Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 514 Van Houten Ave, Passaic, NJ Opened:  1970s Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Food Basics (closed 2016) > Gala Fresh Farms (2016-2018) Photographed:  January 5, 2023 We are returning to the former Passaic Gala Fresh Farms /Food Basics/A&P on Van Houten Avenue for a quick look at what the store is like today. Unfortunately, the roughly 30,000 square foot store has been subdivided into three spaces rather than being left intact, and even more unfortunately, two of those three spaces have been taken by dollar stores, with Family Dollar and Dollar Tree each taking around 10,000 square feet. (I don't particularly like any dollar store, and certainly not one of these Family Dollar-Dollar Tree combo stores.) The good news is that part of this building will become a SuperFresh. I mentioned this on yesterday's post about the upcoming Clifton SuperFresh , and this will be Passaic's second SuperFresh . It's not clear to me ex...

Original Tenant:  Inserra ShopRite Address:  122 8th St, Passaic, NJ Opened:  1994 Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  July 2020 Hard to believe this ShopRite only lasted 21 years. It was built as part of a large strip mall in an isolated industrial section to the southeast of the downtown area of Passaic. The 65,000 square foot store was expected to draw customers from all over but simply... didn't. It was incredibly poorly located in a city that had plenty of other choices, so the Inserras, who owned the store, didn't invest in it because it didn't make sense. The neighborhood is not a pleasant one, dominated by warehouses and factories, some abandoned. This simply doesn't make for a pleasant approach to a supermarket. The store drew from some of the residential areas just to the north, but being hard to get to from everywhere else other than there, the store just didn't make any sense to maintain. Closing in 2015, thi...

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 168 Jefferson St, Passaic, NJ Opened: 1948 Closed: 1967 Later Tenants: Olympic Town > Nohble Photographed: July 2020 A former ACME is now a clothing and shoe store (and very nicely renovated on the inside too, I might add). Check out some more info on this store here . The 10,000 square foot store occupied the northeastern corner of Hoover Avenue and Jefferson Street, with a former A&P on the southeastern corner. That'll be tomorrow's store tour, over on The Market Report !

Original Tenant: unknown Address: 36 Central Ave, Passaic, NJ Opened: unknown Closed: unknown Later Tenants: R&S Strauss Auto Stores > Passaic Fresh Market (2016-2018) > Dollar General Photographed: July 2020 I think it's very likely that this 12,000 square foot space started out as a supermarket originally, but by 2007 it was an R&S Strauss Auto Store. In 2016, the space was taken over by a store called the Passaic Fresh Market , which unfortunately closed just two years later. Today, the space is a Dollar General. I'd bet that it was just a very tough location with so many grocery stores within a two-block radius (including our next four stores) along with a Compare Foods two blocks south and the CTown just two blocks south of that. Tomorrow's store, over on The Independent Edition , is just across the street from this one!