TOUR: Rockaway Farmers Market - Rockaway, NJ

Rockaway Farmers Market

Owner: unknown

Opened: 2013, 2016 under current ownership
Cooperative: none
Location: 353 US-46, Rockaway, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

We return to the Rockaway Farmers Market on route 46 (just west of the ALDI) after first seeing it during Farmers Market Week back in 2019. This time we're taking a more detailed look at the inside. I photographed the store when in the area over the summer of 2020, but I'm glad I did at that time. Jersey Digs reports that LIDL intends to take over the property and demolish the existing building for a new LIDL. As of the fall of 2021, the Rockaway Farmers Market was still going strong so it's unclear exactly what the timeline would be for that takeover.

The majority of the store is dedicated to produce, but there's also a deli department in the front right corner of the sales floor. The store is shaped like an L, with the deli in the bottom right part and produce/grocery in the rest.

Here we're looking out from the smaller deli part of the L across the produce department. I actually really like the appearance of the interior, with the black ceiling and colorful flags. I do wish, though, that the flooring was better.

Like some of the other produce markets we've seen, I assume they do a pretty good business here based on the sheer volume of product out.

Looking up towards the front wall of the store. There are a few grocery aisles in the back of the store, which I'd estimate is roughly 15,000 square feet.

As we do typically see in these farmers markets, the selection angles much more significantly into the ethnic foods, here representing Italian, Latin, Polish/Russian, and eastern Asian.

And seafood is in the back corner...

Just my luck. Notice the tiny handwritten sign on the scale: Seafood closed every Tuesday. Take a guess what day of the week I visited.

Looking back up towards the front of the store. Notice the windows above to the right -- I'm not sure there's actually anything behind them anymore, and they actually might be painted out. Before this was a farmers market, it was a furniture store, but I'm still unsure of what it was built as -- something with windows there, for sure.

Really nice quality produce here, at least at the time of my two visits. I find the quality in some of these farmers markets to be very variable but I have my favorites.

I do love this view across the store from the last aisle though! A look at the registers...

I really do hope that LIDL doesn't force out this store, but they probably will (just like they're doing to the Foodtown in Lake Hiawatha, by the way). But anyway, at least it's been preserved here for the future. And folks, that's a wrap on 2021! Tomorrow we're going to move just a little farther west for an update at the ShopRite here in Rockaway on The Market Report. Stay tuned -- and happy new year!