Rockland Great Farm
Owner: unknown
Welcome to the Rockland Great Farm! The rather unassuming 5,000 square foot greengrocer shop actually has a very exciting secret hiding inside it. Before we get there, the store is mostly a produce market, with produce taking up most of the sales floor and a small, apparently closed seafood counter in the back left corner. A small grocery, dairy, and frozen selection is on the left side of the store.
Can anyone spot the supermarket history here? That's right, this store somehow has an original Grand Union Clean, Fresh & Good ceiling fixture in it! It's an incredibly difficult thing to photograph, but a really impressive one. This was my first time seeing one in person.
It's amazingly well preserved! How many others still exist out there? This is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. Now the bigger question: why is it here? It makes no sense for it to be here, as the Grand Union was at the other end of the strip mall. These were installed over the front-ends of Grand Unions, and I can't come up with any potential layouts that place the front-end of a supermarket here. Instead, I think it has to have been taken down from the old Grand Union, then carefully re-assembled here. Unless, by some weird coincidence, this is a very good reproduction? Why would anyone create that?
It's an incredible thing, though. It's quite striking, and I imagine if it were backlit in the way it was intended to be, it would be very impressive.
The Rockland Great Farm, though, is not particularly impressive. Here we see the seafood department closed down, and the store had some good produce but was a bit sad overall. It's in a tough, hard to see location right behind a brand-new supermarket we'll be touring next week.
Owner: unknown
Opened: 2016 under current ownership; 2003 previously
Cooperative: none
Location: 406 Nanuet Mall S, Nanuet, NY
Location: 406 Nanuet Mall S, Nanuet, NY
Photographed: August 12, 2022
It's a shame, because this relic is wonderfully preserved here (and has apparently made it through a few different owners at this greengrocer). I'm glad I got to see and photograph it while it was still there, though! Don't forget to check out the former Grand Union in this mall, and tomorrow, we're seeing the newer Grand Union on Grocery Archaeology as well as the Stop & Shop across the street on The Market Report!
That tile work around the seafood also seems similar to what Grand Union might have had (though perhaps in the newer store from the 1990's you mention across the street).
ReplyDeleteSince this store was originally opened in 2003 (not long after the GU bankruptcy), perhaps whoever owned it then was just a GU fan and made a deal to buy some stuff (which it seems that if C&S was not keeping the stores open they would have been willing to do whatever got them a bit of extra money to cover their wholesaling losses to the former GU company).
Even if they no longer had control over the actual GU spot in that plaza (which seems to be of an age that would have been more likely to have the ceiling), they would have gotten some stores of that vintage that were not staying open (being sold off to others) where they could take such a ceiling from (as the new owners would be planning to renovate and remove it anyhow).
That's all really interesting and good points, thank you!
DeleteI remember when the Goshen NY Grand Union was open they had this canopy over the checkouts. It was a basic older white store inside so this really stood out.
ReplyDeleteCool, thanks for sharing!
DeleteCool find! And very relevant questions as to why and how it is here...
ReplyDelete