary, field research).

The field research, which explores the current state of Weis's stores, past uses of the stores, and the stores' surroundings, is perhaps the most fascinating part of the project. Venturing forth into the field is the best way to get an understanding of the company's past and the challenges that the company faces. Its stores operate in all kinds of markets: tiny, rural towns, medium-sized industrial cities, upper-middle-class suburbs, and even near large cities. Weis began in the smaller markets and never abandoned them as it moved into larger markets. As a result, the company has used various means to respond to these diverse markets.

Historian Wilbur Zelinsky describes the information that can be gleaned by the armchair historian by venturing into the field:

The truly observant traveler will quickly realize the connectedness of geography and history and begin to appreciate the role of the particular place and community within the encompassing matrix of time and space, to grasp the global via the local, and, at the personal scale, to perceive his or her locus within the larger scheme of things.

The explorer should be equipped with a few essentials: camera, notebook, and /or tape recorder, the best possible map, and whatever good guide literature is available. ... What should one look at? Office buildings and shops have received scant notice even though they offer special insights into the past and an evolving present. In scouting older downtown blocks, the observer should not only note street-level features but also gaze upward. The second and third floors of the more venerable edifices usually nakedly reveal the initial architecture, whereas downstairs new modern materials, colors, and renovations, interesting in themselves, mask the original intent. Attention should also be paid, especially by the would-be photographic archivist, to our volatile strip malls and shopping centers.

(Wilbur Zelinsky, “Geography,” from Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth, [Randall M. Miller and William Pencak, Eds.],