The Market Report

ShopRite Opened:  April 9, 2025 Owner:  Village Super Market Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  1701 US-22, Watchung, NJ Photographed:  July 23, 2025 We're back at the Watchung ShopRite to check out what the heck is going on. To recap: Village Super Market owns about 30 ShopRite stores, and about 10 more under the Fairway and Gourmet Garage brands in NYC. They brought the Fairway and Gourmet Garage brands into some of their other locations, with Fairway-branded coffee, cheese, and bakery departments, and Gourmet Garage-branded prepared foods. Then, at the end of May, Village very abruptly removed all of those branded items and departments. The Gourmet Garage-branded prepared foods are now packaged with labels devoid of any branding at all, and the Fairway and Gourmet Garage brands have been meticulously removed from all Village ShopRite stores. In Watchung , and possibly Old Bridge , signs reading "V...

Bravo Supermarkets Opened: 2014-2022, reopened 2024 Owner:  Abel Baez Previous Tenants:  Murray Hardware > Pioneer Supermarkets (open by 1973, closed after 1993) > Met Foodmarkets (open by 2005, closed 2014) Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  1861 Archer St, Bronx, NY Photographed:  July 25, 2025 Another trip to the Bronx takes us to Parkchester, where the fire-damaged Bravo on Archer Street has reopened after an extensive renovation. See my previous post here . This is a much-delayed post, as I didn't realize the store had reopened about a year ago after getting a major overhaul. Here's a look at the exterior before the renovation. I really like this simple, straightforward exterior look. I never got the chance to visit before the fire and closure, so I don't know whether the interior layout changed during the renovation. Cosmetically, everything looks brand-new, though some of the fixtures are probably left over if they weren't damaged. Produce an...

Fresh Mart Opened: May 2025 Owner:  James Chan Previous Tenants:  Grand Union (open by 1966, closed between 1994 and 1996) > CVS (open by 1996, closed 2024) Cooperative:  none Location:  132-22 14th Ave, College Point, NY Photographed:  July 25, 2025 Add it to the list: time for a look at another former drugstore-turned-supermarket! In the case of the 10,000 square foot Fresh Mart in College Point, Queens, this building also started out as a supermarket. Grand Union built the store in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and actually kept it open all the way until at least 1994. By 1996, the space had become a CVS, which closed in 2024. Fresh Mart, an independent Asian supermarket, embarked on a major remodeling project of the space and opened in May. Because as much as the exterior looks like CVS did , the interior is a sleek, modern Asian supermarket that looks brand-new... Needless to say, this is nothing like CVS's interior . Produce and dairy are in the first...