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Showing posts from February, 2021

Snapshot: Trader Joe's - Clifton, NJ

Trader Joe's Opened:  ca. 2011 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  259 Allwood Rd, Clifton, NJ Photographed:  March 2019 This 12,000 square foot Trader Joe's opened as part of a new-build mall along Allwood Road around 2011, just under two miles from yesterday's Stop & Shop . It's also less than half a mile from the Clifton Commons Stop & Shop and, in the other direction, the former Clifton ACME . Many people are familiar with the quirky upscale-with-a-sense-of-humor retailer Trader Joe's, but if not, we'll be touring one down in Union County not too far in the future. Stay tuned! For now, though, we're heading into Passaic, just to the east, for an in-depth look at the grocery stores downtown over the next approximately two weeks. We're going to make a circuit through the city from west to east, starting with a store tour tomorrow on The Independent Edition !

Snapshot: Stop & Shop - Allwood, Clifton, NJ

Stop & Shop Opened:  2009, 2001 in former building Previous Tenants:  Grand Union in older building on same property Location:  1189 Broad St, Clifton, NJ Photographed:  March 2019 Driving by on nearby NJ-3 gives us a nice higher-level perspective of the Stop & Shop in Allwood, Clifton (there is also one at Clifton Commons ). It's a new-build, 53,000-square-foot store that opened in 2009, just eight years after Stop & Shop moved into an older Grand Union on the property. I'd encourage you to read a lot more and see inside over on Acme Style ! We have another Clifton store here tomorrow, so come back to check it out!

TOUR: ShopRite - Little Falls, NJ

ShopRite of Little Falls Owner: Chuck Infusino Opened:  1970s (in this location) Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  171 Browertown Rd, Little Falls, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 It's almost exactly a quarter of a mile from yesterday's former Fairway to today's ShopRite, but the two stores are basically just across the highway from each other. Both, however, are difficult to access from route 46. While that became a weakness for the Pathmark-turned-Fairway, it's definitely a strength for the ShopRite, which draws a large part of its customer base from the neighborhoods immediately around the store and to the south, serving Little Falls and several neighboring towns. The approximately 75,000 square foot store (that includes the neighboring ShopRite liquor store) has to be one of the strangest laid out stores in existence -- rivaling Oakland -- but a recently-completed remodel has vastly improved it, as we'll see. The store has b

TOUR: Food Universe Marketplace - Paterson, NJ

Food Universe Marketplace Owner:  unknown Opened:  2019 Previous Tenants:  ShopRite > Pathmark > Food Basics > GalaFresh Farms Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  498 E 30th St, Paterson, NJ Photographed:  August 2019 Yesterday's rather depressing store tour is as good a transition as any to today's success story. Built in 1965 as a ShopRite, this store became a Pathmark in 1968 when its owner, Supermarkets General Corp., split from the Wakefern cooperative. When Pathmark was purchased by A&P in 2008, the 37,000 square foot store was deemed too small to remain in the Pathmark group, while its profitability was slipping in a somewhat economically depressed neighborhood. The store was converted to a Food Basics, A&P's discount banner, with the removal of all the service departments. (The pharmacy, however, was kept.) In the 2015-16 bankruptcy, this and the nearby Van Houten Food Basics in Passaic were sold to Aurora Grocery Group, w