Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: Food Fair Address: 101 W Crescent Blvd, Collingswood, NJ Opened:  1949 Closed:  early 1960s, by 1968 Later Tenants:  Teamsters offices Photographed:  January 2021 We arrive at the Collingswood Food Fair, built in 1949 with a beautiful arched roof and tower. The store is 18,000 square feet but was apparently closed by the early 1960s . It later became a toy store and the current Teamsters offices by 1968. I love that the tower is still there, and that the arched roof is clearly visible from all directions! I assume this wall that we see would've been the front wall of the store, although I suppose it's also possible the front wall faced route 130, to the right in the above photo. I'm not too familiar with arched-roof stores of this design that had the aisles from side to side of the arch, instead it was more common for the front and back of the arch to be at the front and back of the aisles. Tomorrow, we'll be jumping a few towns to the south t...

  We're at the end here, folks! After over a year making our way up and down the whole state, we have come to our last group. And now we're down to the last week and a half or so of posts for the Garden State. We begin to the southeast of the city of Camden (unfortunately, no posts within the city limits of Camden) and continue more or less east along route 70 to Marlton. And then we finish up with one stop down towards the Delaware Memorial Bridge before finishing up New Jersey! Highlights include our final NJ Supremo, a heck of a lot of ACMEs, a couple of chains we've never seen before, and four former supermarkets around this area. Check out our first store tomorrow on  The Market Report !

Original Tenant: Penn Fruit Address: 3949 US-130, Pennsauken, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  Jewel T > subdivided Photographed:  January 2021 This unnamed strip mall at US-130 and Federal Street in Pennsauken is constructed around a roughly 16,000 square foot arched-roof Penn Fruit, which was later expanded to about 31,000 square feet. That became a Jewel T discount food store, and was later subdivided with Family Dollar taking the left side and part of the Save-A-Lot in the right side. The rest of the Save-A-Lot may have been a bank or other smaller business next to the supermarket. An overview of the whole strip mall from a conveniently-placed pedestrian walkway over route 130. You see how there's a raised section in the middle of Family Dollar's ceiling? I couldn't quite figure out what that is when I was in the store, but I think it's in the middle of the arch where the building roof is higher. The rest of the ceiling is much lower, as we ...

Original Tenant: Mayfair Foodtown Address: 5100 N Crescent Blvd, Pennsauken, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1991 Later Tenants:  unidentified Thriftway (1991-mid 90s) > Brown's Thriftway (mid 90s-1999) > Supremo Food Market (1999-ca. 2010) > Trujillo Thriftway (ca. 2010-ca. 2015) Photographed:  January 2021 This store, located at the corner of Browning Road and Crescent Boulevard (route 130) in Pennsauken, has quite the history which I'm going to attempt to piece together here. The earliest tenant I could find for the property was Mayfair Foodtown, which may or may not have been the original tenant (Mayfair, and Foodtown in general, tended to move into closed stores rather than build their own, but it's hard to say here). Mayfair closed in 1991 here, selling the store to a Thriftway owner who I haven't been able to identify. By the mid-1990s, that owner went bankrupt and the store was sold to a former ShopRite owner, later Melmarkets Foodtown executive, Stev...

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 6103 Westfield Ave, Pennsauken, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  by 1982 Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  January 2021 Just across the street from the Associated Supermarket in Pennsauken is this roughly 16,000 square foot former A&P, built in the 1960s as a centennial model and closed by 1982, when A&P turned their Philadelphia area stores over to SuperFresh. It doesn't look like this one ever became a SuperFresh, but it's possible. The centennial facade has been altered a little, but it's still there for sure. For at least the last 10 years, it's been an adult day care facility. Tomorrow, we're heading about half a mile south of here out to route 130 for a look at another former supermarket in town!

Original Tenant:  Clover Mall Address: 1105 US-130, Cinnaminson, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1990s Later Tenants:  ACME Markets (1990s-2011) Photographed:  January 2021 I was not aware that construction on the former ACME space in Cinnaminson had begun (10 years after the store closed, by the way), so that significantly limited my ability to take pictures of the store. However, I did manage to get a few exterior shots of the store as it is being converted into what appears to be a storage facility based on the logo in this rendering . But Acme Style has extensive photos of the store immediately before its closure in 2011. I got only as much (photo-wise) as I could, unfortunately, with the whole store area fenced off for construction. But still nice to see an in-progress update to the 2011 photos. Speaking of former supermarkets, as I so frequently am, don't forget to check out today's other post at the former Penn Fruit across the street here , and tomorrow w...

Original Tenant: Penn Fruit Address: 1402 US-130, Cinnaminson, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  Shop n Bag (1970s-??) > Talk of the Town (??-??) > Portobello Farm Market (??-ca. 2009) > Gold's Gym (ca. 2010-2012) > Bottom Dollar Food (2012-2015) Photographed:  January 2021 We arrive in Cinnaminson for a look at two different stores, both former supermarkets. This one has quite the history which I've pieced together with JoshAustin610's records , opening as a Penn Fruit and then cycling through a variety of banners and owners before becoming Bottom Dollar in 2012. (Incidentally, if I'm not mistaken, Talk of the Town was a relatively short-lived high-end gourmet market concept by Wakefern, one of several they tested over the years.) If you compare today's exterior pictures to JoshAustin610's 2010 picture linked above, you can see the similarities but that Bottom Dollar did exterior renovations. They also, of course, redid the entire i...

Original Tenant: ShopRite Address: 4355 US-130, Edgewater Park, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1968 Later Tenants:  Pathmark (1968-2013) Photographed:  January 2021 Just across route 130 from yesterday's ACME is this former Pathmark, which closed in 2013 just before ACME completed its renovation. For various reasons, the space remains vacant today and in basically the same condition as when Acme Style visited back in 2014. This store was built in the 1960s as a Supermarkets General-owned ShopRite, which converted to Pathmark in 1968. The store at its closing was 62,000 square feet, or just slightly larger than the ACME, but appears to be constructed around an original building of about 28,000 square feet. Let's begin our look at this property with the pharmacy door to the right... This section is located in what was likely a former department store to the right of the Pathmark's original space. Today, the right portion of the building is occupied by a Big Lots and a ...