CTown Supermarkets
Owner: Iris Benzan-Diaz
Opened: 1983
Previous Tenants: A&P > ACME Markets
Cooperative: Krasdale Foods
Location: 272 Maple St, Perth Amboy, NJ
Photographed: June 2020
Today's store tour is a 13,000 square foot store which is actually a combination of two storefronts, one a former ACME and one a former A&P that A&P combined later (see history here). CTown opened in 1983 and is currently owned by Iris Benzan-Diaz.
Although it's the smaller of the two supermarkets in center city Perth Amboy (we'll see the larger in a few days), it's still popular -- especially for its prepared foods -- and a nice store. The store is oriented towards the street with parking on the side, with produce lining the left side of the grand aisle and deli/bakery/prepared foods on the right side. Meats line the back wall of the store with frozen and dairy in the last aisle, and checkouts on the front wall.
As we can see, the interior is a little on the older side but still very nice. Produce takes up most of the grand aisle with deli, bakery, and prepared foods on the right side wall. Seating area in the back corner as seen here. The store has been renovated since I visited, although the changes seemed to involve mostly new cases, painting the walls but leaving the rest of the decor intact, and expanding the produce department into most of the seating area.
The deli-prepared foods department is quite large and locally famous. Notice that this store actually has the same decor package, give or take, as the Fine Fare in Throggs Neck.
As I mentioned in that Fine Fare post, this decor package has a very strong Grand Union feeling. There are also interesting similarities to the Food Bazaar decor package we saw in Bridgeport. (That, I'm assuming, is purely coincidental.)
Beautifully stocked and clean grocery aisles. The floor is clearly old, probably original to the CTown, but it's been kept up nicely.
I wish I paid more attention to the floor patterns to see whether there's actually a reason for the different patterns in different aisles.
Notice that where most stores have milk in the back corner, this CTown has additional frozen cases. The rest line the last aisle. There are 8 aisles in total, not counting the grand aisle, placing it right in the range of a 1950s-era A&P.
This last aisle is much more cramped, with shelving down the middle of the aisle.
In the front corner is sale items and packaged bread, with the registers lining the rest of the front wall. The ceiling has a very cool design...
I love the beams in the higher ceiling section! It's definitely a nice and well-maintained store with some historical and small-store charm. Our next stop is going to be just around the corner on Smith Street, the main street through downtown Perth Amboy, over on The Independent Edition!
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