The Independent Edition

Extra Supermarket Owner:  Mitchel Lopez Opened:  ca. 2005 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  125 Avon Ave, Central Ward, Newark, NJ Photographed:  January 2019 Our next store tour in Newark is this store in the Central Ward. Until the ShopRite of Newark opened in 2015, it was the largest supermarket in this part of the city at about 32,000 square feet (the ShopRite is over 70,000). It's part of a remarkably ugly strip mall  and the property immediately backs up to an abandoned  public housing complex . The city has invested heavily in this part of Newark, one of the last areas to redevelop after the 1967 riots that cleared out most of the city, with projects like the beautification of Irvine Turner Boulevard , which runs along the side of the supermarket's property. Huge swaths of the city's blocks after blocks of abandoned storefronts, factories, and residential buildings have been bulldozed and replaced with new residences in the past 15 year

Pueblo Meat Supermarket Owner: Alfredo Diaz Opened:  1994 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  611 Broadway, Mount Prospect, Newark, NJ Photographed:  June 2020 We've returned to Newark, in the northeastern corner of the city, just about three quarters of a mile southeast of Pueblo Meat Supermarket . This store was opened by Twin City/Pueblo owners Alfonso and Myrna Perez before being sold probably around 2000. The new owner has kept the Twin City name and logo but uses a different website , along with a few other changes. As for the store itself, I'm almost positive it started out as a Food Fair (given the signature terrazzo flooring still intact inside) and I know it later became a Mayfair Foodtown. Like all the other Twin City group stores, this one is a well-run smaller urban supermarket. At 17,000 square feet, it's a little over half the size of Pueblo but still has a solid selection. The first two aisles here seem to have been redone very recently, with new c

Pueblo Meat Supermarket Owner: Alfonso and Myrna Perez Opened:  1987 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  880 Mount Prospect Ave, Forest Hill, Newark, NJ Photographed:  June 2020 We're here at the far northern tip of the city of Newark to see the large supermarket serving the neighborhood of Forest Hill. Opened in 1987 by husband-and-wife team Alfonso and Myrna Perez, who also run the wonderful Twin City Supermarket in Elizabeth and Plainfield (which we'll be touring when we get down to that area), this 30,000 square foot store was built as a Food Fair and later became a Pantry Pride, being purchased by Mayfair Foodtown in the late 1970s and then Pueblo in 1987. I don't entirely know why this store was not branded Twin City, but there is also a Twin City about 3/4 of a mile south (we'll get there in a few days). Awful logo aside, this store is looking great today. The blue color is actually pretty bright and fun in person, and the property is clearly meticulo