The Market Report

The Fresh Grocer of Colonia Owner: David Maniaci / Nicholas Markets Opened:  2020 Previous Tenants:  Stop & Shop > Circus Foodtown > Nicholas Foodtown Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  510 Inman Ave, Colonia, NJ Photographed:  December 2021 It's time to check out the awesome remodel at The Fresh Grocer of Colonia, which is finished! The store held its official grand reopening a few months ago, and we most recently saw it in progress in July 2021 . You can also see the "before" pictures there. Today, we enter the totally redone store to the sushi and sandwich counters, which face the entrance. Deli/prepared foods take up the aisle to the right, with produce and seafood in the aisle to the left. A butcher on the back wall faces a cheese counter in the deli island, with frozen foods in the first grocery aisle. Meat and then dairy lines the back wall, with dairy also in the last aisle and bakery in the front right corner. These renovations make...

Foodtown of Port Monmouth Owner: Lou Scaduto Jr. / Circus Fresh Foods Opened:  1998 Previous Tenants:  A&P (1960s-1998) Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  426 NJ-36, Port Monmouth, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 It's time for our first official Shore store! As I've said, and as we can see in the map above, sadly we will not be going too far down the shore -- no farther than Brick -- but we're starting here at the northeastern part of Monmouth County for two Foodtowns today. This first location, Port Monmouth, is the farther west, with Atlantic Highlands just to the east. The sun was not being too kind to me to photograph the exterior of this expanded A&P centennial... A 1960s-era, 19,000 square foot barrel roof store has been more than doubled in size, likely by A&P, for the existing Foodtown which opened in 1998. It moved up route 36 from an older store in a former ACME just to the west. Now it's time to play a game of "how much...

The Fresh Grocer of Colonia Owner: David Maniaci / Nicholas Markets Opened:  2020 Previous Tenants:  Stop & Shop > Circus Foodtown > Nicholas Foodtown Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location: 510 Inman Ave, Colonia, NJ Photographed:  June 2020 and July 2021 The fourth and final Nicholas Markets store that we haven't seen yet is here in Woodbridge, in the Colonia section. We've previously seen their Washington , North Haledon , and Cedar Grove locations in their Foodtown and Fresh Grocer incarnations. Unfortunately, I didn't get to photograph this store before its conversion to The Fresh Grocer, but this was the first Nicholas Markets store to convert back in February. Nicholas Markets acquired this store in 2015 from Food Circus (later Circus Fresh Foods), which owns other Foodtown stores to the south, in Monmouth and Ocean counties. They've been struggling for many years now, as has Foodtown in New Jersey in general, but some stores are still hanging ...