Grocery Archaeology

The Elizabeth Daily Journal started publication in Chatham, NJ as the New Jersey Journal, later moved to Elizabeth and was renamed in 1787. Remarkably, the newspaper was published until 1992, and my grandmother saved a few issues of the paper, mostly from the 1970s and 80s. While recently cleaning out her attic, I flipped through some of the papers on a hunch that I might find some supermarket ads. I was right. This Foodtown ad comes from a July 16, 1975 edition of the paper, when Foodtown had I believe two locations in Elizabeth and multiple in the surrounding communities. Its parent company, Twin County Grocers, was based just to the south in Edison. Unfortunately, though, this ad does not list the local locations at the time of publication.

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: Big C Department Store Address: 2465 S Broad St, Hamilton, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1980s Later Tenants:  Davidson Foodtown (1989-1999) > SuperFresh (1999-2010) > subdivided Photographed:  January 2021 A&P had a 1960s-era store just to the northwest at 2130 S Broad , which closed in the 1970s. This 62,000 square foot store opened in the 1970s as a Big C department store before becoming a Davidson Foodtown in 1989 , which then sold to SuperFresh in 1999. It's unclear if the Davidsons who owned this Foodtown were the same Davidsons who owned the New Brunswick locations on George St (later CTown and now Bravo) and Elizabeth St (later Estevez Foodtown and now Food Universe). The space has been subdivided, with Ollie's Bargain Outlet (good stuff cheap!) taking the right half and a gym taking the left half. There's still a supermarket at Independence Plaza, though, as a Save-A-Lot has opened up in the front part of the mall closest to Broa...

Original Tenant:  Michas Brothers Foodtown Address: 350 N Main St, Wharton, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  subdivided - Wharton Farm Market & Rite Aid > Walgreens Photographed:  July 2020 Interesting stuff here in Wharton just north of route 80, and we saw the ShopRite just south of route 80 yesterday. This 25,000 square foot anchor to the Wharton Mall was constructed probably in the 1970s by the Michas Brothers, later Manyfoods, whose other stores we saw a while back also. Probably when Manyfoods went out of business around 2003, this store would've been closed (and also not sold, likely hurting from the new nearby ShopRite). Looks like I scared off those two cars who were in the first picture. Anyway, around that time the Foodtown was cut in half, with Rite Aid (now Walgreens) taking the right half and a farmers market taking the left half. There isn't much left from Foodtown, but the Wharton Farm Market (aka the Wharton Farm Pro...

Original Tenant:  Foodtown Address:  451 Ridgedale Ave, East Hanover, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1999 Later Tenants: CVS Photographed: March 2019 Our third East Hanover store today is this former Foodtown in downtown East Hanover separated from the ACME and Pathmark on route 10. The 12,600 square foot store was built in the 1950s or so by a Foodtown owner. JoshAustin610 calls it Ross's Foodtown, but this store was also by the end of its life a Michas Brothers/Manyfoods location whose Whippany ( earlier and later ) and Cedar Knolls ( earlier and later ) locations we recently saw which all were closed or sold by 2003. Oddly, this CVS lacks a sign on the side of the store with the only sign facing out to the street. I believe there was an older store here in town, but I don't know for sure. There doesn't seem to have been a replacement for this store, and it lasted all the way until almost the end of Manyfoods. Tomorrow, we move up to 46 in the eastern part of ...

Original Tenant: Foodtown Address: 831 NJ-10, Whippany, Hanover, NJ Opened:  1991 Closed:  ca. 2000 Later Tenants:  Pathmark (ca. 2000-2011) > Farmtastic Supermarket (2014-2015) Photographed:  June 2020 Part 2 of our Pine Plaza coverage deals with this larger supermarket, built in 1991 by Michas Brothers Foodtown as a replacement for a much smaller store in a former A&P next door, which is part 1 . Michas Brothers (later Manyfoods) sold the 35,000 square foot store to Pathmark around 2000, which in turn closed in 2011 as the 20-year lease expired. In Cedar Knolls , we saw a Michas > Manyfoods > LaRacca Foodtown which then closed in early 2014. Well, a few months after the LaRaccas closed Cedar Knolls, they opened this location as Farmtastic Supermarket which lasted all of about 18 months before closing for good in mid to late 2015. As I mention in the A&P post, Pine Plaza is in an extensive redevelopment process which involved clearing out all of t...

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 831 NJ-10, Whippany, Hanover, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1980s Later Tenants:  Foodtown (1980s-1991) Photographed:  June 2020 We arrive at the massive Pine Plaza in the Whippany section of Hanover Township once again after initially taking a look at the closed Farmtastic Supermarket back in 2018 . We're revisiting the Farmtastic location today as well, but the older supermarket in the mall is this centennial A&P, built in the early 60s and closing in the early to mid 80s. By the mid to late 80s, the A&P had become a Foodtown, which by 1991 moved down to an expansion of the plaza. Pine Plaza's property occupies nearly 20 acres of land but is completely vacant, awaiting redevelopment. Check out the Farmtastic post for more info on where the development is and what's happened lately. Tomorrow, we have two stores (one here on Grocery Archaeology and one over on The Market Report ) to finish out our Greater Morristown group!

Original Tenant: Stop & Shop Address: 225 Ridgedale Ave, Cedar Knolls, Hanover, NJ Opened: 1973 Closed:  1980 Later Tenants:  Foodtown (1980-2014) Photographed:  June 2020 What's today the Cedar Knolls Plaza was originally a small enclosed mall, the Morris County Mall, featuring a Bradlees at the north end and a Stop & Shop at the south end. The Bradlees today is a Walmart, which is not a Supercenter, and the Stop & Shop became a Michas Brothers Foodtown in 1980. In 2002, the supermarket was switched to Manyfoods, also owned by the Michas brothers, and remained under the name Foodtown; the same year, William Louttit purchased Manyfoods from the Michas family. The following year, Manyfoods was liquidated, closing its River Vale and Wanaque stores (and in fact, I believe the latter briefly became a CTown) while Cedar Knolls was purchased by the LaRacca brothers, who owned several other nearby Foodtowns. The 30,000 square foot supermarket finally closed in 201...