The Market Report

Patel Brothers Owner:  Swetal & Rakesh Patel Opened:  unknown Previous Tenants:  Patel's Cash & Carry Cooperative:  none Location:  780-782 Newark Ave, Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ Photographed:  March 2019 Contributor:  Steve M. For today's Jersey City store, we have a photo brought to us by contributor Steve M.! Patel Brothers, the Illinois-based largest Indian supermarket chain in the US, has a 4400-square-foot, smaller format Farmers Market location here in Journal Square, a densely Indian neighborhood. Indian grocery stores on the whole are a category that I have disappointingly little experience with, but I got a lot more coverage in the summer of 2020, which we'll be seeing soon enough. While there are many other Indian and southern Asian grocery stores here at Journal Square, there are also other regions of the world represented, for example the Aqui Market on Sip Avenue , and some recognizable names, with a C...

Supremo Foodmarket Owner: Eddie Trujillo Opened: late 1990s Previous Tenants:  Met Foodmarkets Cooperative:  none Location:  323 Palisade Ave, The Heights, Jersey City, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 Our final store here in The Heights in Jersey City is the Supremo Food Market! The Plainfield, NJ-based chain has 14 locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the latest Supremo that we saw is the Irvington location, though that store is about 10,000 square feet larger than this 26,000 square foot store. I'm not entirely sure on the history of this store, although I do know it was the second Supremo after Elizabeth opened in 1996. Previously it was a Met Foodmarket, according to a former Jersey City resident who lived in this neighborhood and found the Met Foodmarket too dirty for his tastes. The store appears to be based around an original 11,000 square foot arched-roof building, though I don't know whether it has been a supermarket for its whole life. The gray, ...

Stop & Shop Opened: 2001 Previous Tenants:  Safeway (1950s-1962) > Finast (1962-1995) > Edwards (1995-2001) Location:  232 Central Ave, The Heights, Jersey City, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 Our final store here on Central Avenue is this Stop & Shop! (Make sure to check out today's other post of a small grocery store in the next block north here .) As for some background on this store, it was built in the 40s or 50s as a Safeway, which became a Finast, which became an Edwards, which became a Stop & Shop. JoshAustin610 gives us that history insight, and also says that this is one of the longest-running supermarkets in the area. At just shy of 20,000 square feet, this store is one of the smallest Stop & Shops still operating. It's the first of three tiny NJ locations we'll be seeing, and all of them retain their early 2000s "Super Stop & Shop" decor. This is a crazy example where the Supremo Food Market -- four blocks east, which we...

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 270 Central Ave, The Heights, Jersey City, NJ Opened:  1947 Closed:  1965 Later Tenants:  Kennedy Department Store Photographed:  December 2020 Today's second store is this former 1940s-era ACME on Central Avenue in the Heights. (Our first was a small greengrocer shop about a block north.) There's unfortunately relatively little information available about this 8900 square foot store, but I'm fairly certain there is a photo of it available in one of the Images of America books on Jersey City. I love those books but only have access to them via a local library, since I don't own many of them. There were once quite a few ACMEs around Jersey City, with the last remaining 1970s-era one closing in 2009 and then two acquired A&P stores opening in 2015, see Droyer's Point and Newport . Tomorrow is our last double-post day, with a small independent grocery store on The Independent Edition and a look at the neighborhood's...

Original Tenant: unknown Address: 360 Central Ave, The Heights, Jersey City, NJ Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Nin's Market (closed before 2007) Photographed:  December 2020 We're here at our third stop in The Heights on Central Avenue, the first being Los Aztecas over on The Independent Edition  about three blocks north, and the second being Sweet Pineapple Fruit & Vegetable . I'm having trouble finding information on the store online, and the 2600 square foot grocery store closed at some point before 2007, the earliest available Google street view. The store is many times as deep as it is long, but unfortunately we can't see inside; the rolling door made it impossible to place the camera right up on the window. Even looking in myself, the low-light cloudy day prevented me from seeing anything more than the first few feet of the space, which was empty. Tomorrow we have another post each on The Independent Edition and here on Grocery Ar...

Fine Fare Supermarkets Owner: Hammad Siyam Opened:  1987 Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  601 4th St, Union City, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 This 12,000 square foot Fine Fare is a pretty substantial neighborhood supermarket for this part of Union City. We're at the far southern tip of Union City here, with the rest of the stores we saw in Union City up to the north of route 495. We're also just blocks from the Jersey City border. I know that this Fine Fare opened under its current ownership in 1987, but I'm not sure what it was before that -- the building has almost definitely been a supermarket for its entire life. As we can see, it's clearly a popular spot for food shopping. Produce lines both sides of the first aisle, with meat and deli on the back wall and dairy in the last aisle. Frozen is in the middle of the store, and the front right corner of the store was closed off in preparation for a pharmacy that was to...

Kings Food Markets Opened: unknown Previous Tenants:  none Location:  1212 Shipyard Ln, Hoboken, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 We're here right on the water to tour our next Kings Food Market! There were two Kings locations in Hoboken, both smaller-format urban stores branded Kings Fresh Ideas. That branding seems to have been phased out in recent years. The other location, at 325 River Street , closed in Kings' bankruptcy in December 2020 -- just before I got out to Hoboken. The River Street store was one of two to not receive the 2012-era Where Inspiration Strikes remodel, the other being Bernardsville, which also closed. This Shipyard Lane location has been taken over by ACME and will continue to operate as a Kings. I visited the approximately 8400 square foot store about three weeks before the sale to ACME closed. The storefront actually faces Shipyard Lane, the side street behind the store. The front of the store, facing Hudson Street and shown in the first pictur...