The Market Report

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 215 N Hermitage Ave, West End, Trenton, NJ Opened:  1961 Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  Vereen Thriftway (1970s-1980s) > Vereen IGA (1980s) > Super Thrift (1980s-1997) > Foodtown (planned, never opened) > Supreme Food Market (early 2000s) > Supreme Shop n Bag (early 2000s-late 2000s) Photographed:  January 2021 The Westside Plaza in the West End neighborhood of Trenton is 50,000 square feet of retail space, with 34,000 square feet originally occupied by an early A-frame or pitched roof ACME that opened in 1961. You can read a lot of detail on the history here , and I summarized the progression above. Plainfield, NJ-based Supremo Food Markets most recently took over the space, around 2000 or shortly thereafter, but chose to call the store Supreme Food Market instead of Supremo. Within the first few years, the store became a Shop n Bag under the same owners, before closing between 2005 and 2010. Unfortunately, bec...

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 1320 Parkway Ave, Ewing, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1982 Later Tenants:  converted to SuperFresh in 1982, closed 2003, became CVS in 2005 Photographed:  January 2021 Just about next door to Marrazzo's Market , today's store tour, is this 19,000 square foot former supermarket at Parkway Avenue and Scotch Road in Ewing Township. It was built in the 1960s as a Centennial A&P, then converted to SuperFresh with the Philadelphia-area ones in 1982 before closing in 2003. CVS opened in 2005. Tomorrow, we head into Trenton's city limits for a look at a former supermarket in the northwestern part of the city here on Grocery Archaeology!

I know I keep saying this, but we're really down to the end here. Basically just two more cities to see before finishing out New Jersey altogether: Trenton and Camden. We begin Trenton by checking out some places to the north of town and then moving into the downtown area before heading east of town. We'll start with Ewing to the northwest of Trenton tomorrow, then move through the city of Trenton itself from west to east, then make a few stops in Hamilton and back to Lawrence to the east and northeast of Trenton. This is a fairly short group, and we'll be spending just under two weeks here before moving on. Let's start with a look at a supermarket in Ewing on The Independent Edition tomorrow along with a former supermarket just up the street on Grocery Archaeology !

ShopRite of Pennington Owner: Richard Saker / Saker Supermarkets Opened:  1960s Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  2555 Pennington Rd, Pennington, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 You know how all Saker ShopRites more or less look the same, such as Lawrenceville which we saw yesterday? Well now it's time to see one of those few Saker stores that look very different. We saw Belmar a while back, but it's closed now as a brand new replacement store opened across the street. There are a few others out there ( Edison , Freehold, Bordentown) but the 33,000 square foot ShopRite of Pennington is now the smallest and oldest operating Saker store. It also formerly had a ShopRite liquor store next door, which I believe remains vacant. The Laurenti family apparently owned several ShopRites in the Trenton area (before selling to Big V, which in turn sold some stores to Saker), so it's possible this was one of those stores since we don't see...

ShopRite of Lawrenceville Owner: Richard Saker / Saker Supermarkets Opened:  early 2000s Previous Tenants:  Kmart Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  3373 Brunswick Pk, Lawrenceville, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Moving basically next door from yesterday's stop (which is the Wegmans in the mall just to the north, but over half a mile away) we are touring the 78,000 square foot ShopRite of Lawrenceville today. This store opened in the early 2000s in a former Kmart, likely replacing an older store nearby -- or at least that would be my guess. It's a fairly standard Saker store, although as we'll see it's looking very good. We find the grand aisle on the left side, with produce taking up the front. Cheese, deli, and prepared foods are at the back of the grand aisle, with meat and seafood on the back wall. Dairy and frozen are on the right side of the store, with a kosher department and pharmacy in the front right corner. We can tell that this is an old...