The Market Report

Original Grocery Tenant: Ernest Shopwell Supermarket Address: 262 Main St, West Orange, NJ Opened: unknown Closed: ca. 1980 Later Tenants:  Tory Corner Market (ca. 1980-ca. 1990) > Rite Aid (early 1990s-2019) > Walgreens (2019-2024) Photographed: February 24, 2025 This somewhat unremarkable former Rite Aid/Walgreens in downtown West Orange, NJ is actually a former supermarket. I don't know the entire history here, but by around 1970, it was the Ernest Shopwell Supermarket (not apparently related to the Daitch/Shopwell chain of New York), and around 1980, it became the Tory Corner Market affiliated with Fine Fare. Rite Aid was open by the early 1990s. The store is just under 10,000 square feet, and has been vacant since Walgreens closed in 2024. So why bother looking at this store now? A proposal that's gone all but completely under the radar is to demolish the former Rite Aid building along with a vacant former diner next to it to build this new, two-floor supermarke...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 47 Western Ave, Augusta, ME Opened:  ca. 1960 Closed:  by 1983 Later Tenants:  U-Haul (open by 1983) Photographed:  August 12, 2019 I hardly even need to say what the original tenant here was as this store design is instantly recognizable. it's amazing how well it's been preserved, too, more than 50 years after it was built. A&P closed here no later than 1983, and U-Haul was open no later than that year. The full building is a little over 20,000 square feet, but A&P's size was a few thousand square feet smaller as I assume this section was previously another tenant... The cupola on top of the building is looking particularly good! It's rare to see these buildings maintained with such meticulous detail. Tomorrow, we're headed just down the street for a look at another supermarket here in Augusta. Stay tuned!

Hannaford Opened: 2009 Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  118 Cony St, Augusta, ME Photographed:  August 12, 2019 Welcome to one of the Hannafords in Augusta! Of the chain supermarkets in town, this is actually the smallest, coming in around 50,000 square feet (the Shaw's in town is closer to 70,000 square feet and the other Hannaford is even larger, at just under 75,000 square feet). It's also the newest supermarket in Augusta. This store was built from the ground up in 2009, replacing an older location a couple blocks away. More on that soon. I assume, though I'm not sure, that it hasn't been renovated since opening, and I'm not sure whether it's been remodeled since I took these pictures in 2019. As we can see, even a decade after its opening, it still looked practically like a brand-new store. I don't know how it's held up in the subsequent years, but it's a really nice supermarket. It's a standard H...

Original Grocery Tenant:  A&P Address: 12 Stillwater Ave, Bangor, ME Opened:  ca. 1960; replaced older A&P store on same property Closed:  ca. 1970s Later Tenants:  various non-grocery tenants Photographed:  June 13, 2022 Bangor has a number of supermarkets -- including a Shaw's, a Hannaford, and a Walmart Supercenter -- but we're in town today to see a former supermarket. Look carefully, and you can actually see an old A&P centennial built into this office complex just north of downtown. You can browse more on the street views here . The A&P closed around the 1970s -- I couldn't find an exact date -- and it was converted to an office, with the present-day expansion tacked on to the supermarket's front wall coming later. While we're in Bangor, I spotted this building at the corner of Broadway and State St (89 State St). It's now a Family Dollar but sure looks to me like a former supermarket, though my usual resources weren't turning up any s...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 114 Central St, Ipswich, MA Opened:  1960s Closed:  between 1975 and 1994 Later Tenants:  Brooks Pharmacy (open by 1994) > Rite Aid > CVS Photographed:  January 8, 2025 Nestled in the quaint little coastal town of Ipswich is this former A&P, now a CVS (surprise surprise). A&P built this store, but I don't know when; it was definitely up and running by around 1965. It closed at some point between 1975 and 1994, and I don't know if there was another supermarket in the space after A&P. But by 1994, the space became a Brooks Pharmacy, which became Rite Aid in 2007, then a CVS between 2011 and 2018. At just 12,000 square feet, it's on the smaller size for a centennial, and I'd assume that's because it's in a pretty cramped New England small town. Ipswich doesn't have a supermarket right in town anymore, but just outside the downtown area is a small Shaw's . And Ipswich is important to the food busi...