The Market Report

Happy Monday! Let's check out the small independent grocers across the neighborhoods we've been visiting. A note on historical sources:  To get "past stores" in each location, I've consulted Worcester city directories going back to the 1910s. Here in the city, I'm drawing from  1916, 1922, 1927, 1931, 1937, 1943, 1959, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1969, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1991, 2000, 2009, and 2017.  Also of note: this is far from an exhaustive listing of all grocery stores that have been in this area, although I'll probably eventually post the full thing, this is just what I've been able to photograph. Reading the captions:  A caption such as the following...          |  John Smith (1926-1937) > Joe Jones (1955-1982) ...means that John Smith appears in the directories in 1926 and 1937, and Joe Jones appears in all directories I consulted between 1955 and 1982. That doesn't mean that John Smith opened up shop in 1926 and closed in 1937, he might have starte

Food Bazaar Supermarket Opened: October 4, 2024 Owner:  Spencer An Previous Tenants:  Grand Union > Stop & Shop Cooperative:  none Location:  675 Paterson Ave, Carlstadt, NJ Photographed:  October 4, 2024 Today's third Stop & Shop post (along with Newton and Jackson ) is a store that's both already closed and already reopened with a new operator. For a little background, the 55,000 square foot Carlstadt Stop & Shop was built on the site of a demolished Grand Union warehouse, and the store briefly operated as a Grand Union before that chain went under and it became a Stop & Shop. It was among the 32 stores Stop & Shop is closing this fall, and along with three others was taken over immediately by Queens-based Food Bazaar, marking their 6th store in New Jersey and 36th overall. Food Bazaar is converting one store every two weeks, with Coney Island being their first on September 6, Hempstead on September 20, Carlstadt on October 4, and Piscataway up n

Stop & Shop Opened: 2001 Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  Mayfair Foodtown (ca. 1990-1995) > Edwards (1995-2001) Cooperative:  none Location:  2275 W County Line Rd, Jackson, NJ Photographed:  April 19, 2024 Closing Date: September 19, 2024 (approximate) Today's next already-closed Stop & Shop (joining Newton and Carlstadt ) is Jackson, which closed on or around September 19. This store was one of the 32 closures announced in July , but its closure was actually announced in April on its own. The roughly 68,000 square foot store was constructed around 1990 as a Mayfair Foodtown, then became an Edwards, which converted to Stop & Shop in 2001. It seems that the store was renovated and expanded almost immediately after that. It wasn't redone subsequently, so right up until its closure it sported its early-00s Super Stop & Shop decor. The store looked pretty good when I visited -- which was about a week before the closure was announced -- but it was ob