831 NJ-10, Hanover, NJ - Part 2

Original Tenant: Foodtown
Address: 831 NJ-10, Whippany, Hanover, NJ

Opened: 1991
Closed: ca. 2000
Later Tenants: Pathmark (ca. 2000-2011) > Farmtastic Supermarket (2014-2015)
Photographed: June 2020

Part 2 of our Pine Plaza coverage deals with this larger supermarket, built in 1991 by Michas Brothers Foodtown as a replacement for a much smaller store in a former A&P next door, which is part 1. Michas Brothers (later Manyfoods) sold the 35,000 square foot store to Pathmark around 2000, which in turn closed in 2011 as the 20-year lease expired. In Cedar Knolls, we saw a Michas > Manyfoods > LaRacca Foodtown which then closed in early 2014. Well, a few months after the LaRaccas closed Cedar Knolls, they opened this location as Farmtastic Supermarket which lasted all of about 18 months before closing for good in mid to late 2015.

As I mention in the A&P post, Pine Plaza is in an extensive redevelopment process which involved clearing out all of the remaining tenants for the upcoming demolition of the plaza. Here's some info on what's in store for the nearly 20-acre complex, and contrary to what some political candidates have said, it's not the taxes that drove businesses out -- it's the redevelopment. But anyhow, as of the summer of 2020 -- when I stopped by to photograph the former Farmtastic -- the strip mall was nearly completely empty and those businesses that did remain were winding down. As of the summer of 2021, the mall was completely vacant and fenced off but still entirely intact.

We do manage to see pretty clearly inside the store though, and all the decor is still up on the walls. Apparently it was deemed either impractical or not worth it to bring this decor into Lake Hiawatha, LaRacca's last operating store (which is also set to close soon). Here's the grand aisle on the right side of the building.

Otherwise, our interior views are a bit limited but we can still see some of the freezers remaining. Those are certainly old enough to be Pathmark freezers, or even remaining from the original Foodtown days.

The front windows all had blinds down, but some of them were open like this. I do think it made for some unintentionally cool photos.

It does look like most of the fixtures were removed, and presumably either sold or sent to Lake Hiawatha. I haven't looked really carefully at Lake Hiawatha's fixtures so I don't know whether any were brought in from this store. I think it's fairly likely that some were brought here from Cedar Knolls.

That wraps up our look at this soon-to-be-gone store, and I'm glad I got to photograph it while it was still standing (and unobstructed by fencing). If you haven't yet, check out the former A&P in Pine Plaza here as well, and tomorrow, we have two stores (one here on Grocery Archaeology and one over on The Market Report) to finish out our Greater Morristown group!