The Market Report

The Plainsboro Food Emporium will now be operated by Kevin Kim as a Superfresh, and his target opening is October/November 2017. This interview video allows him to tell what he sees the store's future as, and it sounds great. Let's hope he can pull it off!

Starting on Friday... A TALE OF TWO SUPERMARKETS Mount Vernon, NY Friday 9/22: TOUR - Foodtown The newly renovated medium-sized supermarket! Wednesday 9/27: TOUR - Food Bazaar The new, huge invader! BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Order right now and we'll give you DOUBLE the stores! Bonus Stores: Monday 9/25: SNAPSHOT - CTown The neighborhood standby! Friday 9/29: SNAPSHOT - Western Beef Can anyone explain Western Beef? OVERVIEW A Note About Posting If you haven't noticed from the dates above, I'm moving away from the usual Wednesday/Saturday posting pattern. There's one reason for this -- I have such a crazy amount of material to post that according to my original plan, I already had enough to cover into next June, with two posts a week! So for that reason, I'm switching to three posts a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday . We'll be starting on Friday with the Foodtown tour. Scroll down to see today's SNAPSHOT: the 5th Ave...

We're jumping back out to Pittsburgh, PA here for a look at a small, closed store just outside of the Oakland neighborhood. In my long walking tour of the city, I saw many closed stores just like this but very few actually in business. I don't know whether this store would have had a deli or a butcher, or if it sold produce. But regardless, Pittsburgh's grocery-store situation (especially in the lower-income neighborhoods) is pretty bad.

I like to have all my blog posts written out and planned ahead of time. As I'm writing this, I have already written: 11 Store Tours 10 Snapshots 4 Look Inside posts 2 Photo of the Day posts So I'm well ahead of real-time. But I think that's backfiring on me -- I have enough material, at the rate I'm currently posting, to last me through next June. After doing a bunch of reorganization in Google Calendar, I have a pretty good schedule. Yep, it's color-coded and everything. So here's the thing -- because I have such a crazy amount of material I haven't posted yet, I'll be switching to three posts a week instead of two. So come back on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for new posts every week. With a couple breaks, that gets us about halfway through next April before I run out of material. Not bad! This new schedule will take effect this coming Wednesday, 9/20/17. We'll be seeing a Snapshot, then starting right in with a Store Tour on Frid...

DeCicco & Sons Opened: 2015 Owner:  Chris, John, & Joe DeCicco Previous Tenants:  Shopwell (closed ca. 1990) > A&P (ca. 1990-ca. 2000) > Guitar Center Cooperative:  none Location:  2141 Palmer Ave, Larchmont, NY Photographed: December 4, 2024 Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in September 2017, but was rewritten with new photos in September 2026. Now for the post! The Market Report returns to Larchmont, where we're going to tour one of the very first supermarkets I went to that really opened my eyes to what an incredible supermarket could be. My original tour wasn't terrible, but I've returned for much better pictures and a more extensive look at the store, which I thought was necessary to really do it justice. So what we're looking at is a roughly 18,000 square foot supermarket, which started out as a Shopwell, part of a local chain based here in Westchester County (that would eventually become The Food Emporium). A...

Pittsburgh, PA is a large city but has surprisingly few supermarkets. The Oakland neighborhood (where I stayed on a recent trip to Pittsburgh), for instance, has a bustling main street -- Forbes Ave -- with plenty of shopping but no grocery stores! Of course, the Market on Forbes IGA opened in 2008 but closed very recently in April 2017. The sign is intact, though, and I remember seeing it in business on a prior trip to Pittsburgh although I didn't go in. I believe that the supermarket was actually on the second floor of this building. It's a cool building and I like the way the IGA logo fits into the arch of the facade. This is a pretty good head-on shot from sunset time. After an (unexpectedly) long walking tour of Pittsburgh, I can say that much of the city must be food deserts. There are large, obviously lower-income, neighborhoods with only corner bodegas and convenience stores for food shopping. I wonder if there's any market for some of our small ur...

Store Closings Best Market in Hartsdale, NY is gone. It closed a few days ago, according to an anonymous commenter. Acme Market in Bergenfield, NJ is closing by November 6th, 2017. It's a former Pathmark that was very high volume, but the volume dropped when Acme took over. Styertowne on Flickr pointed out that both of Acme's closed A&P takeover stores have been closed very quietly, one-by-one, with no major announcements, which is interesting. It's not out of the question that more Acme takeover stores will be closing soon.

I didn't think that, at the time of the A&P bankruptcy, there were very many tiny classic locations out there. Well, I was wrong, apparently: the A&P Fresh in Harrison, NY is both tiny and old! Of course, it did have the Version 3 Fresh decor package (that's a picture of Holmdel, NJ from Acme Style), so it wasn't exactly neglected by corporate. It was previously a Food Emporium but was later converted to A&P Fresh. As of my visit, the interior renovation had been completed, but there was still no sign on the exterior, only a small banner with the new logo of The Harrison Market, an independent Key Food affiliate. The store was originally planned to be a Key Food Marketplace. Produce lines the first aisle with meat along the back wall and deli/bakery in the front corner. Great use of space here! The baskets are a nice touch. Closeup of the new Harrison Market sign. I really like the new graphics on the walls here, but the ceiling, floor, and fixtu...