The Market Report

ShopRite of Somerset Owner: Robert Sumas / Village Super Market Opened:  ca. 2007 Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  435 Elizabeth Ave, Somerset, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 In an area of northwestern Somerset, where rural regions meet light industrial and suburban, a 64,000 square foot ShopRite was built around 2007 just as the area was being developed with new housing and retail. The area also has existing light industrial and warehousing, and there remains some agriculture in the region. But this is definitely a suburban store, if a strangely-located suburban store. The store was built with the same decor package as Essex Green previously had , and it's been beautifully remodeled (around 2019) to the newest Village decor package that Essex Green (along with Bruckner , Elizabeth , and others) now have. The interior is a pretty standard Village layout, with produce on the left side of the grand aisle with bakery in the front ...

Fine Fare Supermarkets Owner: unknown Opened:  ca. 2017 Previous Tenants:  A&P > Fine Fare Supermarkets > Compare Foods Supermarket Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  621 Hamilton St, Somerset, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Notice anything funny about that Fine Fare logo? How about the fact that it's kind of the Fine Fare logo placed over the Compare Foods logo ? This store is just up the street from the slightly larger and much more recently remodeled Tropical Supermarket we're also looking at today, and Tropical seems to be the slightly preferred shopping spot. This store -- which is in 7500 square feet of a former A&P Centennial -- was previously a Rite Aid, later becoming Fine Fare which became Compare Foods which became Fine Fare again. It's unclear whether that's all the same owner or different owners. Here we can very clearly see the A&P centennial facade, although it's been covered by that awful blue siding. I get that the F...

Tropical Supermarket Owner: Ricardo Hernandez Opened:  unknown Previous Tenants:  ACME Markets Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  720 Hamilton St, Somerset, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 A little more than half of this 1950s-era ACME is now home to a Tropical Supermarket, whose North Brunswick and South River locations we saw most recently. The store clocks in at just over 10,000 square feet, and it seems to me that this was the first Tropical location (though I don't know that for sure). The building has been remodeled on the outside, but still has that signature 1950s ACME look to it. Unlike the other Tropical locations, this was not previously a Bravo or a Fine Fare. Instead, this appears to have been branded Tropical for its entire life, although as we'll see the interior has been redone more recently. Before we head in, though, there's a lot to see on the outside... The store's delivery van is actually labeled with the Paterson, NJ Key Food location ...