Grocery Archaeology

Finast is not a name that means anything to many contemporary northern New Jersey residents, but in 1975, having acquired the area Safeway locations the previous decade, they had a significant presence around this part of the state. This ad was valid for locations in Essex, Union, Middlesex, and Monmouth counties -- let's say the northern part of central Jersey and the southern part of north Jersey, or I guess you could say from roughly Newark to the beginning of the shore. Okay, maybe I'm just a food snob, but I don't know... something about the "Boil n' Bag Gravy & Meats" isn't particularly appealing. (That said, it's very common in commercial food establishments to get frozen bags of soups and sauces and boil them to heat -- many of those actually come out great.) This ad was a great find to preserve a little bit of Finast's history in New Jersey! Tomorrow we're going to see a name with a little more staying power than Finast. Stay tuned...

 I know, I know. It's a lazy pun. But hey, it's spring break. And so I'm interrupting Spring Break to present a week of memorabilia, beginning with a collection of matchbook covers I bought at an antique store in Maine in the summer of 2019. We'll be spending the first four days of this week taking a look at matchbooks, then on to some other items I've found. Here's the first, from AG Stores (Associated Grocers of New England, I believe). AGNE still exists, although its presence is fairly small in New England. Other Associated cooperatives also exist across the country, although I'm not sure if there ever was any connection among them. I don't believe Associated Supermarket Group of New York (previously Associated Food Holdings) was ever affiliated with any of the other Associateds. Today, AGNE supports a variety of retailers from supermarkets to convenience stores. I get the feeling this was a rare find, since Clover Farm stores are of course long gone...

Original Tenant: Safeway Address: 811 Clinton St, Hoboken, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  1960s Later Tenants:  Finast > Vitale Foodtown > CVS Photographed:  December 2020 It's no secret that CVS has taken over a lot of former supermarkets. But this is actually the second Safeway-turned-Finast that CVS moved into that we've seen, the other being about ten miles southwest on Staten Island . This store is also 14,000 square feet, and although this is not of the Marina prototype, it is a barrel roof and it has a tower -- both of which are fully intact today! We can see the tiniest bit of the barrel roof peeking out on the left. Vitale Foodtown took the space upon Finast's closing, then moved up to 614 Clinton to the space that's now ACME . Our final Hoboken stop is going to be about half a mile to the northeast tomorrow, so head over to The Market Report to check it out!

Original Tenant: Finast Address: 216 Old Tappan Rd, Old Tappan, NJ Opened:  1980s Closed:  1998 Later Tenants:  Vitale Foodtown (??-1998) > A&P (1998-2015) > Estevez Foodtown (2015-2019) Photographed:  December 2020 Today's store is one I was very excited to get to. It's about three miles to the southeast of yesterday's former A&P , although you couldn't actually drive like that because there's a lake between the stores. This was a Vitale Foodtown until 1998, when it became an A&P. When A&P went under, it was taken over by Estevez Foodtown, which in turn closed in 2019 , leaving a 34,000 square foot vacancy in this strangely laid out mall. The store's interior has barely been touched since then. The store's interior was remodeled by Estevez, although the bones of the A&P decor remained just like Hastings-On-Hudson . Let's take a closer look for the labelscar... Okay, so we can definitely make out the A&P Fresh labelscar an...

Another Finast memorabilia post to continue yesterday's theme . This one was inside the same antique store that one was outside, in Searsport, ME. All sadly outside of my price range.

Spotted outside an antique store in Maine. Here's a box that would've been used to transport soft drinks to Finast stores, and a look at some of the drinks they would've taken. We have another antique-store Finast memorabilia post tomorrow!

Original Tenant:  Safeway Address:  1933 Victory Blvd, Castleton Corners, Staten Island, NY Opened:  1950s Closed:  early 1960s Later Tenants:  Finast > Super X > Revco > CVS Photographed:  March 2020 This building was built as a Safeway and later sold to Finast. JoshAustin610 has more details on the drugstore history of the building here . It's an early prototype of the Marina style , and a similar variation we can see in Atlantic Highlands, NJ . Today, the front wall, which would've been entirely glass, has been bricked over. Inside, the A-frame roof remains exposed, although there are is a drop ceiling at the angle. The approximately 14,000 square foot building makes for a very large CVS. We can see some of the windows still exposed on the front wall.

Original Tenant:  Finast (First National Stores) Address:  1303 N Broad St, Hillside, NJ Opened:  ca. 1960 Closed:  Unknown Later Tenants:  Hillside IGA (??-??), Drug Fair (90s-09), Walgreens (09-18), Save-A-Lot (18- ) Although this store is located within the city limits of Hillside, a suburban town tucked in between Elizabeth and Newark, two of New Jersey's largest cities, it's in the far southeastern corner of the municipality. Therefore, it's actually closer to the Twin City Supermarket in Elizabeth than the ShopRite of Hillside, which was posted yesterday on The Market Report. The store's rather unusual facade comes from its years as a Drug Fair and is not unlike other former Drug Fair locations in Verona  (formerly A&P) and Belleville . Other views are quite difficult from Google Maps due to the trees surrounding the building. The store backs up to the Oheb Shalom Cemetery (to the right above) and borders the Evergreen Cemet...