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Special Report: The Market of Maplewood - Maplewood, NJ

The Market of Maplewood Opened:  August 2026 Owner: Adam & Erica Shapiro Previous Tenants: A&P (opened 1928) > Kings Food Markets (1942-2020) > Green Way Markets (2021-2025) > The Food Emporium (December 2025 - August 2026) Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group Location: 159 Maplewood Ave, Maplewood, NJ Photographed: September 22, 2026 New Jersey independent supermarket operator Shap Markets has recently left Key Food and joined the Associated Supermarket Group, and in doing so, has rebranded three of their stores from Key Food brands (SuperFresh and The Food Emporium) to The Market. I previously covered Bloomingdale and Waldwick extensively here , so be sure to check that out first for a primer. Now we're here in Maplewood, for a check-in at Shap Markets' first store. This was a longtime Kings -- in business for almost 80 years -- and closed in the chain's bankruptcy in 2020. Adam and Erica Shapiro took over the store back in the fall of 2021, reo...

Special Report: Asianfresh Supermarket - Cherry Hill, NJ

Asianfresh Supermarket Opened: September 3, 2026 Owner: Yan Lin Previous Tenants: non-grocery tenants Cooperative: none Location:  2005 E Marlton Pk, Cherry Hill, NJ Photographed: September 18, 2026 Today, The Market Report heads down to South Jersey to a Philadelphia suburb, Cherry Hill, to check out the new Asianfresh supermarket here. Asianfresh has had a store in Philadelphia's Chinatown for a while, but last month opened its second location just across the Delaware. It's rather large, measuring somewhere around 40,000 square feet -- around the same size as the newly-reopened H Mart here in Cherry Hill, though that store (which is around a mile and a half west on Marlton Pike) is on two floors and includes a food court in its total footprint, which this one does not. This store certainly feels big, with a sprawling layout in a former furniture store that was once part of a Clover discount store. You enter in the front-left corner to the produce department with the regi...

Special Report: Shop Fair Supermarkets - Manhattan, NY (Harlem/117th)

Shop Fair Supermarkets Opened: October 1, 2026 Owner: unknown Previous Tenants:  Rite Aid Cooperative: Retail Grocers Group / General Trading Location: 2170 Frederick Douglass Blvd, Manhattan, NY Photographed: October 7, 2026 Welcome to Harlem, where a local group of stores has just opened one that's shiny and new! Emphasis on the shiny. More on that soon. Most of the Shop Fair stores I've posted recently are owned by Anibal Rodriguez, whose collection of supermarkets continues expanding. But the group of stores also has a number of other owners, and one of them owns this new Harlem store (I'm not entirely sure exactly who the owner is, though). This is a former Rite Aid, and it's around 15,000 square feet, although I also don't know exactly how large it is. For a long time, I got the sense that the Shop Fair and related Fine Fare stores were kind of just unremarkable, mostly not bad but not that interesting. Lately, though, the group's new openings have be...