Can anyone guess what this store used to be? Do I hear a... Pathmark? Ding ding ding! You got it! Moving on from Brooklyn, we're now tackling Manhattan, moving from the very north end of the borough (here in Inwood, which is very close to
Marble Hill across the river and
Kingsbridge just north), to the southern end. Inwood borders on suburban, allowing for this store to have a large parking lot. It's worth noting that the parking lot is also rented out to people who want to park long-term, so not all these cars are here for Associated. I visited early in the morning, so it was pretty empty. I'm not entirely sure how the Pathmark's layout would have been, but this store (at 35,000 square feet) resembles a smaller Pathmark's layout, so it's possible the layout hasn't been significantly changed.
The decor, obviously does not! All of the decor and most of the fixtures have been redone. The produce department is significantly larger than what most Pathmarks would have, so I'm assuming the space to the left was previously health and beauty.
While the store no longer looks much like a Pathmark, there are some very Pathmarky elements. Such as that drop ceiling in the corner! This location closed in the A&P bankruptcy, slated to be replaced by a Golden Mango Supermarket. While Golden Mango never came through, Super Associated opened shortly thereafter. It's entirely possible the owners simply announced the Golden Mango name first because they hadn't received the license to the Associated brand yet.
The selection across the store leans Latino, but also has a more than adequate organic/natural/specialty selection. Side note, it appears these owners also own a large Compare Foods Supermarket about two blocks south at 3815 9th Ave, Manhattan.
Fresh seafood on ice at the back of the produce department, with frozen seafood just around the corner to the right.
Recognize that frozen seafood sign? I sure did! You can
see the exact same one at the
SuperFresh in Irvington, NJ (also a former Pathmark, although it now has different owners; the sign is not left over from Pathmark). And speaking of recognizing...
This meat department graphic seems to be awfully familiar too! That's because we've seen a variant in the
Bloomfield, NJ SuperFresh Food World (see
here and
here) and the exact one in
Key Food-turned-
SuperFresh-turned-
Freshway in Fairview, NJ (see
here and
here). All of those stores have different owners, so I can't exactly explain that one.
Very nice grocery aisles! Flooring looks new or at least newly redone, shelving and aisle markers are all brand-new.
Deli/bakery is in the back corner opposite the entrance, with dairy in the last aisle and frozen in the second-to-last.
There's a somewhat awkward corner in the front that looks like it was supposed to be a prepared foods/cafe area that never really happened. But don't worry, it still has beer and cows (and really, what could be wrong with that?)...
Pretty nice front-end with great new flooring!
And looking in the other direction, we see a newly redone customer service counter... but could it be? Is that a single, solitary Pathmark sign left in the whole store? It is! (Also a very Pathmark ceiling.)
That about wraps up our tour of the Super Associated Marketplace here in Inwood! I liked the store a lot, but it seems that (as one of the four supermarkets in all of Manhattan with a parking lot), it
is not long for this world. (One of the things that grinds my gears about that and other articles about this property, is that it makes no mention of the fact that there is currently a major supermarket operating on the property, identifying it only as a former Pathmark.) After actively seeking out a supermarket tenant for this space, the developers seem to have moved on to bigger and better things. Not surprising, for sure, but still disappointing every time. As of writing, however, no work has been officially started. We'll have to see how this one goes. Truth be told, you can have the parking lot! Just leave the supermarket.
Super Associated Marketplace
410 W 207th St, Manhattan, NY
Open Mon-Sat 7am-10pm, Sun 8am-10pm
shopassociated.com
(646) 692-4277
Photographed July 2018
That's a shame. But I guess that's urban life? I wouldn't know myself, but you make it sound like a familiar occurrence... which, I agree, is disappointing.
ReplyDeleteIt's more common than it should be for sure, especially in New York City.
DeleteI remember going into this store when it was Pathmark in 1969. It did massive business - it took twenty minutes to walk from the first aisle to the last aisle from the rear of the store, the customer traffic was so great and it was so difficult to keep moving. In the frozen juice section in the coffin cases, the cans of juice were just dumped in, in no order as it was impossible to stock that section in rows with dividers as dozens of hands would be grabbing at cans so they just gave up and emptied boxes of frozen juice loose. I worked for PathMark then in Hartsdale, Nyack and Buckner Boulevard at that time and experienced similar congestion and resister lines that stretched into the aisles. Sad this store closed they did a fantastic remodel that looked nothing like Pathmark did.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your memories! This is the largest supermarket for a pretty big area of Manhattan and the Bronx here, so I'm not surprised it was a very high-volume store. The remodel does look great but the store has actually been converted to a Shop Fair (I don't know whether it's the same owners or not), which has one store in Inwood and one in Washington Heights, along with other locations around NYC and Yonkers. I hope this store stays around despite the plans for redevelopment that have been circulating for years now.
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