The Independent Edition

Bhavani Food Farmers Market Owner: unknown Opened:  ca. 2016 Cooperative:  none Location:  1050 US-9, Parlin, NJ Photographed:  February 2021 Our final supermarket of the Old Bridge & Freehold group is Bhavani Food Farmers Market, an independent Indian grocery store here in the Sayre Woods Shopping Center. The mall also was previously home to Grand Union and ACME stores, our other posts of the day. The store appears to be in the range of 11,000 square feet. I'm intrigued by the decor inside this store, which seems to be secondhand from a chain store. Don't get me wrong, it looks good in this space, but it doesn't look like it was made for this store. My gut (and every bright orange shopping cart in the place) tell me Bottom Dollar, but I've never actually been inside a Bottom Dollar. To be clear, I do actually mean that every shopping cart still has its Bottom Dollar Food handle intact. The back of the first aisle is an enclosed refrigerator room to display about

Garden Farm Old Bridge Owner: Wun Nam Opened:  2001 Cooperative:  none Location:  3105 US-9, Old Bridge, NJ Photographed:  February 2021 Yesterday we saw the ACME here in Old Bridge , which replaced an A&P which was in turn built in the mid-90s as a replacement for an older 22,000 square foot store here at US-9 and Ticetown Road. About 7400 square feet of that A&P space is now Garden Farm, with the other part being an Advance Auto Parts. By the way, there's also a former ACME just across route 9, which is our other store of the day here . This Garden Farm is not related to the better-known chain whose Metuchen location we saw a while back. Instead, it appears to be an independent store. There are some fascinating relics around the store, starting before we even get inside with these very old cart corrals. It's possible they're left from A&P, but it's also possible they are from another, now-closed supermarket nearby. Sadly, no logos (or labelscars of logos)

Livoti's Old World Market Owner: John Livoti Opened:  2014 Cooperative:  none Location:  160 US-9, Englishtown, NJ Photographed:  February 2021 And now for our third and final Livoti's location! You can see Aberdeen, the oldest, here ; and Middletown, the newest, here  (save for Freehold which opened very recently and I didn't get to visit it). If you've read those two posts, you know I was very impressed with their stores, but I saved the best for last -- I got a new cell phone before photographing this location and the difference in photo clarity is amazing. This 13,000 square foot store is hidden in the corner of a large strip mall that was also previously home to a Pathmark , our other post of the day. The store is narrow and deep, so we enter to produce in the front-right quadrant. Deli/bakery are in the back-right quadrant, with meat, dairy, seafood, and frozen lining the left side of the store with grocery aisles on the left half. Also let's take a second to

Buddy's Marketplace Owner: Buddy Sciandra Opened:  2020 Cooperative:  Associated Supermarket Group Location:  300 Gordons Corner Rd, Manalapan, NJ Photographed:  February 2021 The Yorktown Center here in the western part of Manalapan was originally home to an ACME and a few other banners at one end, but this end of the mall has a small grocery space originally occupied by a 5100 square foot Key Fresh & Natural (owned by Eddie Hamad) in 2014, later becoming Uncle Gino's Marketplace (owned by Gino Palummo) in 2015 through 2018 or so. Buddy's Marketplace (owned by Buddy Sciandra) opened up in 2020, renovating the space with a nice fresh look. The store's Italian-specialty-market positioning and layout make me think it's owned by different members of the same family that own Top Tomato stores on Staten Island and also previously in New Jersey, though the New Jersey stores all closed soon after opening -- given, of course, that they share the last name Sciandra. Th

Asian Food Markets Owner: Jon Chen Opened:  2012 Cooperative:  none Location:  79 S Main St, Marlboro, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Today we're going to take a look at this Asian Food Markets location in Marlboro! We've previously seen Asian Food Markets in North Plainfield and Jersey City , and a few other locations will be coming to the blog soon. This approximately 30,000 square foot store is in part of a former ACME, which Acme Style covered way back in 2010. The remaining approximately 15,000 square feet of the ACME space has become a gym, visible to the far left here. Now we will be touring this store, which has some surprises for us on the inside... ...starting with the decor! ACME removed all of its fixtures and lettering from the store, but the bones of the decor remain and have been incorporated into the Asian Food Markets interior with new lettering affixed to the existing structures. (Notice that the actual lettering is the same as the lettering in Jersey City;