Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 215 N Hermitage Ave, West End, Trenton, NJ Opened:  1961 Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  Vereen Thriftway (1970s-1980s) > Vereen IGA (1980s) > Super Thrift (1980s-1997) > Foodtown (planned, never opened) > Supreme Food Market (early 2000s) > Supreme Shop n Bag (early 2000s-late 2000s) Photographed:  January 2021 The Westside Plaza in the West End neighborhood of Trenton is 50,000 square feet of retail space, with 34,000 square feet originally occupied by an early A-frame or pitched roof ACME that opened in 1961. You can read a lot of detail on the history here , and I summarized the progression above. Plainfield, NJ-based Supremo Food Markets most recently took over the space, around 2000 or shortly thereafter, but chose to call the store Supreme Food Market instead of Supremo. Within the first few years, the store became a Shop n Bag under the same owners, before closing between 2005 and 2010. Unfortunately, bec...

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 1320 Parkway Ave, Ewing, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1982 Later Tenants:  converted to SuperFresh in 1982, closed 2003, became CVS in 2005 Photographed:  January 2021 Just about next door to Marrazzo's Market , today's store tour, is this 19,000 square foot former supermarket at Parkway Avenue and Scotch Road in Ewing Township. It was built in the 1960s as a Centennial A&P, then converted to SuperFresh with the Philadelphia-area ones in 1982 before closing in 2003. CVS opened in 2005. Tomorrow, we head into Trenton's city limits for a look at a former supermarket in the northwestern part of the city here on Grocery Archaeology!

I know I keep saying this, but we're really down to the end here. Basically just two more cities to see before finishing out New Jersey altogether: Trenton and Camden. We begin Trenton by checking out some places to the north of town and then moving into the downtown area before heading east of town. We'll start with Ewing to the northwest of Trenton tomorrow, then move through the city of Trenton itself from west to east, then make a few stops in Hamilton and back to Lawrence to the east and northeast of Trenton. This is a fairly short group, and we'll be spending just under two weeks here before moving on. Let's start with a look at a supermarket in Ewing on  The Independent Edition  tomorrow along with a former supermarket just up the street here on Grocery Archaeology!

Original Tenant: Thriftway Address: 660 Plainsboro Rd, Plainsboro, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Asian Food Markets (??-2020) Photographed:  February 2021 Yesterday we saw the brand-new Asian Food Market in Plainsboro Plaza , and they moved out of this 20,000 square foot location a little more than a mile east of Plainsboro Plaza. If memory serves me, this store was built as a Thriftway in the 80s (or possibly a Shop n Bag?) and later became an AFM around 2000. This store had closed just about 6 months before I visited, right before the new one opened. Quite the difference between the new store's interior and this one's interior (see here and here ). So far, I haven't heard of any tenants (grocery or otherwise) that are interested in this space. Unlikely, I think, that another supermarket would be interested in the space. Here's the entrance/exit on the left side of the storefront. I'm unclear on what the layout was, but I believe the grand...

Original Tenant: SuperFresh Address: 10 Schalks Crossing Rd, Plainsboro, NJ Opened:  1988 Closed:  2000s Later Tenants:  Planet Fitness Photographed:  February 2021 We return to Plainsboro where A&P's SuperFresh division built a 40,000 square foot store in 1988 (pictured here). Around the early 2000s, SuperFresh moved into the former 82,000 square foot Caldor at the other end of the Plainsboro Plaza, then closed in 2013. In February 2018, Key Food owner Kevin Kim opened a new SuperFresh in 42,000 square feet of the space, coinciding with a renovation of the whole mall's facade (see before here ) which we toured back in July 201 8 . It then closed in October 2018, and by August 2020, the Asian Food Markets at the other end of town had moved into the space, closing their older location. The current Asian Food Markets is today's other post , and tomorrow we'll check out the former location here on Grocery Archaeology along with a small grocery store in the same st...

Original Tenant: Saker ShopRite Address: 4437 NJ-27, Kingston, South Brunswick, NJ Opened:  1970s Closed:  1996 Later Tenants:  Retro Fitness Photographed:  January 2021 Technically within the borders of South Brunswick Township, where we saw a ShopRite yesterday, we have a 35,000 square foot former ShopRite also previously owned by the Sakers. Today, it's a Retro Fitness and is referred to by them as Princeton (but of course, since Princeton is a big name, everything within a half-day's drive of here is called Princeton). The Montgomery ShopRite opened in 1996 as a replacement for this store, roughly two and a half miles northwest. Tomorrow, we are heading directly into downtown Princeton for a tour of the downtown's main supermarket on The Independent Edition !

  Folks, we've finished up Hunterdon and Warren Counties after spending the last three weeks or so there. And now we move on! I mentioned at the end of Hunterdon that we were circling back up north along the Delaware River, so now we're moving about 30 miles southeast of our  last stop  to jump into our next group, the greater Princeton area. Now, as I mentioned, we unfortunately aren't going to see the entire southern portion of the state (just because it's so far from me and I never end up going there). But before we finish New Jersey, we are going to hang around the three remaining cities in the western central part of the state. We'll start with the Princeton area, then moving on to the Trenton area just to the south and then the Camden area to the south of that. But around Princeton, we'll start to the northeast of the town, returning once again to the Brunswicks for South Brunswick, then traveling west and south through Montgomery, Princeton itself, Plains...

Original Tenant:  Food Fair Address: 680 Memorial Pkwy, Phillipsburg, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  1979 Later Tenants:  Food Lane (1979-2001) > Ahart's Market (2001-2017) Photographed:  January 2022 Returning to the Ahart's in Phillipsburg almost five years after its closure to see what was going on with the property. To my surprise, the building remains and is still abandoned. For some background, we begin with my own pictures of the store in business in 2016, then the news of the closure , then the news of the intended replacement . The site is no longer advertised as available, but there's also no evidence of any progress going on at all. Ahart's had locations in Phillipsburg, Bethlehem, Allentown , Bath, and Blakeslee. Phillipsburg closed in 2017, Bethlehem closed in early 2021 with renovations to convert the store to a new Ideal Food Basket well underway, and Allentown closed in November 2021 with plans to replace it with a Grocery Outlet. Bath and Blake...

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 25 S Union St, Lambertville, NJ Opened:  1951 Closed:  1997 Later Tenants:  Raspino's Supermarket (1998-99) > Lambertville Municipal Courthouse & ACME Screening Room (2001- ) Photographed:  January 2021 Welcome to Lambertville! This is a favorite tourist stop along the Delaware River that separates New Jersey from Pennsylvania, and the small town is home to 3900 residents and a beautiful downtown along Bridge Street which, you guessed it, brings you to the bridge between NJ and PA . It's directly across from New Hope, PA, and while Lambertville was once home to two supermarkets -- this ACME and an A&P -- today it has none and the nearest is across into New Hope, where we'll be making a stop on our travels through Pennsylvania! Acme Style has extensive history on this store, along with photos of the store in business, at their post here . Sadly, the building was not open at the time of my visit so I had to settle f...

Original Tenant: A&P Address:  49 Old Route 22, Clinton, NJ Opened:  1970s Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  demolished Photographed:  June 2020 The 1970s saw a lot of new construction for A&P, especially in the northwestern NJ area. Just in the past few weeks, we've seen Califon , Belvidere , Andover , the original Vernon store, Budd Lake ... you get the picture. Here in Clinton, the earlier 1950s store next door was replaced by this store around the middle of the decade, it seems. The roughly 30,000 square foot store lasted with its original signage right until the end in 2015 when this store closed without a buyer. In mid-2021, the store was finally demolished for a new redevelopment that includes smaller-scale retail and affordable housing, but I was lucky enough to get the store before it was touched! There's a lot of great coverage of this store out there already, but I needed my own collection of pictures. For the highlights, check out Acme Style's...