The Market Report

CTown historically has been known as the worst of the worst of the worst as far as urban supermarkets go. However, more recently, a combination of increased effort on the part of Krasdale Foods (the cooperative corporation) and better store operators has really improved CTown as well as all of the other Krasdale stores. I've previously covered the Allentown and Bethlehem stores here, along with the La Placita CTown in Peekskill (don't ask me what happened to the formatting of that post!). I also have pictures of the locations in New Haven (which is very large) and Harlem/Morningside Heights , and a few exterior shots of the Mount Vernon location, on my Flickr page. Tarrytown isn't your typical CTown location. While most CTowns are located in lower-income, urban, minority neighborhoods, Tarrytown is a small town on the Hudson River just north of New York City that's only 16% Hispanic and middle-class to high income. So that's why it was a surprise to me tha...

Out of nowhere, the long-gone grocery chain Food Fair has risen from the dead! OK, maybe that's a little dramatic. But this independent, four-store chain has grown quickly, starting with an actual Food Fair in Paterson, NJ , operated under the name Food Fair La Gran Marqueta. In 2015, a second location opened in Spring Valley, NY as a Food Fair Wholesale Fresh Market. Soon after, in 2016, a location in the Bronx, NY opened as a Food Fair Fresh Market in a former Fine Fare. Now most recently, in 2017, this Fine Fare in Newark has become the latest Food Fair Fresh Market. All of their stores are operating under Retail Grocers Group, which also runs Fine Fare stores. This store was previously the Fine Fare International Supermarket , which opened ca. 2008 in a closed C-Town , which does not seem to have been closed very long. Obviously the store is still in progress. The sign facing the parking lot (above) is a banner where the Fine Fare sign was. The sign facing the street is ...

The Rise & Fall of the Imperium Fresh Emporium / Fresh Imperium, Jefferson, NJ While the urban and suburban A&P locations often were the subjects of intense competition and bidding from outfits looking to purchase them, those farther out from the immediate NYC or Philadelphia areas more likely quietly closed without purchase. Surprisingly, independent investor Neftali Medina of the Bronx bid on two former Pathmarks, this new-build location in Jefferson, NJ, built in the 1990s (for $1.45 million), and a former Grand Union in Landing, NJ. (at only $400,000!). Medina claimed he would open the supermarkets "three to four weeks" after the purchase but in reality opened about two months later. He also claimed both locations' pharmacies would reopen shortly after the stores themselves did...which also didn't happen. Fresh Emporium promoted itself online (on their Facebook account) prior to the opening as an upscale, natural and gourmet food market. This outfi...