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Showing posts from November, 2021

107 Morristown Rd, Bernardsville, NJ

Original Tenant:  A&P Address:  107 Morristown Rd, Bernardsville, NJ Opened:  1959 Closed:  1978 Later Tenants:  Jaeger Lumber > Village ShopRite extension Photographed:  June 2020 Today's store is one of three Bernardsville stops. It was built in 1959 as a fairly standard A&P centennial model, but closed in 1978 -- probably from the competition from ShopRite next door and ACME (later Kings ) across the street, and the fact that there was no ability to expand on this property. Occupied by an outpost of local company Jaeger Lumber from 1982 to 1991, it was then taken over by Village Super Market, the owner of the ShopRite, as an extension of the 42,000 square foot grocery store. This store sold nonfood products that didn't fit in the rather small ShopRite, including gardening products and hardware. Check it out before its CVS conversion here . Make sure to tour both those stores above, and tomorrow we're heading out west to ...

430 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ

Original Tenant: Mayfair Foodtown (?) Address: 430 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1990s Later Tenants:  Kings Food Markets (1990s-2013) > New York Marts (planned, never opened) Photographed:  November 2020 Tucked away behind the Stop & Shop and former A&P in Berkeley Heights is a second strip mall, once home to a Mayfair Foodtown and later Kings Food Market at the far back. I don't know much history here, but Kings closed up shop in 2013, moving down the street about two and a half miles to a former Pathmark in Gillette . As far as the origins of the building, I know nothing beyond looking at Historic Aerials to find that the building was constructed between 1963 and 1970, then expanded at least once. The main thing that intrigues me is the building's large size -- at 39,000 square feet, it would be easily one of the largest Kings stores out there and much larger than what most supermarkets were building in the 1960s. I...

410 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 410 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  ca. 1970s Later Tenants:  Drug Fair (closed 2009) > subdivided Photographed:  June 2021 It might have a lot of modifications done, but you can recognize that A&P centennial facade from a mile away! This 16,000 square foot store was built as the anchor of this small strip mall in what might be considered to be the center of Berkeley Heights in the 1960s. A commenter on Flickr writes that A&P built in the 1970s the 36,000 square foot replacement store for this location at the other end of the strip mall, which later became Grand Union and then Stop & Shop, but JoshAustin610 says that the space was instead a Mayfair Foodtown before Grand Union. (To me, the store has neither the hallmarks of a 1970s A&P nor a 1970s Mayfair Foodtown, but that more likely means that Grand Union did extensive renovations after moving in. You can tour the store here , our ...

Coming Soon!

It's the Great Swamp, Charlie Brown! Tucked in between three highways (as so many things in New Jersey are) -- NJ-24 to the east, INT-287 to the west, and INT-78/US-22 to the south, the  Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge  is 7800 acres of protected land near the border of Morris, Union, and Somerset counties. And instead of grouping our next stores around a city, we're going to group them around the Great Swamp, which is just beautiful for hiking, by the way, along with the neighboring Lord Stirling Park in Basking Ridge and nearby Loantaka Brook Reservation in Morris Township. And if it feels like things have changed, they have -- we are out of the eastern part of the state, the congested Union, Essex, and Bergen/Passaic counties. We do have a tiny bit of Union left (New Providence and Berkeley Heights), but these are much more suburban towns bordering expansive green space. So for our next group, we're definitely in the suburbs, and as we continue north through the mid...

1220 South Ave, Plainfield, NJ

Original Tenant: ShopRite Address: 1220 South Ave, Plainfield, NJ Opened:  1961 Closed:  1968 Later Tenants:  Pathmark (1968-1980s) > Walgreens (1986-2001) > Times Farmers Market (??-ca. 2014) > Green Farmers Market (ca. 2014-2016) > Key Food Supermarkets (2016) > Fig Tree Market (2017-2019) Photographed:  July 2020 We're returning to 1220 South Ave here at the northern end of Plainfield, outside of downtown. The 16,000 square foot space has hosted no fewer than six different grocery stores during its 60 year life, and possibly more since I'm not sure what, if anything, was in here between Walgreens and Times Farm. I'm not sure whether it was related to Times Farm in Union . It seems that Fig Tree lasted a little less than two years, making it the second-shortest-lived store on this property behind Key Food . The entire property is slated for redevelopment now. It's always very sad to see the "now open" signage still up after the store closes f...

233 E Front St, Plainfield, NJ

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 233 E Front St, Plainfield, NJ Opened:  ca. 1940s Closed:  unknown; possibly late 70s Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  July 2020 I did a little bit of a double-take while walking through downtown Plainfield and seeing this storefront. Yes, that's half of an A&P! Check out some of these images to see similar storefronts. The 9900 square foot store has been sliced in half, with 99 Cent Welcome taking the right side and Family Dollar taking the left side and a little more, although there have definitely been other tenants in this place since A&P closed. (The Family Dollar previously only took up one storefront to the left, but has been expanded into the former A&P building. That half of the store was also previously a furniture store.) Now that brings up the question... when did A&P close here? Well, I suppose it's possible that they actually managed to last in this tiny street-front location until they moved...

907 Oak Tree Rd, South Plainfield, NJ

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 907 Oak Tree Rd, South Plainfield, NJ Opened:  late 90s Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  ACME Markets (2015-2018) > ALDI (2020-present) Photographed:  July 2020 Sadly, not a whole lot to see here at the former A&P-turned-ACME in South Plainfield. A&P moved here in the late 90s from the Futurestore across the street, which became a ShopRite in 2016. Check out pictures of the store as an A&P here and as an ACME here . The ACME did look pretty good especially after the Quality Built renovation, but the reality is (as much as I really do love ACME) none of their stores are half as good as the latest Saker ShopRites. So ALDI moved in to part of the space, opening in December of 2016 . I was hoping to get to the store before any substantial renovation was done so that I could take a look inside, but it had already all been demolished inside. ALDI moved here from a different, older former ACME just up Park Avenue in South Pl...

138 South Plainfield Ave, South Plainfield, NJ

Original Tenant: Food Fair Address: 138 South Plainfield Ave, South Plainfield, NJ Opened:  1959 Closed:  1965 Later Tenants:  Drug Fair (1977-2009) > Walgreens (2009-2016) > Dollar General (2020-present) Photographed:  July 2020 Just across the street from Green Olive is this 21,000 square foot former Food Fair, later Drug Fair and Walgreens before becoming Dollar General in early 2020. The construction for Dollar General actually revealed the wonderful midcentury modern tower sign under that boring rectangle on the far left of the building. It's unclear whether Dollar General dismantled and replaced that sign, or whether they simply built around it. Either way, this building is distinctly supermarket-like. I've mentioned the former A&P and Pathmark in South Plainfield several times now, so tomorrow we're going to get to take a look at both, one on  The Market Report  and one here on Grocery Archaeology!