Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: Food Fair Address: 12 Arlington Ave, Bloomfield, NJ Opened: 1950s Closed: 1970s Later Tenants: Mayfair Foodtown > Edwards > 99 Cent & Discount Depot Photographed: June 2020 We're returning to this store just around the corner from yesterday's ALDI . We first saw this store back in April 2019 (holy cow, that was two years ago already) and I linked to Styertowne, who has fantastic coverage of this location here . I wanted to get back to visit this store myself, if only for my own collection! Another shot of the storefront. I love this facade but unfortunately the owners have let it fall into disrepair. Not only is the paint peeling off the arches, the arches themselves (which are actually wood, not steel, in this location; perhaps it was an early variation) are beginning to disintegrate. As Styertowne mentions, the interior has been recently remodeled and functions as a supercenter for the area, with everything from furniture to groceries and home

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address:  31 Belleville Ave, Bloomfield, NJ Opened:  1951 Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  February 2021 One of our three stores today is a quick look at this former ACME in Bloomfield. The 8100 square foot location originally faced Belleville Ave (which is now on the left side of the strip). It closed by the 1970s and was integrated into the Stop & Shop mall that was built around it. Today, that Stop & Shop is a SuperFresh and we can see just the tip of that building to the far right in the above image. Make sure to also check out the SuperFresh and the Foodtown downtown , and head over to The Market Report tomorrow for our next Bloomfield store!

Original Tenant:  A&P Address:  17 Hoffman Blvd, Ampere, East Orange, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Megna Photographed:  July 2020 I was thrilled to stumble upon this store while driving from Orange to Belleville (and yes, I do mean stumble; it took me several trips around the block before I could get a parking space and was going the right way down the one way street). A 6,000 square foot A&P, this store even came with a parking lot which has since been walled in and converted to a storage yard by the stone importer. Ampere has always been the most affluent neighborhood in East Orange, meaning that when this store was built it was one of the most desirable places to live in Essex County. Though the neighborhood doesn't today have a supermarket, it's likely served by the large SuperFresh Food World (formerly Pathmark) just to the north in Belleville, which we'll be touring in a few days. First, though, we're going to pass

Original Tenant:  Mayfair Foodtown Address:  12 Sussex Ave, East Orange, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1990s Later Tenants:  99 Cent & Discount Depot > Planet Fitness Photographed:  July 2020 We're heading to the south of interstate 280 (and to the east of the Parkway) to see this former supermarket on the eastern border of East Orange. Now if you can believe it... this former Mayfair Foodtown (which may have been built as a Food Fair, I'm not sure) actually stayed abandoned until around 2010 when 99 Cent & Discount Depot moved in and fixed up the place. Check out these Google Maps street views from 2007 here and here . Foodtow! But seriously... I'm pretty clearly seeing this logo on that pylon. Could that logo have been up all the way to the end? That means it was still sporting that logo while the rest of the Foodtowns moved on to this logo , this logo , and some maybe even to the current one . Today, the store and its accompanying strip mall

Original Tenant:  Village ShopRite Address:  407 Main St, East Orange, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1987 Later Tenants:  C.H. Martin > Lot Stop Photographed:  July 2020 The earlier Village ShopRite in East Orange was here all the way at the eastern end of town. It was also -- not accidentally -- located directly across the street from a Kings Food Market . In 1987, this location was replaced by the newly built ShopRite of Brick Church downtown according to JoshAustin610 . A question for any folks from East Orange... did this 6700 square foot store with no parking lot really survive all the way until 1987? My theory is that this store didn't make it that long, but instead was replaced in 1976 with a former Good Deal at 563 Central Ave , which then moved 11 years later. Village, to my knowledge, bought several Good Deal stores in the 70s, which would make a bit more sense to me. Anyway, our next and final stop on Main Street is the independent supermarket directly

Original Tenant:  unknown Address:  407 Main St, East Orange, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Lee's International Food Market Photographed:  July 2020 Lee's International Food Market had a store here at 407 Main St in East Orange, but moved a while back to 401 Main at the other end of the same building. Check it out here over on The Independent Edition . Our next stop is a former supermarket just to the east here on Grocery Archaeology!

Original Tenant:  A&P Address:  411 Main St, East Orange, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  unknown Photographed:  July 2020 Today's former supermarket is towards the eastern end of East Orange, near the border of Newark, where we'll be seeing our next six stores before we head into Newark itself. There are at least two former A&P locations here in East Orange, but interestingly enough they aren't really on the radar of most of us supermarket fans. In fact, JoshAustin610 doesn't even list either, nor does A&P Preservation . Both of those sites have an immense amount of retail history, and I can't exactly claim more knowledge than them -- I just happened upon this one and the next one, which we'll see a bit later. Other than the window arrangement (which has since been boarded up) and the peak in the middle of the storefront, this location is an exceedingly plain 6500 square foot building. This makes me think th

Original Tenant:  Pathmark Address:  35 Lackawanna Plaza, Montclair, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  under construction Photographed:  May 2016 Today's stop is back along Bloomfield Avenue after taking a quick detour a mile and a half to the south yesterday for the West Orange Whole Foods . Unfortunately, this sign is the best we're going to do as far as coverage of the Lackawanna Plaza Pathmark in Montclair, as the rest of the store is invisible from the street. You can see lots more coverage on Styertowne's Flickr . The Pathmark closure was the nail in the coffin for the dying indoor mall partially built from a former train station, and redevelopment plans have lagged due to conflicts with local residents who seek to limit traffic and development in the neighborhood. A past proposal can be viewed here , with LIDL as the supermarket anchor . LIDL seems to since have pulled out and the property recently changed ownership. There are stil

Original Tenant:  ACME Markets Address:  225 Bloomfield Ave, Verona, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  DeCozen Chrysler Jeep Dodge Photographed:  December 2018 Today's snapshot is a quick look at one of the few former pitched-roof ACME locations in northern NJ, along with Garfield that we saw a short time back here and here . Today, the building is obscured by the new facade installed by current tenant, DeCozen Chrysler Jeep Dodge. If I'm not mistaken, the 17,000 square foot building was also previously a food importer's warehouse. Today, the pitched-roof is beautifully exposed inside and looking great! For what it's worth, a pitched-roof ACME in Nanticoke, PA , also was converted to a car dealership building. And Verona is currently served by a Kings residing in a former Pantry Pride . We will be making a brief detour off of Bloomfield Avenue to the south to West Orange tomorrow on The Market Report . Stay tuned!