The Independent Edition

Super Food Supermarket Owner:  Eddie Trujillo Opened:  mid-2000s Cooperative:  none Location:  359 Pennington Ave, Pennington/Prospect, Trenton, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Our first store tour here in Trenton is one of six supermarkets in the city. Trenton currently has this Super Food, a Selecto Supermarket, a Food Bazaar, a Supreme Food Market, and two Compare Foods. We'll be seeing all of those except the two Compare Foods this time around. There are also assorted other small grocery stores and bodegas. At a whopping 75,000 square feet, the Food Bazaar is by far the largest, but at 25,000 square feet, Super Food is larger than you can shake a stick at. This store opened sometime in the early 2000s as a CTown (you'll notice the "Supermarkets for Savings" signage remaining outside and on these promotional flags inside) in a new-build complex, but shortly thereafter was converted to Super Food. Super Food is a single-store banner but part of the Supremo Food...

Marrazzo's Market Owner: Sam Marrazzo Opened:  2000 Cooperative:  IGA Location:  1400 Parkway Ave, Ewing, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 We arrive in Ewing, roughly four miles to the northwest of downtown Trenton, for our first stop in the greater Trenton area! This building was constructed in the 1970s (between 1971 and 1979, according to the Historic Aerials) as a Grand Union before closing in the 1980s. It then became a Shop n Bag until 1997 when it became Marketplace, then sold to the current owners in 2000 who were Thriftway until 2016, then becoming IGA. Here's my source on the history. Notice that the facade actually still has that Grand Union look to it, although it's been covered with the metal siding. It's a little strange that the sign isn't on the main facade, especially since it used to be when the sign said Marrazzo's Thriftway (see the link above). We enter to the grand aisle on the left side of the store. Bakery, seen here, is in the front left...

I know I keep saying this, but we're really down to the end here. Basically just two more cities to see before finishing out New Jersey altogether: Trenton and Camden. We begin Trenton by checking out some places to the north of town and then moving into the downtown area before heading east of town. We'll start with Ewing to the northwest of Trenton tomorrow, then move through the city of Trenton itself from west to east, then make a few stops in Hamilton and back to Lawrence to the east and northeast of Trenton. This is a fairly short group, and we'll be spending just under two weeks here before moving on. Let's start with a look at a supermarket in Ewing here on The Independent Edition tomorrow along with a former supermarket just up the street on  Grocery Archaeology !

Pennington Quality Market Owner: Lawrence Rothwell Opened:  1981 Cooperative:  IGA Location:  25 NJ-31 S, Pennington, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 We arrive at one of three supermarkets in the small town of Pennington, NJ (population 2500). The other two are a ShopRite and a Stop & Shop, and believe it or not this IGA is ever so slightly larger than the ShopRite in town at 36,000 square feet. (The Stop & Shop is 57,000 square feet and deadly boring.) Let's take a look at this Pennington Quality Market, a really nice and well-run grocery store that seems to be quite a popular choice for Pennington shoppers. We begin with bakery in the front right corner (try the brownies and thank me later). Produce takes up the rest of the first aisle, with meat/seafood, prepared foods, and deli in that order right to left on the back wall. We have dairy, frozen, and a cafe at the far end of the store. As we can see, this store is also on the older side but is looking a l...