Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: SuperFresh Address: 4357 Swamp Rd, Doylestown, PA Opened:  1987 Closed:  2009 Later Tenants:  GIANT Food Stores (2009-2021) Photographed:  December 28, 2021 We are here to check out the former Doylestown GIANT, which was built as a SuperFresh in 1987. The roughly 50,000 square foot store was sold to GIANT Food Stores in 2009, which renovated and reopened it. The facade, however, remains from the store's days as a SuperFresh. The new store opened just weeks before I visited, meaning I saw the old store immediately after its closure. I assume it's no longer so intact. Because when I took a look inside, it looked like they basically shut off the lights and called it a day... There's only so many places I could get a good view of the interior, but when I could see in, I could see that the supermarket was fully intact back there. A smaller window in front of what was the beer and wine department gives us a slightly better view of the interior, s...

Original Grocery Tenant: Country Food Market Address: 203 W State St, Doylestown, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  still Country Food Market; no longer a food store Photographed:  July 22, 2021 Well folks, today's store is a rather strange one. Anyone can look at this picture and know immediately that wasn't originally a food store; it was a diner . And a Jerry O'Mahony diner no less, manufactured in our favorite, Elizabeth, New Jersey. (For readers who may not be aware, Elizabeth is the city all of my family is from.) But it later became a florist shop and then the Country Food Market, a small convenience store. It's directly across the street from yesterday's Simply Fresh . Interestingly enough, it seems that McCaffrey's has actually bought this store and it's now more of a tobacco/news store, since I suppose it's redundant for McCaffrey's to have another grocery store right across the street. It still confuses me, though, sin...

  We have taken a brief look at northwestern Bucks and Montgomery counties, and now we're going to move through the northeastern segments of these counties from south (Warminster area) to north (Ottsville area). This one will be a little longer than the northwestern sections, and we'll be spending around a month in this part of the state before moving on to the Lehigh Valley. We'll be making stops in Warminster, Warrington, New Britain, Doylestown (where we'll spend a little more than a week), New Hope, Point Pleasant, Plumsteadville, Dublin, Perkasie, Ottsville, Quakertown, and Pennsburg. Most of those are very small towns where we'll only spend a day or two, with about a week and a half in Doylestown. Let's start with a post on The Market Report tomorrow in Warminster! Did you see all of this weekend's updates and special reports? If not, check them out here... Special Report: Green Life Market - Wayne, NJ Special Report: SuperFresh (future) - Downtown Cl...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 514 Van Houten Ave, Passaic, NJ Opened:  1970s Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Food Basics (closed 2016) > Gala Fresh Farms (2016-2018) Photographed:  January 5, 2023 We are returning to the former Passaic Gala Fresh Farms /Food Basics/A&P on Van Houten Avenue for a quick look at what the store is like today. Unfortunately, the roughly 30,000 square foot store has been subdivided into three spaces rather than being left intact, and even more unfortunately, two of those three spaces have been taken by dollar stores, with Family Dollar and Dollar Tree each taking around 10,000 square feet. (I don't particularly like any dollar store, and certainly not one of these Family Dollar-Dollar Tree combo stores.) The good news is that part of this building will become a SuperFresh. I mentioned this on yesterday's post about the upcoming Clifton SuperFresh , and this will be Passaic's second SuperFresh . It's not clear to me ex...