The Market Report

Karns Foods Owner: Scott Karns Opened:  late 1990s Previous Tenants:  SuperFresh (1980s-1990s) Location:  4870 Carlisle Pk, Mechanicsburg, PA Photographed:  August 13, 2022 Welcome to the Karns Foods in Mechanicsburg! As you might be able to tell from the distinctive slanted facade, this store was constructed in the early 1980s as a SuperFresh Futurestore, which then closed by the late 90s. Karns didn't do much upon moving in, it seems, to the outside, which retained its distinctive look . When I visited in summer of 2022, the store was undergoing an exterior renovation, keeping the slanted wall but reworking the entrance . As we can see, what's now the main entrance was closed at the time of my visit. The roughly 40,000 square foot store feels significantly less like a SuperFresh inside than outside, but the facade would take a lot of structural work to remove the unusual appearance. So for the time being, all traffic in and out of the store was being directed to th...

Whole Foods Market Opened:  2020 Previous Tenants:  A&P Location:  1204 Preakness Ave, Wayne, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 The Wayne, NJ A&P , a beautifully preserved Futurestore, closed in 2015 with no buyer in the A&P bankruptcy. In 2016, it was announced that the Wayne Natural Food Market was to move into the space, plans that never seemed to materialize. By 2017, The MRKT Square (which I vaguely recall reading was to be the same owners as Wayne Natural Food Market)  was slated to move in , and even began renovations on the exterior, but never completed them and pulled out long before the store opened. The following year, Whole Foods announced intentions to move in, finally opening in October 2020 . I captured the store in progress late in its transition, in July 2020, while Whole Foods was putting the finishing touches on its renovations. Diehard supermarket fans will recognize the Futurestore facade still back there behi...

ACME Markets Opened: 2015 Previous Tenants:  A&P Location:  45 De Mercurio Dr, Allendale, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 Time for another Bergen County ACME that Acme Style also covered! See their coverage here , and our look at the former A&P just to the right of this store here . Clearly once a prime A&P, I do think ACME has let this store slip more than their other acquired stores, perhaps because, as Acme Style mentions, it appears to be a very low-volume store. It did seem the store was busier than at the time of their visit, but I visited this store just about an hour after being at Mahwah , which was absolutely packed while this one was just a little busy. The 38,000 square foot store is also rather small for its age, although that's understandable given the downtown location. As we'll see, some parts of the store are plenty spacious while some are very cramped. Heading in, we have produce in the front corner with Starbucks on the front wall just to t...