The Weis Markets on South Broad Street reopens Thursday, Nov. 12, four months after a July storm peeled part of the roof off the building and forced the store to close.
A Weis spokesperson confirmed the date to LNP | LancasterOnline. The store at 740 S. Broad St. has been closed since early July.
What happened in July
The damage came during the Fourth of July weekend storms that ended a run of triple-digit heat in Lancaster County. Over two days, heavy rain and high winds closed roads, brought down trees and left tens of thousands of PPL customers without power. Gusts reached 60 mph at Lancaster Airport on July 4, and PPL later ranked the event among the 10 most significant in its history for outages and damage, LNP reported at the time.
The Lititz Weis lost a section of its roof on the evening of Sunday, July 5. Weis spokesperson Dennis Curtin said then that a small number of employees and customers were evacuated safely. By the next morning the entrance was taped off, with large pieces of rubber roofing membrane on the ground and roofing, security and electrical contractors in the lot.
Four months of workarounds
The pharmacy came back first. On Aug. 11, Weis reopened it in a modular building in the parking lot, reached from the West Seventh Street entrance, so customers could keep filling prescriptions and getting vaccinations while crews worked on the store, according to the company’s announcement. Before that, Lititz pharmacy customers had been directed to the Weis on Fruitville Pike.
“Our construction team is making steady progress, and we expect to reopen in the late fall,” Curtin said in August. The company said it has served Lititz for more than 60 years.
The store opened in 1964 and was remodeled and enlarged in 2009, LNP reported. Sunbury-based Weis runs about 200 stores, 13 of them in Lancaster County.
What to know Thursday
Weis has not announced changes to the store’s layout or departments. Shoppers can check the Lititz store page on weismarkets.com for hours and for when the pharmacy moves back inside. The pharmacy number is 717-626-8507.
Also opening Thursday
It’s a busy day for openings in Lititz. Cartel Brewing plans a soft launch of its new Extended Play location at Rock Lititz at 3 p.m. Thursday, in the space formerly occupied by Fetish Brewing, Breweries in PA reported. It is Cartel’s second location operating under its own license.
Cartel says it will stay open while the back of the space is reworked, with brewing equipment due to move in by the end of November. The concept centers on live music and a hi-fi listening lounge, with a small consignment shop for vinyl records. Food will be limited to snacks at first, with plans to expand. A formal grand opening could come in December or January.