Market Fresh Supermarket
Owner: Kenny Othman
Opened: 2018-2019
Cooperative: Krasdale
Location: 40 Rosie Square, Wood-Ridge, NJ
Photographed: May 2018
Today's store tour is this short-lived gourmet market just outside of Passaic. We previously saw the Staten Island location of the same chain, and although both opened in 2018, this opened slightly before Staten Island in the ground floor of the Avalon Westmont Station mixed-use development.
The store's address, on Rosie Square, is a reference to Rosie the Riveter, a World War II-era icon. Unfortunately, there's no real relation of the character of Rosie to this particular development, aside from the fact that a factory previously on this site employed similar women during World War II, but there is a nice statue in the center of the parking lot.
Now on to the supermarket. Market Fresh, which was in business for about 18 months, replaced an even shorter-lived store, Philadelphia-based Milk and Honey Market, which was open in 2014. This store opened in February 2018, before being cleared out in October 2019 with remaining merchandise sent to the Staten Island store.
Market Fresh seemed to be going for a much more full-service approach than the gourmet Milk and Honey Market, starting with a disproportionately small produce department and a large deli immediately inside the entrance. The store is very wide and very shallow, so you enter to these two departments first before continuing to the grocery aisles, which run parallel to the front of the store. The first aisle, in the front, is frozen foods, with the last aisle in the back being meat. Dairy is in the second-to-last aisle.
And for a store clearly trying to position itself as more upscale, the product mix was quite odd. In the picture below, you'll see an "organically grown" sign to the left of the greens. About 75% of the shelving under that sign was organic, and that was the entire organic selection. Much smaller than other similar high-end competitors have.
Produce in the front corner of the store. The Staten Island location seems to be a more straightforward supermarket, positioned less as a gourmet store, which seems to be doing better.
Moving on to the deli with some really nice prepared foods and CTown price signs...
Lots of prepared entrees to heat up, probably under the assumption that people would come from the apartments above and grab something for dinner, which is smart. There isn't a hot food bar here, though.
Moving into the last aisle, which has spices here and meat just around the corner ahead.
I did like these organic tags, which I haven't seen before in another store. I don't believe Staten Island had them.
Meat and packaged seafood (there's no service counter for either department here) along the back wall.
Cold cuts and frozen meats in the back left corner.
Dairy in the second-to-last aisle, towards the back of the store. As you can tell, the store was not very busy at the time of my visit.
Moving into the grocery aisles, which are nicely stocked in some very attractive warehouse-style shelving.
Nice custom aisle markers!
Frozen foods lining the first aisle, with bread on the front wall in lower shelving. I actually like this arrangement a lot, as it looks nice from the inside and outside.
Looking back towards the produce/deli department. Ah, Krasdale waffles, my favorite! Somehow they taste better when they're on sale 2/$3 when Eggo is $3.99+ each...
Additional freezer cases running along the produce department wall. The deli is to the right on the back wall, which we're looking at straight ahead here.
And looking back towards the front wall.
Here's a look at the front end, which actually runs along the left-side wall of the store, before we head out.
Tomorrow our stop will be a ShopRite just to the northeast over on The Market Report!
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