The Market Report

Corrado's Market Opened:  1976 Owner:  James Corrado Previous Tenants:  Good Deal Cooperative:  none Location:  1578 Main Ave, Clifton, NJ Photographed:  February 20, 2025 It's time to return to the Corrado's Market in Clifton, and unfortunately the store is looking much worse than it did the last time I visited . (You can also see pictures of the store in better times there.) This is the final remaining store, as locations in Denville , North Arlington , Wayne , and Fairfield have closed, plus a planned store in Brick was canceled. There's a redevelopment project pending here , but I don't know what the status of that is. There's no visible sign of ongoing construction work, except... ...this stop work order which greets customers as they enter. (Apparently they were doing construction work without a permit, and while I'm not sure exactly which part of the store this is referring to, there's some work being done in the front corner that we'll see....

Extra Supermarket Opened:  2018 under current ownership; 1980s previously Owner:  Orfilio Chaviano and Nick Gonzalez Previous Tenants:  Good Deal Supermarket > Village ShopRite Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  563 Central Ave, East Orange, NJ Photographed:  September 13, 2024 Welcome back to the Extra Supermarket in downtown East Orange! What we're seeing above is the entrance and exit facing the parking lot, which is definitely not the more beautiful side. The store's main side faces out to Central Avenue, but the main entrance and exit are in the back facing the parking lot. The exterior has gotten a new paint job, but the inside has gotten a little more work. (According to a response to a Google review, Extra is also preparing to renovate the exterior of the store.)  Here's my original tour of the store a few years ago. The majority of the store hasn't really changed, but it's gotten some nice upgrades with a new floor, new lighting, and ...

Fairfield Welcome back to the Corrado's Market in Fairfield! If you recall, I was blown away when I went to this Corrado's as I definitely visited it at its high point. But Corrado's as a whole has been declining steeply and quickly, with the first cracks in the operation showing when they canceled their upcoming Brick store (and apparently doing the same in Old Tappan ). Their strip mall in Wayne was foreclosed on, then the store closed last month . They closed stores in North Arlington and Denville in 2021 and 2023, respectively. While I don't know exactly what's going on inside the company, it sure looks like it's crumbling before our eyes. Then again, there's no sign of that when you enter Fairfield, with a beautiful, fully stocked produce department, a huge deli packed with fresh products, and a massive fully-stocked salad bar. There's even fresh pizzas out in a dedicated service counter. But that good first impression is ruined if you look clo...

Kings Food Markets Opened: 1970s Previous Tenants:  none; Safeway > Finast > Good Deal previously on this property Location:  393 Main St, Chatham, NJ Photographed:  December 2019, November 2020, and July 2021 Ahhh, what a beautiful supermarket exterior. I mean, sure, sometimes we see supermarkets with unappealing rear entrances and exits . But this one doesn't look great all around. Unlike most supermarkets, this one is set up so that it's right up at the street with the parking in the rear. This 19,000 square foot store was constructed by Kings in the 1970s to replace an older store they had on the same property, in what was previously a Safeway that became a Finast and later a Good Deal, that burned down. Not much to see out on the street side, either. The layout of this store thoroughly confuses me, with the front-end running along the left side wall of the store; aisles run from side to side with produce in the back and deli/bakery in the front. Now typically ...