Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: Penn Fruit Address: 3949 US-130, Pennsauken, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  Jewel T > subdivided Photographed:  January 2021 This unnamed strip mall at US-130 and Federal Street in Pennsauken is constructed around a roughly 16,000 square foot arched-roof Penn Fruit, which was later expanded to about 31,000 square feet. That became a Jewel T discount food store, and was later subdivided with Family Dollar taking the left side and part of the Save-A-Lot in the right side. The rest of the Save-A-Lot may have been a bank or other smaller business next to the supermarket. An overview of the whole strip mall from a conveniently-placed pedestrian walkway over route 130. You see how there's a raised section in the middle of Family Dollar's ceiling? I couldn't quite figure out what that is when I was in the store, but I think it's in the middle of the arch where the building roof is higher. The rest of the ceiling is much lower, as we ...

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: A&P Address: 6103 Westfield Ave, Pennsauken, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  by 1982 Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  January 2021 Just across the street from the Associated Supermarket in Pennsauken is this roughly 16,000 square foot former A&P, built in the 1960s as a centennial model and closed by 1982, when A&P turned their Philadelphia area stores over to SuperFresh. It doesn't look like this one ever became a SuperFresh, but it's possible. The centennial facade has been altered a little, but it's still there for sure. For at least the last 10 years, it's been an adult day care facility. Tomorrow, we're heading about half a mile south of here out to route 130 for a look at another former supermarket in town!