Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: Kings Food Markets Address: 64 Mountain Blvd, Warren, NJ Opened: unknown Closed:  January 2021 Later Tenants: vacant Photographed: June 2, 2023 Very quick return today to the former Kings in Warren, NJ, which I extensively covered a while back here . There's no visible change inside, but a new tenant has signed a lease for the space, and it's confirmed to be a grocery store , although it's not been announced yet just who that is. While I certainly don't have any inside information, I can offer a few observations and guesses. I couldn't photograph it, but I could see it: just inside the entrance is a table with blueprints on it. Sadly I couldn't read what was on them, but that to me makes it likely the new tenant will be an independent or small-chain supermarket, like a Green Way (which has taken over Kings stores in Ridgewood and Maplewood ) or some Key Food affiliate. Any larger operator -- like Trader Joe's or LIDL, for insta...

Original Tenant: Stop & Shop Address: 790 US-46, Parsippany, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1982 Later Tenants:  Kings Food Markets (1982-1983) > ShopRite (mid 1980s-2000) Photographed:  March 2020 Much like nearby West Caldwell , just four miles east, this mall was constructed as a Stop & Shop/Bradlees combination. The Stop & Shop was roughly 33,000 square feet with the Bradlees, now Home Depot, just shy of 100,000 square feet. When Stop & Shop left New Jersey in the early 80s, like West Caldwell, the supermarket was sold to Kings but unlike the others, the Kings lasted barely a year. Soon after closing, Sunrise ShopRite (owners of the West Caldwell store ) took over the space, then constructed a huge 64,000 square foot location just next door in 2000 (now expanded to 82,000 square feet). Kings, by the way, is based here in Parsippany where we'll be spending our next week or so. Our other post today is a small independent store in an outparcel of ...

Original Tenant: Mayfair Foodtown (?) Address: 430 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  1990s Later Tenants:  Kings Food Markets (1990s-2013) > New York Marts (planned, never opened) Photographed:  November 2020 Tucked away behind the Stop & Shop and former A&P in Berkeley Heights is a second strip mall, once home to a Mayfair Foodtown and later Kings Food Market at the far back. I don't know much history here, but Kings closed up shop in 2013, moving down the street about two and a half miles to a former Pathmark in Gillette . As far as the origins of the building, I know nothing beyond looking at Historic Aerials to find that the building was constructed between 1963 and 1970, then expanded at least once. The main thing that intrigues me is the building's large size -- at 39,000 square feet, it would be easily one of the largest Kings stores out there and much larger than what most supermarkets were building in the 1960s. I...

Original Tenant: Safeway Address: 516 Millburn Ave, Millburn, NJ Opened:  1940s Closed:  by 1962 Later Tenants:  Kings Food Markets (1967-1980) Photographed:  December 2020 Today's store is a very small 3100 square foot store that started as an early Safeway and later became an outpost of local chain Kings Food Markets, whose first store opened in 1936 just under two miles west in Summit. Unlike most Safeways in New Jersey, this one did not become a Finast, I'd assume because of its small size, and it may have closed before the rest of the stores were sold to Finast. The ShopRite in Springfield half a mile west of this store was a later Safeway that became a Finast and then a ShopRite. In 1980, when this store closed, it moved three-quarters of a mile northwest into a former Stop & Shop. Check out that tour here . Up next we have a quick update to another supermarket in town over on The Market Report !

For your holiday enjoyment, here's a 1992 discount card from Kings Food Markets, based in West Caldwell at the time (now one town west in Parsippany). Kings later ended the Signature Club, only to bring back a similar loyalty program sometime around 2016. Now, the sale prices advertised in the circular are only available with the card.

Here's a little something to tide everyone over until The Market Report returns on January 1st! A few more random grocery bags from my own collection, following up on my first post on The Market Report. A pre-2002 ShopRite bag. Go fresh, go local with these Pathmark bags. Not sure on a year, but probably close to the final bankruptcy. I feel like I've posted this White Rose bag before, but you're gonna see it again anyway... And this one will be memorabilia soon enough, with LIDL's takeover of Long Island-based Best Market: Not a supermarket bag, but an old retail bag nonetheless: From the Elizabeth location. This one goes out to my friends at A&P Preservation . The 1990s Bravo logo makes an appearance on this bag. Not sure where it's from. And we're finishing up with this bag from Kings. I believe I posted this one previously but now we get to see both sides... Over and out for now. Happy holidays! Come back to The Market Re...

Original Tenant:  Kings Food Markets Address:  390 Main St, East Orange, NJ Opened:  1952 Closed:  Unknown Later Tenants:  Tropical Sun Supermarket (2001- ) One of the earlier Kings Food Markets opened here in East Orange in 1952. The chain had been founded in 1936 in nearby Summit. Kings has long been an upscale chain catering to an affluent suburban clientele, making this location in East Orange (one of the lowest-income and highest-crime cities in the state) a slightly strange choice. However, East Orange was once an extremely wealthy city. The construction of Interstate 280 through the city contributed to its decline in the 1950s. Kings apparently thought the location could support one of their supermarkets early in that decade. The flat-roof sections to the right and in the back appear to be additions. Today, the store's main entrance is in the back, which faces the parking lot. It appears that the original entrance faced the street, altho...