The Market Report

Eataly Opened: November 13, 2024 Owner:  InvestIndustrial / Oscar Farinetti Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  1200 Morris Tpk, Short Hills, Millburn, NJ Photographed: November 9, 2024 and November 14, 2024 Welcome to Eataly! This is the first time we're seeing an Eataly on the blog, and that's partially because there aren't that many. It's also partially because they're not really supermarkets -- they are, in part, gourmet markets (but also restaurants and food halls/cafes). But for the first time, the chain has opened a New Jersey location, so it's only fair that I've gotta go check it out! Eataly is a food hall concept created by Oscar Farinetti in 2007, when the first location opened in Torino, Italy. The chain eventually expanded to its current size of around 40 stores, about 10 of them in the US, and in 2022, majority ownership of the chain was sold to investor InvestIndustrial . There are several locations i

Ashley Marketplace Opened: 2013 Owner: Cheol Kim Previous Tenants:  Village Super Market > ShopRite > Village Super Market > Garden of Eden Marketplace Cooperative: Krasdale Foods Location:  1 South Orange Ave, South Orange, NJ Photographed: October 27, 2024 We're back at the Ashley Marketplace in downtown South Orange, which we last visited in the summer of 2022 . Once a beautiful gourmet market, the store has noticeably declined even further from that 2022 update and appears to be close to closing. On my most recent visit last weekend, stock was very thin throughout the store, although there were some small improvements -- namely, the empty former seafood counter has been removed and one small piece of it is now next to the meat department. Both seafood and meat were pretty fully stocked, although several refrigerators around the store are filled with random products. The grocery shelving was about 50% stocked, and much of the space was taken up by more mainstream pr

Heavenly Foodmarket Opened: mid-October 2024 Owner:  unknown Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  311 11th Ave, Hudson Yards/West Chelsea, Manhattan, NY Photographed:  October 23, 2024 Amazon Fresh promises an easier, higher-tech shopping experience, but this store goes a bit further: shopping here is no less than Heavenly. Heavenly appears to be a small chain of delis and convenience stores across New York City, but they've opened what appears to be their first supermarket near Hudson Yards in far western Chelsea. What draws most people to this location is probably the High Line , a converted elevated train line that's now a walking path. It's from a High Line bridge that I took the above picture, and don't worry, when I was in this neighborhood, I did walk the whole High Line. But as cool as it would be, this isn't a rail-trail blog, this is a supermarket blog. So let's tour the new Heavenly Foodmarket at 11th Avenue and 30th Stree

Top Tomato Superstore Opened: June 20, 2024 Owner:  Buddy Sciandra Previous Tenants:  A&P > Norkus Foodtown > Shop n Bag > Garden Farm Cooperative:  none Location:  3105 US-9, Old Bridge, NJ Photographed:  June 22, 2024 Old Bridge is a hotspot for new grocery store openings, it seems! The ShopRite relocated to a gorgeous new facility in March, SuperFresh opened to the west in Browntown in early June, and now, Top Tomato has returned to New Jersey with a new store in what used to be Old Bridge's Garden Farm Market . (An Amazon Fresh also appears to be in progress just to the north, and the old ShopRite -- which you can see at the link above -- is being subdivided , and it's possible one of the spaces could become a supermarket.) This  Top Tomato has a very complicated history which I will attempt to recount here, but to be honest, it's extremely confusing even to me. The chain originated in 1979 as a large produce market in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and sold It