Look Inside: Olive Tree Marketplace - Denville, NJ

Olive Tree Marketplace

Owner: David Shehadeh

Opened: 2016-2018
Cooperative: Key Food Stores > Retail Grocers Group
Location: 3130 NJ-10, Denville, NJ

Photographed: October 2017

We return to the 15,000 square foot Olive Tree Marketplace in Denville for the final time. These pictures were a follow-up to our original set, which were rather limited. The short-lived store on route 10 in the southern part of Denville was plagued by many of the same problems that plagued the Shehadeh brothers' Foodtown-turned-Shop Fair in Howard Beach along with their Associated > Key Food > Associated > Shop Fair > Olive Tree in Bay Ridge, which is now a dollar store. So far, the Olive Tree on Staten Island seems to barely still be in business, and the Shehadehs also own two stores on Church Ave in Flatbush (4121 and 2720) -- both of which were Associated > Key Food > Shop Fair and are now back to Associated again. I also suspect the Associated at 170 Broad St on Staten Island is owned by the Shehadeh brothers, though that's nothing more than a suspicion based on similar graphics used by that store and Olive Tree.

By my October 2017 visit, this store was clearly on its last legs. I took the above picture from the cafe area, which was slightly raised on the far left of the store. Deli lined the left side wall with produce facing; meat and seafood were on the back wall, and frozen/dairy were in the last aisle. Olive Tree had a tiny bakery in the front corner that closed almost immediately -- I'm not even sure whether I ever saw it operating.

This little cafe went through a few different rearrangements, originally with a full service coffee shop and the prep space you see being behind the counter. That was entirely removed for a while and it was something else, although I forget what (floral?), and then they removed that and added chairs and tables back without actually removing the prep stuff or otherwise separating it from the seating area. But the biggest problem with the store at the time of my October 2017 visit?

The entire meat department was empty! Except for a very small section which you can see at the far left. Nothing on the shelves! Deli, produce, grocery, dairy, and frozen were fully stocked.

No luck for our pescatarian friends, either. This entire section was out completely but oddly enough was actually fully restocked and reopened before the store officially closed. Very bizarre progression at this location, which I suspect was probably due to internal turmoil within the operation and probably wasn't helped by a wholesaler switch. And that itself was probably an effort to get financing to keep the store(s) afloat from a different and new source if Key Food was no longer willing. But it's not all bad news, the store has been replaced by a very successful new tenant as of 2019. That's our other post of the day and you can check it out here. Tomorrow, we're headed up to route 46 to Rockaway for a store over on The Market Report along with a former supermarket in downtown Rockaway on Grocery Archaeology!