The Market Report

Heading about 20 miles west of Litchfield to Kent, which is right near the New York state border. It's a small town with a very nice downtown. And one supermarket. Well okay, it also has a gourmet market we're going to see tomorrow. But for now, we'll just take a look at the friendly neighborhood IGA... The Davis IGA is a very small but very nice market that really looks to be full-service. Having been both here and the Stop & Shop in Litchfield , I would really rather shop here. I got a very strong NYC-area feeling from this store, likely because this is a popular vacation area for many NYC folks. But this store very much feels compact like a Key Food in Brooklyn might. It even has the same look on the inside, if a little more rustic. Regardless, if you focus on the decor, it's really not far from the Key Food Marketplace in Bay Ridge . Anyhow, this store isn't located in Bay Ridge, it's at 27 Kent Green Blvd in Kent, CT. Photographed June 20

To kick off our Connecticut week, we are checking out a brand-new store -- that is, one that has never before appeared here on The Market Report or on Flickr, as well as one that's actually very newly built. Opened in June 2017, this location in the Litchfield Village Green replaced an older store just west on US-202 which itself may have been an older Grand Union. I photographed the store at night, then returned a few days later for an additional exterior photo. All of the interior photos were taken at night, so we'll be seeing very few customers and low stock in most departments. This exterior store model is quite attractive. However, it's strangely one-sided, and it gives the appearance that the store was expanded (when, in fact, it was built this way). Marking a departure from many earlier models, there is only one entrance and exit, both on this side of the storefront. You enter to the right and encounter bakery in the front corner with prepared foods and del

Heading back up to Bloomfield, NJ for today's post of a former supermarket. This store started as a Food Fair, then became a Mayfair Foodtown-turned-Edwards, and is currently a 99c & Discount Depot. (This chain had another location in Elizabeth in a former A&P, which is coming soon to the blog.)  Yes, the original arches are still intact! I love it! For a more detailed description of the store's history and better pictures, check out Styertowne on Flickr over here . It's located at 12 Arlington Ave, Bloomfield, NJ. Come back tomorrow for Connecticut week! Photographed June 2016

Well. Today's post was supposed to be a Snapshot at the Bristol Selecto Supermarket in Bristol, PA, but I don't believe I saved the photos when I removed them from Flickr. It doesn't matter, they weren't very good pictures. In fact, you should still check the store out on Google Maps here , here , and here , to see a relatively intact (if horribly mutilated) A&P-turned-SuperFresh centennial model with SuperFresh decor still mostly original. Anyway, here's some old bags from Compare Foods instead! Oh yes, by the way, I've never been to either Compare Foods store in Bridgeport. This bag came from the Worcester  location. All three are now Gala Foods. Ah, here we go. Slightly better, although I still really can't tell what most of that in the cart is. For instance, what's that big lump sticking out on the top left? "I think maybe it's supposed to be a giant, mutilated loaf of bread," said fellow supermarket blogger Retail Re

Next week is... It's going to be a short week, though -- only Monday through Friday. We have regular programming on Sunday the 28th and Saturday the 4th. But watch out for store tours on Monday and Friday, then assorted Snapshots and a Look Inside rounding out the week's content. So come back on Monday for a brand-new store tour!

Let's cross the Newark Bay (don't swim across, I don't want to know what it's polluted with) from Bayonne yesterday  to Elizabeth today. Matter of fact, we're going to be on the southeastern end of Elizabeth to see the Superfood Marketplace at the port. So we'll actually be closer to Staten Island than Bayonne. Anyway, here we go. Superfood opened to much fanfare in 2012 as it was the first new supermarket in the port (that is, for people not familiar with the area, the neighborhood of Elizabethport, which is relatively isolated from the rest of the city). Previously there had been a Fine Fare Supermarket at 75 Broadway but other than that, the area did not have any supermarkets (chain or independent) for many years. Except, I guess, a very small supermarket on the north end of the neighborhood, Universal-owned Super El Rey at 80 3rd St. Superfood opened locations in Allentown and Middlesex , which have since been spun off to Superfood Fresh (owned by Twin

I told you there would be some random posts. Now we're jumping back to good ol' Bayonne, NJ, to check out this store that started as the Fei Da Asian Market back in 2012 but later became the Bayonne Fresh Market by 2016. Interestingly, Bayonne's population is only about 8% Asian, which makes me wonder about the wisdom of opening an Asian Market there -- especially since it's a hard-to-access peninsula and therefore has limited capacity to draw customers from surrounding towns. The Bayonne Fresh Market today appears to specialize in seafood and doesn't appear to be a full supermarket. Notice that "Bayonne Fresh" is in a different font from "Market." This is because the "market" is left over from Fei Da. I get a very similar feeling from this store as I do the Despensa del Ahorro in Elizabeth, although I haven't actually been inside either one. This store is located at 1033 Broadway in Bayonne, just south of the Aqui Market a

Apologies for the random content lately! I have a few weeks' worth of random posts to finish up, and three more themed weeks, before we move on to a brand-new group of stores starting June 1. This store is one I snapped coming back from Virginia . Not much to say about this store, I guess. It's at 4803 Gerrardstown Rd in Inwood, WV. Photographed March 2018

Today's post is brought to us by Market Report contributor Steve! We're heading down to Holmdel, NJ, an inland town at the very northern tip of the Jersey Shore. Holmdel was also the location of a now-closed A&P Fresh Market, which Acme Style covered here . This store is, at this time, still a Best Market (in fact, the only Best Market in New Jersey), although Lidl's recent acquisition of the chain means that it will soon be converted to the no-frills discount format of Lidl. I still question the wisdom of the Lidl-Best Market purchase, as the stores' formats are so radically different. Best Market focuses on huge selections of produce and deli products, while Lidl has a very small produce department and no deli. We'll just have to wait and see how this one plays out. Although I went to this store myself long ago, I did not photograph it. But our contributor brings something new to The Market Report...an internal panorama! Click on the image to expand i

Perhaps you recall seeing the Food Bazaar in Fairview back in December 2016. No? Well then, refresh your memory here . Just four blocks south of the Food Bazaar is a much smaller supermarket, Kikos Supermarket, which is owned by independent grocer Felix Beltran. Previously, he and his family had owned CTown Supermarkets in West New York and Clifton (in the Styertowne Plaza where CVS is now) along with a few others. Meanwhile, the La Placita Supermarket * in Union City was previously a Kikos. Today, it appears that this location in Fairview is the only store owned by the Beltran family; it was previously a Fine Fare that closed in 2000. *A note on that post. I had written that the original Kikos was here in Fairview and the Kikos II was in Union City. I actually had that reversed. For an idea of the layout, you enter to the right on the front wall. Produce is in the front right corner with checkouts to the left. Dairy continues along the first aisle with butcher and deli in an al