Nearly every item inside closed Fayette County grocery store was expired, landlords say

HOPWOOD, Pa. (KDKA) -- A local Fayette County supermarket has unexpectedly closed its doors.

The Fayette County Sheriff's Office padlocked the doors of the Save Well Supermarket in Hopwood last week after a court order was filed against the renters for lack of payment. The landlords and owners of the building filed a lawsuit saying their renters have failed to pay their rent for months.

"They defaulted on making $8,000 payments per month. We filed suit and had them eventually ejected from the property," said Thomas Shaffer, an attorney representing the landlords.

Once the renters were evicted, the landlords said they were able to go inside and that's when they found tens of thousands of dollars worth of expired food on the shelves.

"We walked in, we got hit with this stink from all the meat that had spoiled. Literally, we had taken, not just me, but eight dumpsters of expired food out of here," Shaffer said.

From meat, dairy products, chips and baby food, nearly every product inside the store had an expiration date. The owners told KDKA-TV that some products even had fake labels stuck on them to hide the real expiration dates.

"Just a waste. We have all these hungry people out here and they're putting high prices, putting labels over expired foods and stuff. It's just terrible," said former customer Brenda Pitts.

Cleaning crews could be seen inside the store Wednesday working to bag up all the food and throw it away. The owners said their renters owe them $97,000 in addition now to the costs for clean-up.

They said since they've been inside, they've also found receipts showing the renters owe their suppliers more than $430,000 for products. They said they also found a document showing they were apparently operating on an expired food facility license.

"I think the health department should still investigate that matter and fine them appropriately for what they have done. They were for approximately two weeks selling food when they were unauthorized to do so," Shaffer said.

Shaffer said so far, there have been no reports of anyone getting sick.

Save Well Supermarket was formally known as Adrian's Market. Shaffer said the building has been providing groceries to the Hopwood and Uniontown areas since the 1960s. Shaffer said the renters moved into the building in October of 2023 and stopped making rent payments a few months in.

KDKA-TV reached out to the renters' attorney who said the case is currently under litigation and had no further comment.

The owners of the building say they're hoping to find new management soon to reopen the store to provide the community with quality food.