Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant:  Mazur's Foodtown Address: 390 US-206, Hillsborough, NJ Opened:  1969 Closed:  1990 Later Tenants:  Cost Cutters (1990s-2008) > vacant Photographed:  January 2021 Just south from today's other store, the Weis Markets on 206 in Hillsborough , is this former Foodtown. A local blogger has a fantastic history of the store here , which you should absolutely go read before we move on. In the 1990s, as Hillsborough transitioned from a solidly rural community to a solidly suburban community, big-box retail sprung up with the new housing. To the north, Pathmark located itself in the Hillsborough Promenade; to the south, Village Super Market opened a ShopRite in Nelson's Corner, and Edwards set up shop in the Hillsborough Centre. These larger, modern supermarkets collectively put the smaller, older locations of this Foodtown and A&P. Today, everything has changed almost: Pathmark is now Weis; Edwards became Stop & Shop, which then closed and w...

Original Tenant: Mayfair Foodtown Address: 120 Orlando Dr, Raritan, NJ Opened:  ca. 1987 Closed:  mid-1990s Later Tenants:  Edwards (mid-90s-2001) > Stop & Shop (2001-2017) Photographed:  January 2021 There's nothing like shopping at one of the Saker ShopRite superstores, and it seems Raritan customers agree. Six years after the Somerville location opened on the site of a former Pathmark, Stop & Shop announced they were closing this 51,000 square foot Raritan location just half a mile away from the new ShopRite. The store dates back to the 80s as a Mayfair Foodtown, which later became an Edwards and then a Stop & Shop, and remains vacant so far. Tucked away in the back of the Raritan Mall off of Route 206 (but largely inaccessible from the highway), this Stop & Shop had a rough time for quite a while. As early as 2012, Acme Style reported that the store was suffering from the ShopRite's opening. (They had more coverage in 2018 here .) The Hillsb...

Original Tenant:  Foodtown Address:  141 S Main St, Manville, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  2004 Later Tenants:  The ARC of Somerset County Photographed:  June 2020 Our second store in Manville (see the other here ) is this former Foodtown at the south end of town. I got it from a different angle from Josh Austin, who photographed the store back in 2014. The building has been extensively modified for its current function as offices for the ARC of Somerset County, an organization serving those with disabilities. The 12,000 square foot building closed as Foodtown in 2004, leaving Manville with no supermarket today. There is, however, an Aqui Market just to the north in the Finderne section of Bridgewater. And tomorrow, we're heading into Somerville and Raritan for a store each on  The Market Report  and here on Grocery Archaeology!

Original Tenant:  A&P Address:  114 N Main St, Manville, NJ Opened:  mid-1990s Closed:  2011 Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  June 2020 Our first of two former supermarkets here in Manville, today a supermarket-free town (although the mall containing this former A&P does have a Walmart). This 1990s store at the north end of the downtown was a replacement for an older store at the Rustic Mall just a block south, which has since been demolished . Interestingly, despite the store's relatively recent construction and modern format, it was only 30,000 square feet, being wide but very shallow. There seems to have been plenty of space on the property to construct a larger store, so I wonder why that didn't happen. Josh Austin got a picture of the space before it was subdivided here , and Dan Asnis captured some interior photographs too. Our next stop is at the south end of downtown Manville, which you can check out here . And tomo...

Original Tenant: Food Fair Address: 513 W Union Ave, Bound Brook, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  Saker ShopRite (late 70s-1998) > subdivided Photographed:  July 2020 This former ShopRite in Bound Brook is about 21,000 square feet and was replaced in 1998 by the newer store , which we're also touring today. It opened in the 1970s as a replacement for an older store at 260 W Union Ave (and presumably a consolidation of the small store at 84 Main St in South Bound Brook ). ShopRite moved in here after the Food Fair that previously occupied the space closed. Tomorrow, we're moving to the west to see our first store in Bridgewater on The Market Report !

Original Tenant: ShopRite Address: 242 Lincoln Blvd, Middlesex, NJ Opened:  1968 Closed:  1984 Later Tenants:  Pathmark (1984-2015) > Price Saver Fresh Marketplace (April 2019-September 2019) Photographed:  July 2020 We're starting to the northeast of Somerville with a look at this 59,000 square foot store (which includes a liquor store to the far right of the building). It was built in the 60s as a  ShopRite , notably not owned by Supermarkets General, then taken over by Pathmark in 1984. Pathmark closed in A&P's final bankruptcy in 2015, then remained empty until four years later when a Supermarkets Plus-owned store called Price Saver Fresh Marketplace reopened the space after some light renovation. (Previous efforts by Supermarkets Plus included the Elizabeth location, which lasted about two years, and West Milford , which seems to do okay. That's due in large part to the support from the newly-independent Associated Supermarket Group.) This particu...