The Market Report

SuperFresh Opened: September 20, 2024 Owner:  Howard Lee Previous Tenants:  Pantry Pride (1970s) > Mayfair Foodtown (late 1970s-1995) > Edwards (1995-2001) > Stop & Shop (2001-2023) Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  424 Raritan Ave, Highland Park, NJ Photographed:  September 22, 2024 After talking a lot about closing Stop & Shop stores (and don't worry, I have lots more posts on that subject to come), let's take a look at something different -- a brand-new store that's made its home in a former Stop & Shop! This is the SuperFresh of Highland Park, located in the small suburban town of Highland Park just outside of New Brunswick. The store dates back to around 1970, replacing an older supermarket closer to the street. It's right around 25,000 square feet and hasn't been expanded since it opened when Mayfair Foodtown built it. Mayfair was acquired by Ahold-owned chain Edwards in the 1990s, then all Edwards were converted to Stop &...

SuperFresh Opening: summer 2024 Owner:  Howard Lee Previous Tenants:  Mayfair Foodtown (1970s-1995) > Edwards (1995-2001) > Stop & Shop (2001-2023) Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  424 Raritan Ave, Highland Park, NJ Photographed:  May 8, 2024 Welcome back to Highland Park! The extremely outdated Stop & Shop of just 25,000 square feet closed in spring 2023 (see my past coverage here ) and shortly thereafter, SuperFresh announced they'd be moving in. I stopped by to see how it's going, and the renovation is going to be very serious. I couldn't get any pictures inside, but I did get a little glimpse. The space has been cleared back to the studs, including ripping up the floor, tearing out the ceiling and lights, and demolishing all the interior walls. Some new interior walls have begun to be framed, but nothing's been enclosed yet. Electricians and HVAC workers were hard at work when I was there yesterday. This SuperFresh will be owned by Foo...

Stop & Shop Opened: ca. 2000 Previous Tenants:  Mayfair Foodtown > Edwards Location:  424 Raritan Ave, Highland Park, NJ Photographed:  March 3, 2023 Welcome back to the Highland Park Stop & Shop! We toured this store as we passed through New Jersey on our first round, and when its closure was announced I knew I had to get back to check it out. Although the store had not begun its official liquidation when I visited, the closure had been announced for some time at that point and signage around the store informed people it was closing. We're going to take a look around the store again, just for fun. Nothing has changed, of course, except for the thinning out of merchandise around the store. Although the liquidation hadn't actually begun yet, the shelves were definitely starting to thin out, although strangely not much in the fresh departments. The grocery aisles, as we'll see, had much less stock than the perimeter. Produce was mostly stocked, which surprised ...