The Market Report

ShopRite of Ark Road Owner: Karl Eickhoff Opened:  2007 Previous Tenants:  Shop n Bag > Super G > Stop & Shop (2005-2007) Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  127 Ark Rd, Mount Laurel, NJ Photographed:  December 2019 It's our final store north of Camden! It's more like east of Camden, slightly north, about 13 miles out on route 38. The township of Mount Laurel has three ShopRites, two of which are owned by the Ravitz family (Nixon Drive and Union Mill), and one of which -- this one -- is owned by Eickhoff, whose stores we've seen before. This one, on Ark Road in the Hartford section of Mount Laurel, and Union Mill were both Super G locations rebranded to Stop & Shop in 2005, then sold to Wakefern in 2007 when Stop & Shop exited this area of the state. Wakefern then turned the stores over to their various member-owners, including Eickhoff, Ravitz, Village, and others. This store appears to have been renovated upon purchase by the Eickho...

ACME Markets Opened: 1953 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  41 W Main St, Maple Shade, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Folks, it's our second-to-last stop north of Camden, and it's a good one. With the relatively recent closures of the Middlesex and Morris Plains ACMEs, there remain relatively few true "classic" ACMEs as Acme Style would've classified them. A clear frontrunner to me is the Main Street ACME in Maple Shade, which Acme Style covered back in 2010. And at that time, they were wondering how much longer this store which opened in 1953 could continue to stay in business. Well, 12 years after Acme Style's post, it's still going just as it did all those years. ACME also built a second store in Maple Shade in the 1970s, and that store recently lost its pharmacy but that was coupled with an extensive Quality Built renovation. The store originally ended where the tower is, according to Acme Style (and the tower was once taller), and the part on th...

Original Tenant: Penn Fruit Address: 3949 US-130, Pennsauken, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  Jewel T > subdivided Photographed:  January 2021 This unnamed strip mall at US-130 and Federal Street in Pennsauken is constructed around a roughly 16,000 square foot arched-roof Penn Fruit, which was later expanded to about 31,000 square feet. That became a Jewel T discount food store, and was later subdivided with Family Dollar taking the left side and part of the Save-A-Lot in the right side. The rest of the Save-A-Lot may have been a bank or other smaller business next to the supermarket. An overview of the whole strip mall from a conveniently-placed pedestrian walkway over route 130. You see how there's a raised section in the middle of Family Dollar's ceiling? I couldn't quite figure out what that is when I was in the store, but I think it's in the middle of the arch where the building roof is higher. The rest of the ceiling is much lower, as we ...

Save-A-Lot Owner: John Leevers / Leevers Supermarkets Opened: early 2000s Previous Tenants:  Penn Fruit > Jewel T Location:  3949 US-130, Pennsauken, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 You can recognize that arch anywhere! Part of this Save-A-Lot was originally a Penn Fruit, which you can read more about here . But the Save-A-Lot -- which today appears to be around 15,000 square feet -- unfortunately doesn't have any remnants of Penn Fruit inside, as far as I could tell based on a quick visit. Save-A-Lot really doesn't interest me, but I will say that the recent (and ongoing) switch to independent ownership does make the chain significantly more interesting. This was one of 17 stores acquired in April 2021 by Colorado-based Leevers Supermarkets. This store had not yet been remodeled by Leevers at the time of my visit, but my understanding is that they have a very different approach than corporate Save-A-Lot did. We see clear signs of maintenance neglect here, with the be...