The Market Report

Superfood Fresh Supermarket Owner: unknown Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  704 W Emmaus Ave, Allentown, PA Photographed:  January 8, 2021 We're here at the Superfood Fresh Supermarket in Allentown -- one of two that started as Superfood Marketplace stores, then appear to have been sold to the owners of Twin City and other supermarkets, and rebranded Superfood Fresh. When we were here last, it was a Superfood Marketplace . Not much has changed, but I wanted to get a few updated interior pictures nonetheless. As we can see, maintenance at this store has been excellent. It's extremely clean and well-stocked. And even with the high ceiling, no lights were burnt out. Speaking of that, here's a few better and newer pictures of the high pitched-roof ceiling. And a picture of the mural on the front wall, which still has the poorly-added Superfood Marketplace logo over what used to say Valley Farm Market. Worth mentioning that the other remaining ...

Heading straight south on University Ave from yesterday's Food Universe Marketplace to check out another store on the next business corridor south, Fordham Rd. This thoroughfare pretty much extends across all of the Bronx (although it becomes Pelham Parkway in the eastern half) and goes directly to the campus of Fordham University.  This store, as far as I know, has no relation to the Antillana Meat Market we saw on Sunday. It is, however, part of a chain with other locations at 1339 Jerome Ave and 1791 Jerome Ave, both in the Bronx. I do not understand the affiliation with SuperFood Marketplace, a New Jersey-based store with locations in Elizabeth and Ridgefield. Here's the approach to Antillana so that you can get a feel for Fordham Rd. The supermarket is on the corner and has the red awning. Like so many of these urban supermarkets, the store is pieced together from multiple smaller storefronts, with the corner part apparently under renovation to be a restauran...

Let's cross the Newark Bay (don't swim across, I don't want to know what it's polluted with) from Bayonne yesterday  to Elizabeth today. Matter of fact, we're going to be on the southeastern end of Elizabeth to see the Superfood Marketplace at the port. So we'll actually be closer to Staten Island than Bayonne. Anyway, here we go. Superfood opened to much fanfare in 2012 as it was the first new supermarket in the port (that is, for people not familiar with the area, the neighborhood of Elizabethport, which is relatively isolated from the rest of the city). Previously there had been a Fine Fare Supermarket at 75 Broadway but other than that, the area did not have any supermarkets (chain or independent) for many years. Except, I guess, a very small supermarket on the north end of the neighborhood, Universal-owned Super El Rey at 80 3rd St. Superfood opened locations in Allentown and Middlesex , which have since been spun off to Superfood Fresh (owned by Twin...

A while ago we saw the fascinating Twin City Supermarket in Elizabeth, NJ. As I mentioned, the group also owns other stores: Twin City Supermarket in Plainfield, NJ Twin City Supermarket in Newark, NJ Pueblo Supermarket in Newark, NJ Aquí Market at Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ Aquí Market at Twin City Plaza, Jersey City, NJ Aquí Market in Bridgewater, NJ Aquí Market in Califon, NJ And this store, Superfood Fresh Market in Middlesex, NJ. This store has an interesting history. The store was opened as a WT Grant in the 1950s, joining an A&P at the other end of the mall. A&P closed in 2001 and was converted to a Food Basics, which closed in 2006. That space is now divided between Dollar Tree and the Route 28 Farmers Market, a small greengrocer. WT Grant closed in the 1980s and was replaced with a Drug Fair. Drug Fair, in turn, closed in 2009 and was replaced by Walgreens, which found it hard to fill the entire 30,000-square-foot space. So they blocked off a po...