The Market Report

West Enosburg Country Store Opened: 2002 Owner: Marguerite Panko Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative: unknown Location: 2394 W Enosburg Rd, Enosburg Falls, VT Photographed: August 12, 2025 In my travels, I've encountered a few examples of a cooperative that has dissolved, but relics remain even when the group doesn't exist anymore. Think of Shop n Bag , for instance. That's what I imagine is the case here in Enosburg Falls, although I don't know for sure. This West Enosburg Country Store has only been in business since 2002, but I'm sure there was previously another general store on this spot. An IGS -- not IGA -- sign remains here outside the small grocery store. It's possible that IGS was another cooperative or brand name (Independent Grocery Stores? Independent Grocers Services?). On the other hand, it's very possible that the IGS logo refers to the gas station rather than the store. None of my usual sources are giving me any helpful information,...

Stop & Shop Opened: 2001 Owner: Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants: Edwards (late 1990s-2001) Cooperative: none Location: 245 Littleton Rd, Morris Plains, NJ Photographed: October 10, 2026 Welcome to the latest Stop & Shop renovation! This store opened in the late 1990s as an Edwards, becoming a Stop & Shop in the early 00s when the chain rebranded. It got a full renovation in the mid-00s or so before getting some other fix-ups over time, and this store has always struck me as being kept up really well. Now, it's getting another overhaul. You can see some "before" pictures here on my original post. The 67,000 square foot store seems to do fine and be kept in really good shape despite (or perhaps because of) its very close proximity to multiple other very busy supermarkets. Here in the grand aisle, the produce department looks like it's been reset and the walls have been painted, but the real renovation work hasn't yet made it to the deli and prepare...

LIDL Opened: September 30, 2026 Owner: Schwarz Group Previous Tenants: various non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location: 1545 Forest Ave, Staten Island, NY Photographed: October 9, 2026 Welcome to Staten Island, where we're checking out another new NYC LIDL ! This store is just shy of 20,000 square feet, making it in line with LIDL's current new stores but smaller than the stores LIDL was opening in its earlier days. For comparison, Staten Island's other LIDL (which I haven't posted) opened in 2018 at a much larger size of 36,000 square feet. You can also see that the decor is seriously scaled down here, so much as to be almost invisible (whose idea was it to put dark green lettering on a dark blue wall?). Part of that is the low ceiling, but it also feels like LIDL is trying to push its stores lower-end -- and therefore closer to ALDI than the original idea, which was kind of a hybrid between a full service supermarket and a discount store. Produce and baker...