Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: ShopRite Address: 242 Lincoln Blvd, Middlesex, NJ Opened:  1968 Closed:  1984 Later Tenants:  Pathmark (1984-2015) > Price Saver Fresh Marketplace (April 2019-September 2019) > SuperFresh (coming soon) Photographed:  January 10, 2023 Just a quick revisit at the Price Saver Fresh Marketplace, previously Pathmark and ShopRite, in Middlesex, NJ. The space's history has been well-documented here on the blog , and we do have definitive confirmation that the space is set to become a SuperFresh. The SuperFresh/Food World 2023 calendar, which they were giving out at the Belleville location, has the locations listed on the back and this store was on it listed as opening 2023. Worth noting, though, that Roselle is not listed on that same list -- and, for one reason or another, the December 2023 calendar page says Wishing All Food Bazaar Customers a Merry Christmas. So I'm not entirely sure what to make of that all. As we can see in these two pi...

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 125 Bound Brook Rd, Middlesex, NJ Opened:  1955 Closed:  February 2022 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  March 2022 Our second former ACME of the day (see Morris Plains here ) is the most recently-closed ACME, and also one of the longest-running ones, having opened in 1955. It then closed in February 2022. We toured the store ourselves a while back, and now we're back to see how it's looking post-closure. Not much going on here at Middlesex, although we will see the store has been cleared out. I'm interested in whether this store will be seeing any new grocery tenants coming in. Middlesex is certainly an opportunity for another grocer, with little competition around. Our closest competitor is the Tropical Supermarket half a mile northeast in Dunellen with SuperFood Fresh a mile and a half southwest here in Middlesex. Tropical is a pleasant but small store, and SuperFood is excellent if a bit expensive. Middlesex is also...

Original Tenant: ShopRite Address: 242 Lincoln Blvd, Middlesex, NJ Opened:  1968 Closed:  1984 Later Tenants:  Pathmark (1984-2015) > Price Saver Fresh Marketplace (April 2019-September 2019) > SuperFresh (coming soon) Photographed:  December 2021 We return to 242 Lincoln Blvd for a whole lot more pictures. This is a long post, and if you're not interested in wandering around this entire property feel free to just read the introduction and move on. The real news here is that all indications point to this property being successfully sold to SuperFresh. The property, which has been vacant since September 2019, was the subject of one of my visits back in July 2020 . In the last year and a half, nothing has really changed. However, this Tweet appears to confirm what I heard from an inside source several months ago. My source told me that Howard Lee, who owns several SuperFresh stores in the area along with Food World in NY, had entered negotiations to purchase t...

Original Tenant: ShopRite Address: 242 Lincoln Blvd, Middlesex, NJ Opened:  1968 Closed:  1984 Later Tenants:  Pathmark (1984-2015) > Price Saver Fresh Marketplace (April 2019-September 2019) Photographed:  July 2020 We're starting to the northeast of Somerville with a look at this 59,000 square foot store (which includes a liquor store to the far right of the building). It was built in the 60s as a  ShopRite , notably not owned by Supermarkets General, then taken over by Pathmark in 1984. Pathmark closed in A&P's final bankruptcy in 2015, then remained empty until four years later when a Supermarkets Plus-owned store called Price Saver Fresh Marketplace reopened the space after some light renovation. (Previous efforts by Supermarkets Plus included the Elizabeth location, which lasted about two years, and West Milford , which seems to do okay. That's due in large part to the support from the newly-independent Associated Supermarket Group.) This particu...