Jim Ranck is currently celebrating 35 years in the Fareway at the Market (formerly Chestnut Hill Farmers Market), far longer than any other merchant in the market. (Photo by Len Lear)

by Len Lear

The Chestnut Hill Farmers Market, now called the Market at the Fareway, has seen dozens of businesses come and go since it opened in 1982, but the only one that remains from those salad days when you could hardly negotiate your way around because of the beehive crowds is Ranck’s Lunchmeats, which is currently celebrating 35 years in the market. You might say that Ranck’s started out in the market as anonymous as cattle, but they wound up leading the herd.

“People’s eating habits have changed since the beginning,” said owner Jim Ranck, 58, a potent elixir of hope, savvy and charm who has been there since the beginning. “They don’t know what they will have for dinner. They’ll buy a sandwich but won’t make it. This will probably eventually be a food hall with everything already prepared. Supermarkets have more already-prepared foods than ever before. I’d like to work another four years if I can.”

His words tumbling out like dice, Ranck explained that his business even goes back way before 1982, “My father, Glenn, started in the ‘50s going door to door selling eggs, sausage and bacon when we lived in Quakertown. We moved to Northeast Philly in 1956. In 1957 he opened in the Germantown Farmers Market, so we have been on the avenue for 61 years, as long as there have been traffic lights.”

The Rancks’ stand was in the Germantown Farmers Market from 1957 until the market closed in 1992. The family also operated in the Olney Farmers Market from the late ‘60s until it closed in 1994. And they were in the Cowtown Farmers Market in South Jersey from 1975 to 1985 and Elmer’s Farmers Market in Northeast Philly from 1998 to 1990.

For many years the Hill market had things pretty much to themselves among customers who put a premium on farm-fresh foods because their products were generally superior to those of the only supermarket in Chestnut Hill, formerly a Pathmark and now an Acme.

In the winter time, area residents enjoyed roasting marshmallows over the fire outside the Market at the Fareway.

However, in May of 2010 Weavers Way opened just one and a half blocks away in a building previously occupied by Caruso’s Market for 100 years.

Many businesses in the market were afraid they would lose some of their customers to Weavers Way, but Ranck told the Local at the time that he was not concerned. “I was right,” he said last week. “Initially there was a drop in business, but after about six months, it was back to normal.”

Then the second shoe dropped. Fresh Market opened in January, 2016, where Magarity Ford had been for many years, across the street from the Hill market. Before it opened, several merchants in the Farmers Market lamented in a Local article that they would be devastated by Fresh Market, that they would wind up getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop.

For example, "I can't imagine how a bigger market going there is not going to hurt us," said Claudette Campbell, owner of Calypso, a Trinidadian eatery that is no longer in the market. "Eventually it's gonna be our demise. People who are unaccustomed to ethnic flavors might try prepared food at the Fresh Market and think it’s great and find no need to cross the street and visit the Farmers Market.”

However, Ranck was quoted in the article as saying: “I think it’s going to be the best thing to happen in Chestnut Hill in a long, long time. I think it will bring people in for food and shopping who have never been in Chestnut Hill before.”

Was Ranck or the Cassandras correct in their predictions? “Again, business was down at first,” said Ranck, “but we got back to normal in a few months, even more quickly than with the Weavers Way situation. People always want to try something new, of course. And I think I was right that people came in to Fresh Market from outside the area and later came in here. Every week I see new faces in here.”

The Ranck family has had its share of tragedy, however. In 1991 Ken Ranck, Jim’s brother, then 41, was unloading his truck early one morning at 5th and Fisher in Olney when a 17-year-old boy approached him with a gun and demanded money. Ken was apparently too shocked or in disbelief, and the young thug proceeded to shoot him. Ken bled to death in the street.

Although he was a teenager at the time, the killer, Michael Howard, was tried as an adult, convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Now 44 years old, he is in Graterford Prison. However, since the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a sentence of life without parole for a minor is unconstitutional, there is a real chance that Howard will be released from prison in the not-too-distant future. Ranck family members recently went to court to ask a judge to keep Howard in prison, but they feel the judge was not particularly empathetic to their plea. "I wrote a letter to Howard years ago, but I haven't mailed it yet," said Ranck. "I say in the letter that I forgive him.”

Jimmy attended Cedar Grove Academy, a small private school in Northeast Philadelphia, and Lancaster Mennonite High School. He currently lives in Southampton, Lower Bucks County, with his wife, Carol, a nurse at Holy Redeemer Hospital. They have three daughters — Jillian, 24,who is finishing grad school at East Stroudsburg College in speech therapy; Jennifer, 26, a nurse at Fox Chase Cancer Center, and Jacqueline, 33, a special ed teacher in New Jersey.

Back at the Market at the Fareway, Jim said, “The new brewery/pizza place is bringing a new element in here in the warmer weather.” Regarding the controversy concerning nearby neighbors who protested the new outdoor facility serving beer, Jim said, “I don’t think Ron Pete (owner of the farmers market) did anything wrong …

“We have people from Germantown coming up here who shopped with us when we were there decades ago. We even have customers from 5th street in Olney, but we all have to figure out how to appeal to millennials, or we won’t be here. When I look at the obituaries in the Local, I usually know the people.”

For the month of April, Ranck’s has a special on hot dogs — 35 cents — and their own roast beef and turkey breast are $4.99 a pound. More information at 215-247-5557.