The Market Report

 Here's a quick photo of another Gristedes in Manhattan. For some unknown reason, I saved this file on my computer as just "The Other Gristedes". Looks like it's actually at 1343 Lexington Ave, Manhattan, NY.

Supremo Foodmarket Opened:  1996 Owner:  Eddie Trujillo Previous Tenants:  A&P (ca. 1970-1990s) Cooperative:  none Location:  25 S Broad St, Elizabeth, NJ Photographed:  March 12, 2025 Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in January 2018, but was rewritten with new photos in January 2026. Now for the post! Welcome to the downtown of Elizabeth, NJ, a midsize city just outside Newark. On the south end of downtown, an A&P stood from the 1940s into the 1960s at 18 S Broad St . Around 1970, the store moved across the street into a newly-built strip mall at 25 S Broad. A&P closed between 1993 and 1996, with Supremo opening in 1996. Here's a glimpse of the old A&P sign out at Broad and Pearl, taken in 1994. (Read more here !) Now for a look at the Supremo in 2025... Supremo's footprint is slightly smaller than A&P's, as the space was subdivided between Supremo and Rite Aid (now Walgreens). The full building is around 35...

The Westside Market chain of stores in New York City is a very upscale store found mostly in higher-income neighborhoods and sells mostly gourmet foods. This gourmet store is one of the best around and the use of space is incredible. The prices are on the high side, but the products are really worth it. Of course, you just might see a familiar name delivering to the store... Westside Market is a member of White Plains, NY-based Krasdale Foods, a cooperative that also runs lower-end C-Town and Bravo stores. I don't know if anyone's ever been this happy to eat Krasdale products.

Another competitor of the Ideal Marketplace and Fairway  in Chelsea, Manhattan, NYC is this Gristedes Megastore, only marginally larger than Ideal and about the size of Fairway. Gristedes is, however, far more expensive than Ideal or Fairway. Gristedes is a wholesale customer of Wakefern Food Corp and sells the ShopRite storebrand. I don't see how it's still hanging in there as it's generally agreed to be in the bottom five supermarkets of New York City.

Today's (unexpected!) post is somewhere between a Look Inside and a full tour. As we reported on Facebook a while back, Aquí Market has taken over the former A&P in the affluent rural/suburban town of Califon, NJ. Recently, I have been in touch with a local resident, Gerry K., who has a few photos of the new store. (According to him, this blog was one of the few online sources of information about Aquí. Looking back at my previous Aquí posts, I think I was a little harsh on them! This also explains why I have over 1300 views on that post alone.) All the photos here are his. Let's have a look!    Notice that this is actually a slightly different logo from what's used on the JC and Bridgewater stores. Gerry's Yelp review points out the store's Outpost name, which he thinks might suggest the owners are interested in opening other Outposts. Aquí has maintained the basic structure and appearance of the facade, while adding the rustic wood and stone touche...

Back on the AFB Worcester post, I gave a little bit of history of America's Food Basket and its predecessor: "In 2005, a group of independent Met Foods operators decided to split off from Met, then under the supervision of White Rose Foods, and form their own cooperative. This was probably the largest single blow to the Met Foods group, and the already-struggling cooperative started its quickly-increasing decline. The bankruptcy of White Rose put the vulnerable Met and Pioneer Supermarkets banners up for sale, and they were taken over by then-called Associated Food Holdings, today's Associated Supermarket Group. "The group of operators that split off in 2005 reorganized itself into the Neighborhood Supermarket Association, or  NSA . This new group got the attention of Massachusetts-based Americas' Food Basket, a small chain of Hispanic-leaning supermarkets. Americas' Food Basket joined around 2007 and switched their stores to NSA Americas' Food Baskets...