TOUR: Roebling Town Market - Roebling, NJ

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, and of course the corner grocers! But today, we're here for the Roebling Town Market, an IGA which opened under its current ownership in 2003. (Interestingly, the business is actually registered up in Elizabeth.)

It's hard to tell how much of the 9400 square foot store's interior is left over from A&P, because I don't know when A&P closed here. There was at least one more tenant between A&P and the current owners of the Roebling Town Market (a Shop n Bag, open in 1978 but unsure of opening/closing). It also seems that this was a West Coast Video facility, as a 1997 help wanted ad for "WCV Corp," which owned video stores, asked applicants to send a resume to this location. Produce and dairy are in aisle 1, with butcher/deli on the back wall and packaged meat/frozen in aisle 5, the last aisle. As hard as I've tried, I cannot read the name that was removed from the aisle markers here (neither in my pictures nor when I was in the store, and before you ask, yes I was wearing my glasses). I can kind of make out an M at the beginning and 's at the end, so it's quite possible these were brought in secondhand from a Marrazzo's, of which there were several. It's also possible whatever the name was here was the owner of this store before it became Roebling Town Market.

As we see, some of the fixtures have been updated while others have not. There's a distinctly old-supermarket feeling around the whole store, but I don't get a strong A&P feeling from the interior which comes from the fact that this store didn't make it to the SuperFresh conversion in 1983.

Service deli and butcher at the back, with packaged prepared foods and cheese and so on here also. The walls look to be fairly newly painted, which also doesn't give us any idea of what decor might have been here. How about that turquoise refrigerator? I think it's possible that's from the A&P days, although it may have also been brought in from elsewhere.

As we see, this store really is a full supermarket despite its small size. Some of these small-town grocery stores have become liquor and convenience stores more than true supermarkets. This store sells some convenience store items, but no liquor.

And here we have meat and frozen in the last aisle. The meat case looks pretty new, and the freezers look older but not as old as the turquoise cases.

Here's a look at the few checkouts in the front, I think there are three with one doubling as customer service...

Worth noting that a manager or owner noticed that the line was building up here a little and opened up a second picture right after I took this picture. Good service! I see a few Google reviews that say the store's current owners do a better job than past owners did, which is a good sign. It would be nice to see a bigger remodel here, but there is a certain charm to this small town small store.

Speaking of that, the wall facing the parking lot is lined with murals depicting local scenes with the town and steel mill, which of course has been long-closed.

And there's your six-by-two downtown area! Well, with that fun little stop, we are finished with the Trenton area and up next we are heading farther south to the Camden area for our next group. Come back tomorrow to check out what we'll be seeing up next!