Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant:  ACME Markets Address: 300 Gordons Corner Rd, Manalapan, NJ Opened:  1970s Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Rex-Gene Food Warehouse > Western Beef Supermarket > subdivided Photographed:  February 2021 I knew this 24,000 square foot space was a 1970s-era ACME, tucked away in the back of the Yorktowne Center in Manalapan, but I found while researching for the West Long Branch post that it had later become a Rex-Gene Food Warehouse and then a Western Beef (very briefly) before being subdivided into multiple spaces including a gym, as we see here. Check out the West Long Branch for more background on Rex-Gene and Western Beef. Make sure to see today's other post at the other end of the mall, Buddy's Marketplace , over on The Independent Edition. Tomorrow we're heading back over to route 9 to check out two more stores just to the north -- again, one here and one on  The Independent Edition !

Original Tenant: Rex-Gene Food Warehouse Address: 136 Monmouth Rd, West Long Branch, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  unsure of exact location Photographed:  January 2021 Bear with me on this one. I am fairly certain that this 26,000 square foot segment at the far right of the Kmart of West Long Branch was previously a Rex-Gene Food Warehouse -- but I am not entirely convinced that the Rex-Gene wasn't at the far left side of the Kmart, since I recall reading that Kmart expanded into the Rex-Gene space. The Kmart closed in early 2020 and, to my knowledge, remains vacant. Rex-Gene is not a chain about which there is a lot of information on the internet, but I'm going to give a few details here. The chain originated in Brooklyn and later expanded to New Jersey, eventually moving their headquarters to Red Bank. I am unsure how many stores Rex-Gene had at its peak, but by early 1998, they were down to five: Berkeley, West Long Branch, Rahway , Sayrev...