The Market Report

This store, located at 778 Morris Tpk in Millburn, started out as a Stop & Shop/Medimart combination. Medimart became Walgreens, which is now closed, and Stop & Shop became Kings in 1980. However, this is often referred to as Kings' original location. If I remember correctly, the Kings was previously at 800 Morris Tpk, where Pet Supplies Plus now is. Can anyone confirm or correct this?  Anyway, this is now one of the flagship Kings stores, being much larger than most of the locations. It even appears to have a new decor package, which looks to be low-cost but quite attractive. The empty storefront closer to the highway was the Walgreens.

See, kids, there used to be this discount department store, kind of like Walmart, but it was called Kmart. Unfortunately, Kmarts graphic designers werent sure where to put their apostrophe's. How many Earths are there? I don't have a year for this, and I also know virtually nothing about Kmart's history. Any input?

We're heading back to the SuperFresh Food World of Bloomfield more than two years after the last visit , checking out the newly-renovated storefront. BEFORE AFTER New monument sign has been installed in place of the old A&P sign. It makes the first impression much more upscale, as does the facade renovation. BEFORE AFTER The supermarket shares its building with a Walgreens pharmacy, as it was originally built as a Stop & Shop / Medimart combination. AFTER AFTER Inside, the store is largely unchanged, with a few minor adjustments, such as the addition of a salad and olive bar at the deli. The selection is very wide for a 33,000 square foot store, focusing on international foods from eastern Asia, the Philippines (not the Philiphins ), eastern and southern Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Don't believe me? Go shop there. Very nice entrance and exit signs clearly mark each entrance and exit. The renovations here make the...

OK, now for something really different. We've been seeing a lot of smaller independent stores in suburban and urban locations of northern New Jersey for the past few weeks. How about jumping down to a small town in North Carolina for a change? Image from Google Maps. In the small but upscale town of Carrboro, NC, there is a grocery cooperative store. But it's not like most of the coops we are familiar with. Instead of an association of independent grocers, it's actually a community-owned grocery store. There are a few like this in our area, but Weaver Street Market has grown to three locations. We're going to take a look at the original one, the store actually on Weaver Street in Carrboro. Weaver Street is a very community-centered store, which I love. It's part of a development in the center of Carrboro, and seems to be largely patronized by pedestrians and locals. There's a large outdoor public space in front of the store, with tables and bench...