Grocery Archaeology

Except not really, as the 50-store chain has gone out of business . Our contributor Atlas K. has offered photos of his apron from when he was an employee of the chain. That's all the memorabilia we have for today, but I promise Grocery Archaeology is coming back soon with coverage of store locations!

We don't have to go too far back in our collective memories to get to White Rose, a wholesaler out of Carteret, NJ that went bankrupt in 2014. Its retail stores, under the DiGiorgio group, included Met and Pioneer supermarkets, which were consolidated with the Associated and Compare brands to form the Associated Supermarket Group. White Rose products were continued to be produced by C&S Wholesale Grocers of Keene, NH, which acquired the wholesale arm of White Rose, until about two years later. (While Met and Pioneer sold White Rose, Associated and Compare sold Super A. Today, all four brands use the Avenue A private label.) The above products were spotted at a convenience store in Newtown, CT. And when my Goodwill had a box of matches (albeit a very damaged one) for $1.99 - and it was even half price day! - I had to buy it. So here's an absurdly large number of pictures of every angle of this box that you've probably never cared about seeing. The copyright date ...

Well now, it's been a while since we've heard from Grocery Archaeology, hasn't it? And we're back with some more Pathmark items. Because, why not? There's really no story to the cotton balls package, but this bandage sat in my grandmother's closet in the original box, I'm sure, for a long time, but by the time I got to it, it was simply in an unlabeled plastic bag with other random loose bandages. I took it and put it in my wallet actually for several years before realizing in the event of an injury it would be completely useless. I believe it's safely away in the archives by now, and while I do keep a bandage in my wallet, I am a proud TopCare user.

Why don't you stop by your friendly neighborhood Pathmark and... oh wait a minute. This name tag dates back to the 1970s, when my aunt worked at the Elmora location . My father (her brother), on the other hand, decided to get a job with his friends at... Foodtown across the street, which is now long gone . (You can, however, still see the faint marks left from Joey's name.) Love the midcentury modern design on this name tag though!

And you ain't kiddin', brother. The above patch, which measures about 4" in diameter, most likely came from the grand opening of the Elizabeth, NJ ShopRite  in 1994. This sticker, however, which has long lost its stickiness, is more recent, although I don't have a date. Most likely not from after 2002, when the logo was changed.

For your holiday enjoyment, here's a 1992 discount card from Kings Food Markets, based in West Caldwell at the time (now one town west in Parsippany). Kings later ended the Signature Club, only to bring back a similar loyalty program sometime around 2016. Now, the sale prices advertised in the circular are only available with the card.

Here's a little something to tide everyone over until The Market Report returns on January 1st! A few more random grocery bags from my own collection, following up on my first post on The Market Report. A pre-2002 ShopRite bag. Go fresh, go local with these Pathmark bags. Not sure on a year, but probably close to the final bankruptcy. I feel like I've posted this White Rose bag before, but you're gonna see it again anyway... And this one will be memorabilia soon enough, with LIDL's takeover of Long Island-based Best Market: Not a supermarket bag, but an old retail bag nonetheless: From the Elizabeth location. This one goes out to my friends at A&P Preservation . The 1990s Bravo logo makes an appearance on this bag. Not sure where it's from. And we're finishing up with this bag from Kings. I believe I posted this one previously but now we get to see both sides... Over and out for now. Happy holidays! Come back to The Market Re...

Original Tenant:  Finast (First National Stores) Address:  1303 N Broad St, Hillside, NJ Opened:  ca. 1960 Closed:  Unknown Later Tenants:  Hillside IGA (??-??), Drug Fair (90s-09), Walgreens (09-18), Save-A-Lot (18- ) Although this store is located within the city limits of Hillside, a suburban town tucked in between Elizabeth and Newark, two of New Jersey's largest cities, it's in the far southeastern corner of the municipality. Therefore, it's actually closer to the Twin City Supermarket in Elizabeth than the ShopRite of Hillside, which was posted yesterday on The Market Report. The store's rather unusual facade comes from its years as a Drug Fair and is not unlike other former Drug Fair locations in Verona  (formerly A&P) and Belleville . Other views are quite difficult from Google Maps due to the trees surrounding the building. The store backs up to the Oheb Shalom Cemetery (to the right above) and borders the Evergreen Cemet...

Original Tenant:  ACME Address:  24-28 Fair Lawn Ave, Fair Lawn, NJ Opened:  1951 Closed:  1963 Later Tenants:  Foodtown (??-??), The Food Showcase (??- ) Former Acme located all the way to the right of this mall. Based on the timeline here, I'd bet that it originally looked like this location in Fair Haven, which you can view on Acme Style here . In the early 50s, Acme was beginning to phase in strip-mall locations, while maintaining the style of the earlier 1940s street-front locations. As with many 1950s malls, limited parking in the front with a larger lot in back. It was also common to see the angled spaces, which have been kept here. Now for some historic aerials... 2012 Not much has changed since 2012. The Food Showcase, a Kosher supermarket, takes up the right half of the building. 2008 2002 1995 historic aerial is really low-quality, so we're skipping right from 2002 to 1987. Nothing to see in between anyway. 1987...