The Market Report

A Tale of Two Supermarkets: Allentown Part II Little Apple Market - Allentown, PA Quick recap: we're in center-city Allentown. It's 2014 and Supremo has just announced they're moving into the old Sears building on 7th St. The owners of Little Apple Market next door - so close the two stores even share a parking lot - presumably decide they can't take the competition and decide to close the store in anticipation of Supremo's opening. However, a business partner of the owner of Supremo decides to set up shop at Little Apple. This way, the two (Eddie Trujillo of Supremo and Juan Diaz of Krasdale) form a trust that controls the center-city Allentown grocery market: the C-Town on 4th , Little Apple on 7th, and Supremo on 7th . Otherwise, there's an Ahart's slightly outside of town on Allen Ave, but we all know how I feel about Ahart's. Juan Diaz re-opened Little Apple Market after virtually no renovation as far as I could tell. Despite the sign on the ...

A Tale of Two Supermarkets: Allentown Part I Supremo Foods - Allentown, PA More and more, the supermarkets in the Lehigh Valley are resembling northern New Jersey's. While ShopRite tried and failed in the area a decade ago, Joseph Colalillo and his Supermarkets of Hunterdon County have returned, setting up shop in a new-build multi-use complex outside of Bethlehem. The beautiful new ShopRite of Bethlehem opened in 2015. We see Superfood Marketplace, an Elizabeth-based company, opening in a space formerly occupied by a long-time Lehigh Valley chain, Valley Farm Market. Juan Diaz owns two C-Towns in Allentown and Bethlehem , as well as an AIM (Association of Independent Merchants) market in Allentown. The Easton Food Market in Easton is part of the NYC-based Associated Group. And while it didn't last, there was an NSA Supermarket in Bethlehem as well. In October 2015, Plainfield, NJ-based Supremo Foodmarket opened in a former Sears department store in center-city Alle...

The Food Emporium Garwood is no more! Superfresh coming soon! http://thefoodemporiumgarwood.com/ Post on Facebook This is a good choice. "The Food Emporium" had too much of a bad reputation behind it, and with Superfresh, they can make a "fresh" (ha! - couldn't resist) start. I personally liked this store a lot but I know of many people who don't. Photo from Styertowne on Flickr.

La Tiendona del Pueblo, Part II CTown Supermarket, Bethlehem, PA Bethlehem, PA has an appeal to most people. Some like its historic, "small-town" downtown area (definitely a nice downtown). Some like the city-within-a-city of South Bethlehem . Others go for the Sands Casino . It's pretty safe to say that few visit Bethlehem for its supermarkets. And you certainly wouldn't visit it for its Ahart's . But within walking distance of Ahart's is another CTown, opened ca. 2012 in the former Supermercado Mi Tierra , the original Latin supermarket of the Lehigh Valley. (Click on the name for an interesting article about the store's closing and history.) Once again shattering the traditional perception of CTown as dirty, rundown, and overpriced, this CTown is quite beautiful and generally a good store. To get an idea of the layout, take a look at this interior tour on Google Maps. Have an idea of how the store is laid out? Now let's take a look at my ow...

La Tiendona del Pueblo, Part I CTown Supermarket, Allentown, PA We're continuing our tour of the Lehigh Valley area with this small inner-city CTown supermarket operating in a former Save-A-Lot. I know a lot of people dislike CTown but in my experience CTown has been a consistently good urban supermarket. All of the stores I've been to have been clean and well-stocked, with excellent prices. This one was no exception. The building is a former barrel roof A&P which opened in the 40s (I believe) and was replaced by Jewel-T in 1978, becoming Save-A-Lot in 1986. Save-A-Lot closed in 2001 and was replaced by CTown around 2006, I think. (Not sure about that gap there, if there was one.) CTown seems to have gutted the store when they opened and despite the store's strange layout and size (it's six aisles, but extremely deep), it's a very nice store. All the fixtures, flooring, and shelving seem to be newer than 2001, pointing to either an extensive later reno...