Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: Pathmark Address: 175 Passaic Ave, Kearny, NJ Opened:  1990s Closed:  2012 Later Tenants:  LA Fitness Photographed:  June 2020 Today's snapshot is just across the street from the former Foodtown . This Pathmark was built in the 1990s on the site of the original Two Guys from Harrison (later just Two Guys) department store. Before I really got into retail history, my family would talk about having shopped at Two Guys but I didn't realize it was an extremely local company (being based, of course, in Harrison, NJ, which borders Kearny to the south). That said, my knowledge of this location is somewhat limited so you can see more history here . We can see that today, LA Fitness has kept almost all of Pathmark's facade, just painted it a different color. It actually looks pretty good today! Our next stop is a quarter of a mile south on Passaic Avenue, and is the only remaining supermarket in this immediate area. Head over to The Market Report tomorro...

Original Tenant:  Vitale Foodtown Address: 274 Passaic Ave, Kearny, NJ Opened:  with rest of mall Closed:  by 1998 Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  June 2020 Today's former supermarket is on Passaic Avenue in Kearny, which once was a major shopping hub. This mall had a Kmart and a Foodtown, the mall across the street had a Two Guys that later became a Pathmark, and a ShopRite was just down the street. The primarily industrial area just to the south is being redeveloped into residential and retail spaces, making this once again a retail center. The Foodtown has been subdivided and the Kmart is barely hanging on; the Two Guys/Pathmark is now an LA Fitness, and a Marshalls is also in that mall, the ShopRite is still there and busier than ever, and a new BJ's was built between the Foodtown/Kmart and ShopRite malls. We'll see the ShopRite tomorrow on The Market Report !

Our next (fairly brief) stop in our tour of New Jersey is Hudson County! We've extensively covered the northern parts of the county previously, with Union City and West New York covered here . We've also been to Harrison and Jersey City previously. We're back for some more stores, more extensively covering the areas we haven't been to yet. We're going to start to the west of the Hackensack River for stores in North Arlington and Kearny, before crossing the river and passing through the Hackensack River Waterfront, Bergen-Lafayette, and Downtown/Newport in Jersey City; then over to Hoboken, circling north for one more store in Union City, and finishing out Jersey City with the Heights in the northwestern corner of the city. Lots of good stuff coming up, so head over to The Independent Edition for tomorrow's tour! HOUSEKEEPING:  I know a lot of the links have been wrong lately, and I believe they've all been fixed. However, there might still be a few broken...

Original Tenant:  Sidney Cohen's Economy Shop-Rite Market Address:  565 S Livingston Ave, Livingston, NJ Opened: ca. 1950 Closed:  ca. 1965 Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  June 2020 We wrap up our Essex County coverage with this former ShopRite, which according to a 1956 Wakefern member directory was the Economy Shop-Rite Market owned by Sidney Cohen. Livingston also had a former ShopRite at the north end of the town, which was not that big -- a former Safeway which was expanded by Village ShopRite. This store was later purchased by Village and combined with the northern location into the existing ShopRite by 1968, but has been expanded and renovated beyond recognition since. You can tour it here . Make sure to see our other store today, the Kings in town, here . Tomorrow, we have one final store here in Livingston before wrapping up Essex County altogether, so check it out on The Independent Edition !

Original Tenant:  Dave's Market Address:  184 Essex St, Millburn, NJ Opened:  1940s Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  ShopRite > CTown Supermarkets Photographed:  March 2019 ShopRite is the undisputed leader of the New Jersey grocery market, and operator Village Super Market has a location just a quarter mile outside of town that's been in that location since 1976. There was at least one other former ShopRite in Millburn, a little over a quarter mile to the east of this location at 249 Millburn Ave . If that store opened in the early 60s, it was likely a replacement for this one. This location is actually a landmark store for the Wakefern group. Prior to the store's ShopRite affiliation, it was Dave's Market owned by Dave Fern. I might have explained this previously, but Wakefern (the cooperative that runs ShopRite stores, formed in 1946) is named after a portmanteau of the original members' names: Weiss, Aidekman, Kesselman, and Fern. B...

Original Tenant: Safeway Address: 516 Millburn Ave, Millburn, NJ Opened:  1940s Closed:  by 1962 Later Tenants:  Kings Food Markets (1967-1980) Photographed:  December 2020 Today's store is a very small 3100 square foot store that started as an early Safeway and later became an outpost of local chain Kings Food Markets, whose first store opened in 1936 just under two miles west in Summit. Unlike most Safeways in New Jersey, this one did not become a Finast, I'd assume because of its small size, and it may have closed before the rest of the stores were sold to Finast. The ShopRite in Springfield half a mile west of this store was a later Safeway that became a Finast and then a ShopRite. In 1980, when this store closed, it moved three-quarters of a mile northwest into a former Stop & Shop. Check out that tour here . Up next we have a quick update to another supermarket in town over on The Market Report !

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 880 Springfield Ave, Irvington, NJ Opened:  1951 Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  July 2020 Okay, so I uh... didn't do my homework on this one. I was under the impression the ACME was here where the 99 Cent Depot is now, but it wasn't. (The 99 Cent Depot, by the way, is actually two floors with a basement, so it's more likely an old department store.) JoshAustin610 identifies the building all the way at the corner, or all the way to the right in my picture, as the actual former ACME. However, I was not under the impression that ACME was still building 6600 square foot stores as late as 1951; the Dollar Tree building looks to me more like a former ACME at 13,000 square feet. These buildings are at the far eastern end of the 800-900 block of Springfield Avenue, but the westernmost building of this strip now called Maple Spring Commons is a supermarket which we'll be touring tomorrow on The Market Report ...

Original Tenant:  Pathmark Address:  281-295 Ferry St, Ironbound, Newark, NJ Opened:  mid- to late-1990s Closed:  November 2015 Later Tenants:  ACME Markets > Seabra Foods Photographed:  January 2019 Moving next door from yesterday's former Pathmark to the replacement store, which was later taken over by ACME and closed in 2017. When I visited the property in January 2019, the store was completely closed up and work was progressing inside. This is what the store looked like as an ACME. Check out the original post  here . With a quick glance at the storefront, there was no obvious place where we could've seen inside. Plus, I didn't want to get too close with a Newark Police van parked outside the store (which you can see in the first image). One thing that is a little odd... the Pathmark stripe had been painted. Notice that it was the same beige as the rest of the facade in my 2016 ACME picture, but a darker gray by 2019. D...

Original Tenant:  Pathmark Address:  269 Ferry St, Ironbound, Newark, NJ Opened:  1970s Closed:  late 1990s Later Tenants:  SaveSmart Photographed:  January 2019 Our first store in the Ironbound, the historically Portuguese neighborhood of Newark, is this former Pathmark which is now a Save Smart discount department store. We've previously seen Seabra Foods stores in this neighborhood at 219 Chestnut and 123 Ferry , along with a Seabra's Market at 260 Lafayette St . The 34,000 square foot store was built as a Pathmark in the 1970s, closing in the mid- to late-1990s. At that time, it was replaced by a 60,000 square foot store just next door in the Ferry Plaza. Looking across the storefront to Ferry Plaza, where you can see the gray awning in the distance. The relocated Ferry store closed in 2015 with ACME taking it over in November of that year, then closing in 2017. See our coverage of the ACME here. Every one of Save Smart's ...

Original Tenant:  A&P Address:  130 Spruce St, Central Ward, Newark, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1980s Later Tenants:  Associated Supermarkets > Key Food Supermarkets Photographed:  January 2019 We are taking a look at a beautifully preserved (except for the roof, of course) former Centennial A&P just a couple of blocks northeast of yesterday's Extra Supermarket . The store has been abandoned for at least 15 years. Unfortunately, there's no way to really see inside. As I mentioned in the Extra post, the West Side has long been one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Newark, though it is being redeveloped. The storefront does not look to be altered since the A&P days, with the exception of the logo and the cupola at the top. This store's model would place it as being constructed just before the 1967 riots, but it doesn't seem to have closed immediately in the aftermath. Consistent with some of my own research regardi...

Original Tenant: Grand Union Address: 414 Main Street, Belleville, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  2001 Later Tenants:  Foodtown > A&P > Food Basics (closed 2015) > Fine Fare (2016-2017) > Bell Farm (2017-2019) Photographed:  June 2020 We've crossed the border briefly just about a mile north of the Newark city line to the suburb of Belleville. This 32,000 square foot store is one we've visited before , but I returned after it closed for good in the summer of 2020. It's currently being prepared, according to property owner RIPCO, for a new LIDL. For the record, although I know I've mentioned this before, I strongly dislike LIDL. The property owners did an exterior renovation on the whole strip, which still had its Grand Union facade (remember that was five stores ago when Bell Farm opened), and it looks nice if a bit bland. Notice that the sign we see here is the same sign that was previously on the old facade, but now reading "supermarket" instead...