The Market Report

  Continuing the celebration of The Market Report's 10th year! Each month of 2026, I'll be posting a different special feature to celebrate my 10th year of writing this blog. Last month, we took a look at my  favorite posts of 2016-2020 , and in January, we investigated the  history of A&P and its other brands . This month, let's spend some more time on the past with a look at some memorabilia today along with yesterday's historical photos . Tomorrow is one more day of memorabilia! A&P This was a particularly exciting find at an antique store in Gloucester, MA. This tin was sold for $2.99 at A&P's 125th anniversary in 1984. Seeing this, it wasn't a hard decision to make this part of my own collection. The tin depicts a ca. 1912 A&P store, and I love the images around the tin. On the back, you get a look inside the store at that time. And here's some more information from the bottom of the tin. If you're interested in all things A&P, d...

Elmora Farmers Market Opened:  ca. 2009 Owner:  unknown Previous Tenants:  Food Fair (ca. 1950-early 1970s) > Pantry Pride (early 1970s-1979) > Mayfair Foodtown (1979-1990s) > Cost Cutters (1990s-ca. 2008) Cooperative:  none Location:  190 Elmora Ave, Elizabeth, NJ Photographed:  December 9, 2025 Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted on January 25, 2017, but was rewritten with new photos in January 2026. Now for the post! Welcome to the Elmora Farmers Market, an unassuming produce market and grocery store of around 15,000 square feet in Elizabeth, NJ's Elmora neighborhood. This building, which underwent a big renovation in 2008 , actually dates back to about 1950 when it was built as a Food Fair. In the early 1970s, it became a Pantry Pride discount store, then a Mayfair Foodtown  -- where, incidentally, my father worked in high school -- in the late 1970s. Foodtown closed by the 1990s, and discount store Cost Cutte...

Original Tenant:  Food Fair Address:  190 Elmora Ave, Elmora, Elizabeth, NJ Opened:  1960s Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  Pantry Pride > Mayfair Foodtown > Cost Cutters > Elmora Farmers Market/Dollar General Photographed:  ca. 2005, 2008 Repeating that first picture from our 2017 store tour of the Elmora Farmers Market , which takes up a little more than half of this former supermarket. This time, we have a little more material. Namely, a glimpse of the Food Fair arch still intact as late as 2005... Okay, yes, this is a picture of the Dunkin' Donuts outparcel. But you can see the yellow arch in the background of the image! (The Dunkin' Donuts was for a very long time a favorite hangout of my family's older members, along with the White Castle on the other side of the train tracks.) But for a better picture... Here's a look at the store under construction back in 2008. This is very interesting to me... apparently the fac...