233 E Front St, Plainfield, NJ

Original Tenant: A&P
Address: 233 E Front St, Plainfield, NJ

Opened: ca. 1940s

Closed: unknown; possibly late 70s

Later Tenants: subdivided

Photographed: July 2020

I did a little bit of a double-take while walking through downtown Plainfield and seeing this storefront. Yes, that's half of an A&P! Check out some of these images to see similar storefronts. The 9900 square foot store has been sliced in half, with 99 Cent Welcome taking the right side and Family Dollar taking the left side and a little more, although there have definitely been other tenants in this place since A&P closed. (The Family Dollar previously only took up one storefront to the left, but has been expanded into the former A&P building. That half of the store was also previously a furniture store.) Now that brings up the question... when did A&P close here? Well, I suppose it's possible that they actually managed to last in this tiny street-front location until they moved into the Finast just outside of downtown. To me, it seems more likely that they would've closed this store earlier and then come back into town with the purchase of the Finast location.

Not a whole lot to see here on the Family Dollar side, unfortunately. This part of the facade seems to have been redone long ago.

And even though A&P's facade (and lighting!) are intact on the outside of 99 Cent Welcome, I couldn't find any evidence of A&P inside the store. I didn't go in the Family Dollar, which I think was closed at the time of my visit. Today's other post is just across the street, so check it out here, and if you look carefully at the second picture of this post, you might be able to get a preview of tomorrow's tour. Check it out tomorrow on The Market Report along with a small store across the street on The Independent Edition!