The Market Report

As usual, my information here comes from Josh Austin . This store started as a 1950s-era Grand Union that closed by the mid-80s with CVS opening shortly thereafter. The store is located at 2440 Hamburg Tpk, Wayne, NJ. Photographed August 2019

Continuing yesterday's theme of Grand Union by taking a look at a former Grand Union here in Oakland, NJ. The store has been subdivided between Staples (shown here) and the Oakland Giant Farmers Market , a very large farmers market/gourmet grocery store type thing that I would love to visit sometime but haven't gotten around to yet. The Grand Union competed with a nearby A&P and a ShopRite . It's located at 350 Ramapo Valley Rd, Oakland, NJ. Photographed July 2018

Didn't even realize that my planning lined up another former Acme for today, along with our snapshots from yesterday and the day before . I'm not going to provide an extensive history here, mostly because Acme Style already has done so much better than I ever could. Anyhow, I have to agree with Acme Style's conclusion that the new facade is very nice and that it is a lot like the newer facade updates Acme is doing now. The store is located at 11 Center St. Photographed May 2016

This store opened as an Acme Market on August 10, 1957 and closed on August 6, 1966, as Acme Style reports . Today, it's a CVS (surprise!) and at 565 Valley Rd, it's just up the street from a currently operating Acme in a former A&P, which will be coming to the blog soon. This store was only 11,000 square feet. However, the current Acme is only 30,000 square feet or so, and the other competition -- a Kings farther north on Valley -- is smaller at 17,000 square feet. Like so many stores of this era, the storefront actually faces the street with the parking lot on the side. Photographed May 2019

Some former supermarkets have been so badly butchered or, depending on how you look at it, so well reinvented, that you can't tell that it was ever a grocery store. Some look like they just closed yesterday. Others fall in the middle -- they still have the bones of the supermarket, but have been extensively altered. Today's Snapshot falls in that last category. Yes, this building is now a Walgreens, and it was previously a Drug Fair. But you don't have to imagine too much to see it as a former A&P centennial-style store. Obviously the existing facade has been extensively covered, but the shape is still there. And the entrance still faces the parking lot on the side, just like it would have in the A&P days. I wasn't able to get extensive coverage, but there are still loading docks in the back also. The store has a basement, which is a no-brainer because it's on a hill meaning that the lower level is ground level in the back. I'd driven by this store ...

Before moving to its current location, the ShopRite of Rockaway was actually in Rockaway. Because, you know, that kinda makes sense. The current one is technically in Dover. This is a pretty bad location for a supermarket, being located at a curve in the road and set way back. However, it's not hard to see how it would have originally been pretty great, assuming the supermarket predates the other surrounding buildings, which I would guess it does. Visibility is now seriously limited by the gas station and strip mall in front of the building west on 46, and the car dealer (visible here) just east. The property is located at 279 US-46. Photographed November 2016

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 191 Elmora Ave, Elizabeth, NJ Opened: 1950s Closed: after 1970 Later Tenants:  Windsor Department Store (closed 1987) > AID Auto Stores (opened 1987) > Job Lot (1990s) > 99 Cent & Discount Depot Photographed: May 6, 2017 A former A&P dating back to the 1920s, the building at 191 Elmora Ave (just across Grand St from Food Bazaar ) has seen many tenants through the years. I believe it was another supermarket following A&P, likely in the late 50s or early 60s, but by the late 60s, it was a five-and-dime store. Neither one of my parents, who both grew up in the immediate neighborhood, could remember the name of the store, although my mother thought it might be something like C&L or two letters. Any Elizabeth folks, input? By 2007 it was the 99c Depot ("Everything 99 Cents or More!" Uh...) but it was later changed to the 99c and Discount Depot, which is a small chain or franchise in the area of discount/dol...

ALDI Opened: 1998 Owner: ALDI Sud Previous Tenants: A&P (1960s-1983) > SuperFresh (1983-ca. 1990s) Cooperative: none Location: 7609 New Hampshire Ave, Takoma Park, MD Photographed: October 3, 2016 Today we're going to check out a grocery store in singer Eric Hutchinson 's hometown of Takoma Park, MD (or at least where he grew up). This ALDI appears to be a modified A&P/SuperFresh Centennial model. Note that, although it's tempting to say that the peaked part where the ALDI logo is, is original, it's not. It would have been centered on the storefront if it were left over from A&P. The store practically shares a parking lot with another mall that includes the Red Apple Farmers Market , a small grocery store. This post was updated on January 4, 2026 for formatting.

When we visited the Confluence Foodmart, I made a brief mention of the Diamond Produce store a few blocks west of the Foodmart. I decided to give the store its own dedicated Snapshot post. Although we're not really going to be seeing anything new, I wanted to separate it out as I'm pretty sure Diamond is itself a former Acme. (Incidentally, this week isn't themed. Next week will be, but then we're fast approaching our next big group of stores, 44 to be exact!) Okay, okay, we saw this picture already. I know. But let's take another look at it. Does the store not look almost identical to (if slightly wider than) the definite former Acme in Canandaigua , and maybe even closer to the likely former Acme in Union . (In fact, I started to do the Photoshop tricks to get the old Acme logo on this storefront, but I figured I could just send you over to the image I did for Union instead.) If you want to look it up yourself, the address is 606 Logan Pl, Confluence, PA.

Rounding out our Former Supermarket Week with a store in New York City! We're heading up to Harlem (yes, I did actually take the A train here, but we're about 25 blocks south of Sugar Hill). We previously saw a CTown up here on 125th St, but we're going about across the street from that store to check out this store I'm pretty sure is a former A&P. I was only on 125th St to see the CTown, but I couldn't take my eyes off this building. It took me a little while, but I'm now thoroughly convinced this was previously an A&P. Unfortunately, I can't confirm this anywhere. Does anyone know for sure? It's located at 515 W 125th St. Photographed August 2016

Coming closer to home for today's Snapshot. I can't tell you how many times I've driven by the old ShopRite of Union (in fact, I grew up in Union -- although I didn't grow up shopping at this store). I did go in occasionally, though, and found it quite comforting, not appalling as the Acme Style blogger seemed to. You can tour the store when it was still open over on Acme Style here . I can offer a little bit of insight to some of his questions, such as the lack of decor. The store would have had the same decor as Watchung , which was removed at some point for a remodel to the decor now seen in Garwood . However, the remodel never happened, possibly due to the impending closure of the Pathmark at Union Plaza on route 22, approximately a mile and a half south. Village Super Market, the owners of the ShopRite, instead decided to move the store south to the former Pathmark, which is larger than the old 40,000-square-foot store but still fairly small. After sitting vac...

Rochester is one of those cities that's large enough and close enough to where I'm from in New Jersey that I really ought to have been to it. But I never had, until I finally went while on vacation in the Finger Lakes in August of 2018. I know I've been dropping little hints about the Finger Lakes and posting a few stores here and there, but we're going to get serious and spend about three weeks on that area come September. Anyway, this is the last store we'll see in the area until September. It's pretty obvious that this building used to house a supermarket. Even my parents, who were with me at the time I photographed this store and aren't insane I mean obsessed with supermarkets  er perhaps quite as knowledgeable about supermarkets as I am, agreed that it was clearly a grocery store. I just don't know what it was. Classic layout, with a narrow row of parking in front of the building, then a larger lot off to the side. Here's a look at...

Second Finger Lakes former supermarket for today's post. Corning, NY is a pleasant small city most famous for its glass factories and accompanying  glass museum . You're probably thinking that a glass  museum is boring as anything, but you'd be wrong. The Corning Museum of Glass is absolutely worth a visit if you're in the area. However, we're interested today in a building just shy of a mile west of the museum. I'm pretty sure that this building -- which also is used in my graphic for the week, accompanied by an Adobe Stock image of a sign (I wish this building actually had a sign like that) -- was a supermarket. Most recently, it was a Salvation Army Thrift Store. If I had to guess, I'd say it was previously a Tops, which now has a large and fairly modern store roughly half a mile west in Riverside. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Byrne Dairy, a convenience store, now takes up a small part of the building to the far right, with the rest vacant. ...

Heading back up to the Finger Lakes of New York for a quick look at a store I'm pretty sure was previously an A&P. We saw the former ACME in Bath, NY a few weeks ago. Like that store, this supermarket has been repurposed as a non-grocery store. The peaked facade and side-facing entrance makes me pretty sure that this building was an A&P! We have a few more stores in the Finger Lakes to check out over the next three days. This store is located at 121 Liberty St, Bath, NY. Photographed August 2018

The tiny town of Roseland, NJ does not have any supermarkets. Residents typically shop at the ShopRite of West Caldwell (coming soon to the blog) or the Stop & Shop practically across the street (not yet photographed). However, there were once two grocery stores almost next door to each other. This building, at 171 Eagle Rock Ave, was previously a grocery store; I believe it was the National Grocery Co. (I saw a picture once but can't seem to locate it again.) Fairchilds Market, which now occupies the space, is a great gourmet deli/liquor store. And two doors down (the storefront now painted dark green), at 175 Eagle Rock Ave, was the Mutual Grocery Co. That name I'm sure of. The stores coexisted, but probably not for long as the Mutual building looks to be older (1920s?) than the current Fairchilds building (1930s?). These storefronts are part of the very small downtown of Roseland. Photographed April 2018

Starting off our Former Supermarket Week with this location in Elizabeth, NJ. While I don't actually know what chain it was, it was undoubtedly a supermarket. Gotta love a store with a tower! Many supermarkets used similar towers in the 1950s, although this store's slanted design suggests Food Fair or A&P most likely. Since the location doesn't appear on any established lists of those chains' stores, it's also possible it was an independent (of which there were several in Elizabeth, although I didn't think there were any this large), or another store like Foodtown. I don't believe that Elizabeth had a ShopRite before the existing store opened in 1994. A few longtime Elizabeth residents I know were unsure of what this building's original tenant would have been. It's pretty obvious it was a supermarket, though. Today the store, which is located at 639 Bayway Ave, is the Bayway World of Liquors. Photographed June 2018