Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant:  Mayfair Foodtown Address: 52-56 Westfield Ave, Clark, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1989 Later Tenants:  A&P (1989-2006) Photographed:  December 2020 Quite the relic here in downtown Clark. This 24,000 square foot building was built as a Mayfair Foodtown, later being sold to A&P in 1989. A&P, in turn, moved a little over a mile northwest to the location that's now ACME in 2006. Since then, the space has remained vacant, with A&P even holding on to the lease until 2012. The township, then, condemned the space in 2018 with plans to forcibly acquire the store by eminent domain, although I'm not sure where those plans stand now. As much as a retail relic like this excites me, I also understand it's quite the eyesore in a downtown location. The building's exterior has deteriorated extensively over the years, with paint peeling and mold forming around the walls. I believe the panels above the doors here are something to do with vent...

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 2661 Morris Ave, Union, NJ Opened:  late 1950s Closed:  1968 Later Tenants:  Village ShopRite Photographed:  September 2016, March 2019, & May 2020 Our next stop is this 40,000 square foot former supermarket on Morris Ave, just down the street from Gold Valley in Springfield. Built as a 21,000 square foot 1950s-era ACME, then expanded out three sides, this building later hosted a Village ShopRite until 2014. Since I don't know of any other cases where Village directly acquired a former ACME, I think it might actually be more likely that Good Deal moved in around 1970 before selling to Village in 1976, as was the case in Millburn just about a mile northwest. (Also, whoops... the first few pictures in this post are repeated from my previous post . Sorry.) You can see a lot more about the history of this store, as well as the other former ACME in Union which we'll be seeing shortly, over on Acme Style , who visited the Shop...

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 1865 Springfield Ave, Maplewood, NJ Opened:  1941 Closed:  1960s Later Tenants:  Rite Aid > East Side Fitness Photographed:  March 2019 We're making a brief stop here in Maplewood, a small town in the northeastern corner of Union County. Despite the town's small size, we've actually seen two stores here, the Kings downtown and the Extra near the Irvington border . Springfield Avenue is a major thoroughfare, and we've seen many stores along it: to the east, the Newark ShopRite , the Newark Save-A-Lot , the former ACME and Supremo in Irvington; and to the west, the Vauxhall Whole Foods ,  The Meat House and Kings in Summit, and the ACME in New Providence . Today's 6500 square foot store was built in the early 1940s as an ACME, with Rite Aid moving in in 1985 . Up next we're going to be moving to the south to Union, where we'll be seeing a former supermarket tomorrow right here on Grocery Archaeology!

Original Tenant: Food Fair Address: 2933 Vauxhall Rd, Vauxhall, Union, NJ Opened:  1962 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Drug Fair > Walgreens Photographed:  November 2020 The Walgreens, formerly a Drug Fair, at the back of this strip mall in Vauxhall just a quarter of a mile from yesterday's Whole Foods  was built in 1962 as a Food Fair. For more information and a daytime picture, see here . The store is 21,000 square feet. Despite the fact that the plaza is called the Millburn Mall, this property is definitely part of Union Township. Fun fact: that was the first Five Guys I ever went to (back when I lived in Union Township). Our next store will be in downtown Maplewood, so head over to The Market Report to check it out!

Original Tenant: ShopRite Address: 40 Park Ave, Summit, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  1975 Later Tenants:  W. A. Birdsall Photographed:  January 2019 Contributor:  Laura Today's snapshot is this 7200 square foot former ShopRite to the southeast of downtown Summit. It's a bit hard to visualize what the building would've looked like as a supermarket, but I can't imagine W. A. Birdsall plumbing supplies has made extensive changes to the exterior. This store has since closed up shop, leaving the storefront vacant. Our contributor Laura, who works near this location, has offered us this shot of the exterior as it looked in January 2019. I returned in January 2021 for my own shots of the store... The building has been rented, but it's unclear by whom or what exactly they're going to do with the space. In 1975, the ShopRite moved about three quarters of a mile to the northeast to a former Finast over the border into Springfield. That store, which is still open as a Shop...

Now here's where it gets fun! Having covered Bergen/Passaic, Essex, and Hudson Counties, we are moving towards the south along the eastern part of the state. My coverage of New Jersey is very north central-centric, meaning that Essex and Union counties are probably my beefiest groups. So, I've decided that as we move through the rest of the state, we'll be seeing things in smaller groups. We're beginning with the northern and central suburbs in the city, starting with the city of Summit in the northwestern corner of the county, then moving through the central areas in Springfield, Maplewood, Union, Kenilworth, Garwood, Westfield, and Clark. We're doing things a bit thematically, covering mainly the suburbs and avoiding Elizabeth to the east and Plainfield to the southwest -- for now. We have posts all over the place, but we'll start in Summit on The Market Report tomorrow! And for a fun bonus post, check out the remodel at the  Foodtown in Caldwell  today also!