A series of financial troubles led to Penn Traffic's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in November 2009, and sale of assets to Tops Markets in early 2010.

[1] At the time of sale, Penn Traffic was the parent company for 79 retail supermarkets in the Northeastern United States, concentrating mostly in Central New York.

Over the years, Penn Traffic evolved first into a general-merchandise department store and later a large retail and wholesale supermarket company.

[3] Riverside, founded in Brookville, Pennsylvania, in 1928, became part of the Penn Traffic family in 1962, and began developing the Bi-Lo format in the 1980s, unrelated to the chain in the Mid-Atlantic.

Penn Traffic operated a total of 34 supermarkets under the Quality trade name in southwestern New York and northwestern Pennsylvania.

Penn Traffic's flagship department store in Johnstown, challenged by economic decline, permanently closed after the 1977 flood.

Miller, Tabak, Hirsch & Company, a New York City-based investment group, began its takeover bid for Penn Traffic in 1986.

Until 2010, Penn Traffic operated 70 P&C supermarkets serving the Syracuse metropolitan area and other communities in Upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.

During this time, Penn Traffic entered the Buffalo, New York and Erie, Pennsylvania markets with the Quality trade name and made substantial investments to enhance its store base and distribution network, while maintaining steady growth in cash flow and profitability.

In the Columbus market, prices did not uniformly drop and competitors, including Kroger and Meijer regularly beat Big Bear in third party cost comparisons.

To address this challenge, in early 1999 Penn Traffic negotiated an agreement with bondholders to restructure more than $1.1 billion in bond debt.

Panagos sold the Big Bear division, shuttered unprofitable stores, cut overhead and gave the underfunded pension plan back to the PBGC.

[9] In December 2008, Penn Traffic entered into a definitive agreement to sell its wholesale business segment to C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. On November 18, 2009, Penn Traffic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following second-quarter 2009 losses of $7 million, the highest loss ever for the company, missed loan payments, and slower shipments from suppliers.

[10] On January 25, 2010, Tops Markets' bid was signed off by a federal judge in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and was awarded the sale of all 79 Penn Traffic stores.