TOUR: Foley's Family Market - Hamilton, NJ

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 original to Paber's Shop n Bag's 1980s opening. I do think it's likely that it's been repainted, though, since the colors don't exactly match anymore. (I assume the store wouldn't have been constructed with the orange floor but red white and blue walls.) The neon remains though...

It also looks like the fixtures may have been updated at some point, or at the very least painted. 

The meat cases, however, have very much not been updated! More on the meat department shortly...

Beautifully clean grocery aisles, though, as we see maintenance is pretty top-notch here. The store is plenty bright, too, because of the large windows.

Looking towards the back wall. We see something interesting on the back wall here...

Check that out! Looks like the awning had lettering on it that matched the neon signage, but that was painted out at some point and this newer signage was placed directly on top of it.

Does anyone recognize that decor? Is it secondhand from another store, or did Foley's just rearrange the back wall area and order some new signage? I assume the aisle markers are original to the store with the neon decor.

I wouldn't be surprised if the freezer cases had been updated since Foley's opened.

Notice the newer "deli - bakery" signage here that seems to match the newer meat sign.

11 aisles total, with nonfoods here in 9.

Here's a look at the deli counter (that awful construction of crates and caution tape was designed for social distancing, but couldn't they have come up with something less hideous?). And now we have the small bakery department and some packaged deli items in a little room off the side of the last aisle...

The fixture to the right is designed for loose rolls, bagels, and bread. Not much to offer at the time of my visit.

Here we see dairy with, sadly, non-functioning neon. Dairy continues on the front wall of the store...

The lower ceiling in this area makes me wonder if this corner was originally something else, but it doesn't look like anything was removed from the floor which was spotless but almost definitely original to the store.

And a look at the front end before we move on! Tomorrow we have a really cool stop at a former supermarket over on Grocery Archaeology not far away in Hamilton Township, so head over there tomorrow to check it out!