The Market Report

Universal Food Markets Owner: Vishu Patel Opened:  between 1997 and 2000 Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  2325 Elizabeth Ave, Rahway, NJ Photographed:  November 26, 2022 Today we wrapped up the remodel at the Kings in Livingston , and we're going to do the same here at the Universal in Rahway! I've documented this amazing transformation over the course of about a year and a half with the most recent post over the summer . The renovation is completely finished, and the store looks amazing. It's so much brighter and more open-feeling, and feels completely modern. You wouldn't know this building is 50 years old with the newest updates. The front entrance is fully functional... ...and the deli/prepared foods area in the back, the last thing that had yet to be finished inside the store, is all done. Worth noting that, during the process of this renovation, this store switched from Retail Grocers Group (Fine Fare) to Key Food. Most recently, I'd say about a month...

Universal Food Markets Owner: Vishu Patel Opened: between 1997 and 2000 Cooperative: Key Food Stores Location: 2325 Elizabeth Ave, Rahway, NJ Photographed: June 2022 We return to the Rahway Universal, again, for another update with the renovation very, very close to finished! We last saw the store back in January , when I said the same thing. But there was just one thing stopping me from saying the remodel was done. Before we head inside, we see the updated signage and renovated storefront facing Elizabeth Avenue. I actually do like the new logo and signage, but why did they put dark green lettering on a dark brown background with no outline or anything? I don't get that, but the store does look good. Here's an overview of the whole place... As we can see, the store looks way better than it did previously. It's only barely recognizable as the same building. Now let's just take a moment to appreciate how far we've come. In the last year or so, this store has been...

Universal Supermarket in Rahway, NJ will not run out of canned Goya beans anytime soon. Realistically, how does anyone actually take any of these cans, except maybe the bottom few rows, to buy?

A Real Ethnic Warehouse Store Universal Supermarket - Rahway, NJ When big-chain American supermarkets' "idea of international foods selection is carrying both Ortega and Old El Paso" , it's quite a shock to step into Universal Meat Supermarket (the "meat" seems to be a holdover from its previous life as a Western Beef). Universal is a real ethnic store. As much as I like stores CitiGrocer and Supremo , they somehow don't have a true authentic feeling, and are extremely Americanized. When you enter this store, or Kam Man Foods , if you're looking for Chinese groceries, the experience is very different. This store opened as a Food Fair, which later became Pantry Pride. It later became a Rex-Gene supermarket, followed by a Western Beef. Universal opened some time around 2005. (Most of this information came from here . Also click to see a daylight photo.) Universal clearly did minimal, if any, renovations after opening in the old Western Be...