The Independent Edition

Garden Farm Market Owner: Ki Chung Opened:  1997 Cooperative:  none Location:  2545 US-1, North Brunswick, NJ Photographed:  February 2021 This 13,000 square foot arched-roof building (probably a former skating rink) is today home to the Garden Farm Market in North Brunswick. Up until 2011, this space was occupied by a store called the Garden State Farmers Market, being taken over that year by the owners -- I think -- of the Garden Farm Market in Metuchen and others. An extensive remodel in 2017 eliminated the signature orange and green exterior and replaced it with this much more modern, sleeker beige and red color scheme. Although this side faces the highway, the front wall of the store runs along the side of the building. The entrance and exit are in the back corner, since most of the parking is in the rear. You enter in the back right corner with produce in the back half of the store. Frozen is on the left side wall. The front half has deli and seafood on the f...

  Our next group of stores as we circle back north is in the greater New Brunswick area! We'll be starting at the south end of the group, with South River, Milltown, and North Brunswick, then passing through the eastern edge of Somerset, the next town to the west, before ending in downtown New Brunswick, which is geographically in the northeastern corner of the municipality, before we cross the Raritan River again to return to the northern part of Middlesex County in our next group. But for now, we're starting with a small store on The Market Report tomorrow and a former supermarket across the street on  Grocery Archaeology !

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 ab...

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 log...

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 secon...