Giant Farmers Market
Owner: Sang Kim
Opened: ca. 2013
Cooperative: none
Location: 350 Ramapo Valley Rd, Oakland, NJ
Photographed: July 2020
The 15,000 square foot Oakland Giant Farmers Market has opened up in part of a former Grand Union. Now, Oakland is a ShopRite town, so it's pretty remarkable that this farmers market has carved out a market niche for itself. We've previously seen the Giant Farmers Market in Waldwick, the newest location. There's also one in Hackensack, which we unfortunately will not be visiting.
And the store itself is beautiful. Mostly a place to buy perishables, it is anchored by a large produce department on the left side of the store with dairy in the back of the first aisle on the left. Dairy lines the back wall with meat, seafood, and deli on the right side wall and a sushi counter in the front corner.
Here you can see about half the store is produce. Grocery aisles take up the back part of the store. And going back to a comment I made on the Waldwick post, the mint green makes so much more sense on the walls here somehow!
Dairy along the back wall under a very cool wooden awning.
I was surprised to find as large a nonfoods selection as they had here.
Grocery basics and international foods, not a huge selection, but it complements the perishables selection nicely.
A large butcher and seafood counter takes up the back 1/3 or so of the last aisle...
And a beautiful deli takes up the front 1/3 of the aisle.
Three or four registers make up the front end.
And the sushi counter, which appears to be an outside business, takes up the front corner.
Tomorrow we're heading over to ShopRite, the huge supermarket that is at the other end of this very small town. Check it out on The Market Report!
What better way is there to start off the new year than by visiting a store in my hometown? (I know it's a total coincidence, I just think it's funny and noteworthy)
ReplyDeleteI will say, as you noted, there's a pretty good selection of perishables. As a matter of fact, if my parents are shopping downtown and don't want to go up the hill to either the ShopRite at Long Hill or the Stop & Shop in Franklin Lakes, they'll stop in here and be able to round out a pretty substantial grocery run here. It's nice to have a supermarket downtown, and dare I say it fills in the hole that GU and A&P left when they left town?
Also, speaking of GU - I'm not sure if you knew this, but before they had this location, they actually had a store across Ramapo Valley Road, in the space that's now occupied by Oakland Hardware. In fact, in the Oakland edition of the Images of America book, there's actually a few photos of that GU, plus one of the old A&P. Definitely worth checking out.
Thanks for all the information here! And no, I definitely planned it with that schedule ;)
DeleteI would definitely say this fills the hole of A&P and GU. And thanks for telling me about that store across the street! I was almost positive that that particular building had been a supermarket previously but I wasn't sure which one it was. It doesn't appear on any listing of former Grand Union stores I have, although they're all incomplete. Looking at it now, I should've known with those angled parking spaces!
Images of America are great books -- I'll definitely have to check out the Oakland one. There's a library a town over from mine with a huge collection of them, so I'll see if they have Oakland.
This store is one of my mom's favorites! My parent's generally shop at two "Farmer's Market" stores, this one and the 46 Farmer's Market(a FMG store). I find it so odd how this store is older than Waldwick but feels substantially newer. My mom and I would always joke about the fact that the windows still say 'Grand Opening' even though this store has been around for years.
ReplyDeleteActually, you're right -- Waldwick definitely feels older than this one. Lower ceiling maybe contributes to it? And yes, I find the same thing funny about the Grand Opening sign, what is it, five years later? They're even decals applied directly to the window, not just a banner hanging.
DeleteI love shopping here .I go once a week I live 30 min. away but its worth the trip.
ReplyDelete