350 N Main St, Wharton, NJ

Original Tenant: Michas Brothers Foodtown
Address: 350 N Main St, Wharton, NJ

Opened: unknown

Closed: unknown

Later Tenants: subdivided - Wharton Farm Market & Rite Aid > Walgreens

Photographed: July 2020

Interesting stuff here in Wharton just north of route 80, and we saw the ShopRite just south of route 80 yesterday. This 25,000 square foot anchor to the Wharton Mall was constructed probably in the 1970s by the Michas Brothers, later Manyfoods, whose other stores we saw a while back also. Probably when Manyfoods went out of business around 2003, this store would've been closed (and also not sold, likely hurting from the new nearby ShopRite).

Looks like I scared off those two cars who were in the first picture. Anyway, around that time the Foodtown was cut in half, with Rite Aid (now Walgreens) taking the right half and a farmers market taking the left half.

There isn't much left from Foodtown, but the Wharton Farm Market (aka the Wharton Farm Produce Warehouse, depending on which sign you look at) closed in 2018 and left nearly everything behind.

The windows are all completely uncovered, so we get a really good look inside!

Anyone recognize that logo? It looks to be a slight variation on the Albertsons logo. Thoughts?

Here's a look into the entrance of the store. I assume Foodtown would've had its entrance where Walgreens' entrance is now, and this would've been the end of the store, but I could be wrong.

Here's a good closeup look at the store's interior.

Taking a look inside through the exit. There's plenty interesting to see here...

Check out that decor on the right side wall!

Note that much of this signage is similar to Safeway's decor, and it seems that the decor was also sold to independent store owners. It doesn't exactly look like this signage is secondhand.

Closeup of the decor.

We see what I believe were deli, seafood, and sushi on the left side wall. Not sure whether this store had a meat department.

And finally, in the front right corner we have what I believe was the floral department.

If you're interested in seeing what this store would've looked like when it was in business, then you're in luck! These owners have a second store that's still operating (and seems to do quite well) that we'll see in a few days. But for now, we're headed up route 15 for about three and a half miles for a return to a store we've seen before, right here on Grocery Archaeology!