The Market Report

ALDI Opened:  2016 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  244 Bloomfield Ave, Bloomfield, NJ Photographed:  July 2016 Our next supermarket in Bloomfield is this 16,000 square foot ALDI. It was newly built in 2016 as part of a new retail complex at Bloomfield and Watsessing Avenues, and about half a block west on Watsessing is a former Food Fair with its signature arches still intact. We'll be taking a detailed look at that tomorrow!

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address:  31 Belleville Ave, Bloomfield, NJ Opened:  1951 Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  February 2021 One of our three stores today is a quick look at this former ACME in Bloomfield. The 8100 square foot location originally faced Belleville Ave (which is now on the left side of the strip). It closed by the 1970s and was integrated into the Stop & Shop mall that was built around it. Today, that Stop & Shop is a SuperFresh and we can see just the tip of that building to the far right in the above image. Make sure to also check out the SuperFresh and the Foodtown downtown , and head over to The Market Report tomorrow for our next Bloomfield store!

Super Foodtown of Bloomfield Owner:  Jack Shakoor / Jack's Supermarkets Opened:  2015 Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  296 Glenwood Ave, Bloomfield, NJ Photographed:  May 2016 We've previously taken a look at Jack's Foodtown locations in Wayne and Caldwell , and we're on to the chain's newest location. ( North Arlington , unfortunately, will not be appearing on the blog.) Opened in 2015 in the ground floor of a new mixed-use development in the center of Bloomfield, it's just a block south of Bloomfield Avenue, where we've seen plenty of the stores so far in Essex County. The 25,000 square foot store, unlike any other supermarket I've ever been in, is triangular, with entrances at either end of the front-end (in the base of the triangle). Along the front end is a juice bar (a location of local coffee chain Ahre's Roastery at the time of my photographs), with produce and frozen foods ...

Original Tenant:  A&P Address:  17 Hoffman Blvd, Ampere, East Orange, NJ Opened:  1950s Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Megna Photographed:  July 2020 I was thrilled to stumble upon this store while driving from Orange to Belleville (and yes, I do mean stumble; it took me several trips around the block before I could get a parking space and was going the right way down the one way street). A 6,000 square foot A&P, this store even came with a parking lot which has since been walled in and converted to a storage yard by the stone importer. Ampere has always been the most affluent neighborhood in East Orange, meaning that when this store was built it was one of the most desirable places to live in Essex County. Though the neighborhood doesn't today have a supermarket, it's likely served by the large SuperFresh Food World (formerly Pathmark) just to the north in Belleville, which we'll be touring in a few days. First, though, we're g...

Bravo Supermarkets Owner:  Massikt Patel Opened:  1997 Previous Tenants:  ACME Markets Cooperative:  Krasdale Location:  260 Roseville Ave, Roseville, Newark, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Welcome to the time capsule that is the Roseville Bravo! Owned by Universal Food Markets, whose Paterson , Orange , and Rahway locations we've seen (update: those links have been fixed), this store is equally outdated and dingy. However, there's no competition in the immediate Roseville area. A 1940s-era ACME that was closed by the 1960s, the building is showing its many signs of age but is certainly not short on bright colors, with the orange walls and yellow accents. It's certainly not the worst supermarket I've ever been in, in fact it's a surprisingly decent store. Cleaner than the other Universal locations I've been to but equally dingy and cluttered. When I walked in, I actually thought I'd left my sunglasses on. Except for the fact that I di...