Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: ShopRite Address: 1220 South Ave, Plainfield, NJ Opened:  1961 Closed:  1968 Later Tenants:  Pathmark (1968-1980s) > Walgreens (1986-2001) > Times Farmers Market (??-ca. 2014) > Green Farmers Market (ca. 2014-2016) > Key Food Supermarkets (2016) > Fig Tree Market (2017-2019) Photographed:  July 2020 We're returning to 1220 South Ave here at the northern end of Plainfield, outside of downtown. The 16,000 square foot space has hosted no fewer than six different grocery stores during its 60 year life, and possibly more since I'm not sure what, if anything, was in here between Walgreens and Times Farm. I'm not sure whether it was related to Times Farm in Union . It seems that Fig Tree lasted a little less than two years, making it the second-shortest-lived store on this property behind Key Food . The entire property is slated for redevelopment now. It's always very sad to see the "now open" signage still up after the store closes f...

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 233 E Front St, Plainfield, NJ Opened:  ca. 1940s Closed:  unknown; possibly late 70s Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  July 2020 I did a little bit of a double-take while walking through downtown Plainfield and seeing this storefront. Yes, that's half of an A&P! Check out some of these images to see similar storefronts. The 9900 square foot store has been sliced in half, with 99 Cent Welcome taking the right side and Family Dollar taking the left side and a little more, although there have definitely been other tenants in this place since A&P closed. (The Family Dollar previously only took up one storefront to the left, but has been expanded into the former A&P building. That half of the store was also previously a furniture store.) Now that brings up the question... when did A&P close here? Well, I suppose it's possible that they actually managed to last in this tiny street-front location until they moved...

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 907 Oak Tree Rd, South Plainfield, NJ Opened:  late 90s Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  ACME Markets (2015-2018) > ALDI (2020-present) Photographed:  July 2020 Sadly, not a whole lot to see here at the former A&P-turned-ACME in South Plainfield. A&P moved here in the late 90s from the Futurestore across the street, which became a ShopRite in 2016. Check out pictures of the store as an A&P here and as an ACME here . The ACME did look pretty good especially after the Quality Built renovation, but the reality is (as much as I really do love ACME) none of their stores are half as good as the latest Saker ShopRites. So ALDI moved in to part of the space, opening in December of 2016 . I was hoping to get to the store before any substantial renovation was done so that I could take a look inside, but it had already all been demolished inside. ALDI moved here from a different, older former ACME just up Park Avenue in South Pl...

Original Tenant: Food Fair Address: 138 South Plainfield Ave, South Plainfield, NJ Opened:  1959 Closed:  1965 Later Tenants:  Drug Fair (1977-2009) > Walgreens (2009-2016) > Dollar General (2020-present) Photographed:  July 2020 Just across the street from Green Olive is this 21,000 square foot former Food Fair, later Drug Fair and Walgreens before becoming Dollar General in early 2020. The construction for Dollar General actually revealed the wonderful midcentury modern tower sign under that boring rectangle on the far left of the building. It's unclear whether Dollar General dismantled and replaced that sign, or whether they simply built around it. Either way, this building is distinctly supermarket-like. I've mentioned the former A&P and Pathmark in South Plainfield several times now, so tomorrow we're going to get to take a look at both, one on  The Market Report  and one here on Grocery Archaeology!

Original Tenant: A&P Address: 2328 Plainfield Ave, South Plainfield, NJ Opened:  early 1960s Closed:  mid 1990s Later Tenants:  CVS (1995-present) Photographed:  July 2020 Quite the find here tucked away on a small street in South Plainfield's residential district! This store -- of just 16,000 square feet -- was built in the early- to mid-60s as a Centennial A&P, and remarkably not just made it to the mid-90s as an A&P, but was actually extensively upgraded. The bulky facade we see here is a scaled-down, if unsuccessfully so, version of the facade we can also find in Peekskill and LaGrangeville , among others. But Peekskill was double this store's size, at 32,000 square feet, and LaGrangeville was just under that at about 31,00 square feet. Highly unusual to see such a major upgrade on such a small store. I believe, though I'm not entirely sure, that this facade was coupled with the Sav-A-Center branding and decor package, and that that store model was...

Original Tenant: ShopRite Address: 227 North Ave, Dunellen, NJ Opened:  early 1960s Closed:  probably 1980s Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  July 2020 Just a few blocks east in downtown Dunellen from today's Tropical Supermarket is this 17,000 square foot space previously occupied by a ShopRite. The space appears to be an expansion from an original 5500 square foot space in what now makes up the far back of the building. Not a particularly exciting structure, except for one element... The round ShopRite tower sign remains! Today it holds an Apple Tree Farmers Market sign, which doesn't exist anymore but used to be in the far right portion of the space. I think it's likely that the metal siding here has been intact since the ShopRite days, although the awning seen in the first picture looks a little newer. JoshAustin610 speculates that this store could've been replaced by Piscataway or closed when Watchung was expanded in the 80s, but I think it's more ...

We are moving on along as we travel from south to north up the middle of the state! Up next, just to the northeast of the Somerville area, is greater Plainfield. We're going to circle through roughly counter-clockwise as we start in the northwest with Warren, then passing through Middlesex and Dunellen in the southwest, our final pass through Piscataway and South Plainfield to the south, then circling into downtown Plainfield and then through North Plainfield and Watchung to the northeast. (A note on the geography, Front Street is the main business district through Plainfield but North Plainfield actually starts just a block north of Front Street. That's why we'll be jumping back and forth between the two a few times in that section.) We have a lot of great stuff in this group, so I'm very excited to present the next 25 stores or so as we check out Plainfield! Let's start tomorrow with two different stores on The Market Report . But wait, don't forget to check o...