The Independent Edition

  We're at the end here, folks! After over a year making our way up and down the whole state, we have come to our last group. And now we're down to the last week and a half or so of posts for the Garden State. We begin to the southeast of the city of Camden (unfortunately, no posts within the city limits of Camden) and continue more or less east along route 70 to Marlton. And then we finish up with one stop down towards the Delaware Memorial Bridge before finishing up New Jersey! Highlights include our final NJ Supremo, a heck of a lot of ACMEs, a couple of chains we've never seen before, and four former supermarkets around this area. Check out our first store here tomorrow on  The Market Report !

Mister Meat Owner: Benjamin Gorden Opened:  1985 Cooperative:  Krasdale Location:  3945 Federal St, Pennsauken, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Our third stop in this strip mall is Mister Meat, a butcher shop and deli that looks to be in the range of 2,000 square feet. There's also some groceries inside -- although mostly things that you'd cook meat with, and sauces to put on meat -- and some dairy/frozen items too. Unfortunately, the butcher counter was far too busy for me to grab a photo of, but we do get to see a little glimpse inside... As we see, it's a small space with a lot packed in. Looks like the store opened in 1985, and some things are likely original (such as the shelving) but the freezers are obviously newer. Make sure you check out the Save-A-Lot that's also in this strip mall here , and a look at the Penn Fruit that used to occupy the anchor spot here . Tomorrow, we head into Maple Shade for a great classic store on The Market Report !

Four Seasons Market Owner: unknown Opened:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  2925 US-130, Delran, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 We're taking a look inside a small Turkish and Middle Eastern store along route 130 that caught my eye as I was driving by. Very interesting selection inside, with packaged goods in most of the store. The 9,000 square foot store was previously half the Four Seasons Farmers Market (not sure if it was the same business or not) and half an army-navy store. The area that used to be the army-navy store is now a butcher-deli-bakery area, with the packaged food in the other half. The shelving above looks like it may have been constructed for produce, so it's possible the Four Seasons Farmers Market was more of the traditional small produce market type store we've seen before and they closed around the time the army-navy store did, with the new Middle Eastern market opening up in the whole space after that and just taking on the same name as the pro

Clover Meat Market Owner: Mike Memoli Opened:  1980 Cooperative:  none Location:  1105 Sunset Rd, Burlington, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Driving from one part of Willingboro to another, I briefly entered Burlington again and saw Coopertown Plaza, a strip mall too bizarre for me to pass up and not stop at. Just my luck, the back of one of the strips had a butcher shop that I could visit while I was here! The strip mall is set up with long rows of stores on either side of a very large parking lot , but the obvious anchor space is nothing but a rectangle of grass. I'm a bit at a loss as to what that anchor would've been, do we have any input from folks who live in the area? ( JoshAustin610 and my other usual sources leave me with no answers.) Anyway, Clover Meat Market has been here since 1980, and inside there are three aisles with a butcher counter and packaged meat in the first aisle, along with some grocery staples (mostly geared towards things you might use to cook mea

FreshTown Supermarket Owner: Andres Gutierrez Opened:  2019 Cooperative:  none Location:  400 John F. Kennedy Way, Willingboro, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Here at the Kennedy Shopping Center at the corner of JFK Way and Levitt Parkway in Willingboro, NJ, the ShopRite departed in 2015, leaving this part of town supermarketless. But shortly thereafter, Green Apple Market opened up in an 8,000 square foot space in the mall -- significantly smaller than the 30,000 square foot former ShopRite, but still a substantial enough grocery store. (Incidentally, the ShopRite moved up to a former Kmart in Burlington .) Well, Green Apple closed after just about two years, and in 2019, the space was reopened as Freshtown Supermarket -- no relation to Allegiance's Freshtown stores in Margaretville and Amenia, NY. As we'll see, Freshtown is small but fully stocked. Looks like this business won't be sticking around either, though, as it's currently listed for sale online . (Apologies

   We arrive in the greater Camden area, for our last metropolitan area in the Garden State! I've divided this area, like the Trenton area, into two separate groups. The first one will take up our next two weeks or so as we pass through the Burlington, Willingboro, Cinnaminson, and Pennsauken areas with a few other towns along the way. This area is largely dominated by ShopRite and ACME, but we also have a few independent stores along with plenty of interesting former supermarkets. As I mentioned previously, as we get into these areas farther out from where I live, my coverage is not nearly as extensive as it is in northern New Jersey because I've only been able to make a trip or two out this way. So there's lots that we won't be seeing, but there's still lots of good stuff packed into these two weeks. Plus, I have two or three posts on most days, so there's plenty to see. We begin by following the US-130 corridor from Burlington in the northeast down to Pennsau

Roebling Town Market Owner: Manjit Singh Opened:  2003 Cooperative:  IGA Location:  1275 Hornberger Ave, Roebling, Florence Township, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Ever heard of Roebling, NJ? Probably not, but the unincorporated community within Burlington County's Florence Township is notable for more than this beautifully preserved A&P centennial. The town was the site of the Roebling Steel Mill (same family that owned the Roebling complex in Trenton where the Food Bazaar is today), and that mill was responsible for the steel used to build the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and others. The community has a population of just about 4000 and the core town area is only six blocks by two blocks, but it's a fascinating little place. I wanted so badly to walk around, but I had a lot of stops the day I came by the Roebling Town Market. If I ever get the chance, I'd love to return and explore the steel town's Main Street , the Roebling Museum's collection

  We are almost done with the Trenton area but before we can move on entirely we're going to spend a few days looking at some stores south of the city. We're going to start in Hamilton for a few stops in the Broad Street Park and Yardville sections before moving through Bordentown and then Florence. It's only ten stores in six days, so not a whole lot to see in this area (I live in northern New Jersey, so the farther we get from home, the less dense my coverage is simply because it's harder for me to get to). But there's some good stuff in these last few Trenton-area posts. So come back tomorrow while we do all of the South Broad Street stores at once, with two posts on  Grocery Archaeology  and one on The Market Report ! P.S.  Here's  some updates at Kings you might want to check out.

Hamilton Farm Owner: Dong Lee Opened:  1999 Cooperative:  none Location:  372 NJ-33, Mercerville, Hamilton, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 The roughly 19,000 square foot A&P of Mercerville, located here at 372 NJ-33 in the Mercerville section of Hamilton Township, was built in the early 1960s and was later expanded to roughly 30,000 square feet. At the other end of the property was an ACME , also constructed in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and a strip mall was later constructed between them. In 1983, A&P became SuperFresh before closing in 1995 (ACME closed two years prior and moved to their new location about 3/4 of a mile east). In 1999, the SuperFresh space was subdivided with the current tenant, Hamilton Farm, taking about 12,000 square feet. Unfortunately, the exterior has been remodeled from the earlier A&P/SuperFresh facade (see here ) and the interior doesn't seem to have any remnants of SuperFresh either. The Hamilton Farm is a pleasant and spacious produce

Foley's Family Market Owner: Joseph & Sharon Foley Opened:  2003 Cooperative:  IGA Location:  1080 White Horse Ave, Hamilton, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 We saw Marrazzo's Market, a former member of Thriftway/Shop n Bag that became IGA in 2016. Same here at Foley's, a few miles east of downtown Trenton in Hamilton Township. The store opened in the 1980s as Paber's Shop n Bag, then became Foley's in 2003. The facade was renovated from its past look between 2011 and 2016, when Shop n Bag became IGA. The 20,000 square foot store is a very traditional one, with some wonderful classic decor inside (with a few generations of decor, actually). We enter on the right under the small red Foley's Family Market sign to produce in the first aisle. Meats and then seafood/deli/bakery line the back wall, with bakery in a little expansion off the back wall. Frozen runs up the middle of the store and dairy is in the last aisle. I believe the decor we see in here is origi