The Market Report

Recap our Virginia group with this music video! And what better song to use than "Virginia" by Elliott Yamin... If you missed any, check out the links below: Harrisonburg Former SuperFresh Fort Defiance Taylor's Grocery Staunton Cranberry's Grocery & Eatery Charlottesville Market Street Market Lexington Kroger Food Lion Buena Vista Food Lion Amish Cupboard Sheltman's Gas & Groceries Mays Grocery Troutville Troutville Grocery & Goods Roanoke Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op Roanoke City Market We're returning to New Jersey tomorrow with a Look Inside at a former supermarket.

As usual, the last post of this group is a sort of bonus post, one that's not exactly a supermarket or grocery store, but something I found interesting nonetheless. In this case, it's a public market building that's been very nicely restored. The Roanoke City Market is pretty much directly across the street from the Downtown Co-Op . The public market extends from the building seen here out across the street into the outdoor pedestrian mall I referred to in the Co-Op post. Inside, there are several vendors and restaurants with a common seating area in the middle. Here's a look at what the main interior section of the building looks like. Really cool details. It's hard to tell what this was previously, but they sure did a nice job renovating it. It's located at 32 Market Sq SE, Roanoke, VA. And that about wraps up our Virginia coverage! Check back tomorrow for a music video, as usual...

Heading into downtown Roanoke for our last two stops on the Virginia tour. Roanoke is a great city with plenty of interesting things to do. If you happen to visit, I'd highly recommend the Taubman Museum of Art , which is an art museum in an architecturally interesting building. General admission is free, which is very nice; one of their corporate sponsors is Kroger. The Virginia Museum of Transportation is also a must-see for any road or rail fans out there. Anyway, enough about the real world! Let's see the supermarkets! The Roanoke Downtown Co-Op is a natural foods store that's actually part of the same organization as Weaver Street Market, which we toured back in June of 2018. The Co-Op is located on the ground floor of Center in the Square . The store here is much smaller than Weaver Street, and is not as much of a full supermarket. As you can see, it's part of a very attractive outdoor pedestrian mall. The store is located at 1 Market Sq SE, R...

Heading south towards Roanoke for today's Snapshot. In fact, Troutville is about 15 miles north of Roanoke. This small grocery store uses the Essential Everyday brand from Supervalu as its storebrand. In fact, they even advertise SuperValu as one of the featured brands on their website, although with the wrong logo! Not entirely sure what Thriftway refers to here. It's not the now-defunct Philadelphia-area cooperative; I don't know whether there was another cooperative or chain in this area with the same name. This store is located at 5414 Lee Hwy, Troutville, VA.

Closing out our (rather extensive, for a small town) coverage of Buena Vista with one more gas station-grocery combination just south of the downtown area. This store doesn't exactly have a sign on the front, just a lit lettering sign that said MAYS GROCERY. On Google Maps, it's listed as Mays' Grocery. Not sure what the actual name is here. Looks like the entrance and exit are on the side of the building here, which faces the gas pumps. Clearly an old building, and it's likely been a grocery store for many decades. Here you can see the only sign for the grocery store, to the left, along with the sign for the gas station (not sure I'm entirely certain what any of those prices are, except maybe the one in the middle). Another entrance door here on the front. The yellow part to the left was almost certainly an expansion. The store is located at 1036 Magnolia Ave, Buena Vista.

Here's a quick look at a grocery store-gas station combination, similar to Taylor's Grocery over in Fort Defiance. Although it's shown on the map as being in the same location as Amish Cupboard, it's actually just east on US-60. I have no idea what Sheltman's actually sells, or how complete of a grocery store it is. It's located at 174 E 29th St, Buena Vista.

Downtown Buena Vista , VA, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Despite its small-town charm and historic buildings, it has clearly been hit by hard times. Most commercial spaces in downtown are vacant. On the outskirts of the downtown area is this independent grocery store, the Amish Cupboard. Unfortunately, it permanently closed in October of 2018. It wasn't a full supermarket, as it didn't sell fresh meat or a large selection of dairy or frozen. But it was definitely a grocery store. The movie theater next door was also out of business at the time of my visit. Now for a quick look around... Lots of bulk foods, a small deli-bakery counter at the back, and a few other grocery items. The cookies were fantastic! There are three aisles. Bulk foods available in the first aisle. The store was located at 2265 Beech Ave.

Head about four and a half miles east on US-60 from the Food Lion in Lexington and you'll hit another Food Lion, the next food store you'll encounter. Located just outside downtown Buena Vista, the Food Lion has similarly been renovated with the latest (cheap-looking) decor package. The Food Lion shares the building with a CVS. You can check out the interior of the store here and here . This one also has that produce room. Is it refrigerated? Food Lion of Buena Vista is at 2150 E Midland Trl, Buena Vista, VA.

We're heading just up the street from yesterday's Kroger to Lexington's second major supermarket, this one a Food Lion. Food Lion, which is just east on 60 from Kroger, seemed to me to be slightly larger than Kroger, although that's likely because the store has fewer features and service departments. There's more space overall in Food Lion, although the store has less to offer. Food Lion is certainly more imposing than Kroger. You enter and exit on either side of this foyer, with the produce department in the front right corner. Meat lines the back wall with dairy and frozen on the far side of the store. Deli/bakery is in the front corner opposite produce. It's a pretty standard Food Lion layout. As we'll see, it's been a while since this Food Lion was renovated. Let's head in towards produce... The front wall is to the right above. My photos came from a visit in March of 2018. Since then, the store has actually been renovated w...