The Market Report

I'm having trouble posting anything with pictures, for some reason, so my planned posts are going to be delayed. In the meantime, though, I'm almost done with a spreadsheet of the Associated Group stores, and I'm going to be posting on my Flickr photostream , so check there! More posts to come...

Lots of exciting stuff on the way. Because of a slight glitch I couldn't get the post I wanted to up yesterday, but I'll try again later today. Make sure you check back for... - A tour of La Placita C-Town in Peekskill, NY - A tour of the new Food Bazaar Supermarket in Elizabeth, NJ - A tour of Fresh Emporium in Jefferson, NJ And plenty of never-before-seen material, including: - A tour of Food Bazaar Supermarket in Bridgeport, CT - A tour of Supremo Foodmarket in Allentown, PA - A spreadsheet of the Associated Group stores And lots more! Stay tuned...

An excellent read about attempts to fix food deserts in the city of Philadelphia. Watching Philly Grocery Shoppers Is Changing How Cities Build Supermarkets

Supermarket Mysteries I: Decor This post includes: - Greenport IGA, Greenport, NY - Key Food Marketplace, Beacon, NY - Jack's Foodtown, North Arlington, NJ The Greenport IGA Image from Google Maps Street View. The Greenport IGA seems normal enough from this Google Maps street view from 2012. Any seasoned supermarket expert will tell you right off the bat this is an A&P Centennial model, and they'd be right. That's not the mystery here. Here's a close-up of the storefront taken by a family member. Seems average enough, right? Take a look inside through those windows. First of all, that Customer Service sign looks like it belong in an Acme Theme Park store,  not a small IGA. (By the way, it's not from an Acme Theme Park store. Does anyone recognize it? I'm not too familiar with Long Island supermarkets, but it could be Waldbaum's or King Kullen, neither of which I know well.) But take a closer look at the signage on t...

From the Basic to the Bizarre - er, Bazaar - in North Bergen The Basic, and before Around 1992, Waldbaum's (which had been bought by A&P at that point) built a brand-new store, complete with an underground parking garage, on a site that previously was a two-story Two Guys hypermarket. The introduction of Waldbaum's into New Jersey was a flop, and became an A&P Foodmarket. By 2002, that had failed as well; A&P converted the store to its Food Basics banner, for which it had high hopes. More than anything, it is rumored that the key benefit of Food Basics was the ability to lay off skilled employees (like meat cutters and bakers - who are obviously paid more), since all food preparation was done off-premises. Images from Acme Style blog . Click to read more about this store and see more pictures. This Food Basics was reasonably successful but had to be refined over the years, when A&P did everything from adding a "dollar-store" aisle with gener...