The Independent Edition

Giant Farmers Market Owner: Sang Kim Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  19 Wyckoff Ave, Waldwick, NJ Photographed:  November 12, 2023 It's time for a quick update at the Waldwick Giant Farmers Market! We first saw it in 2020  and since then, it's gotten a minor renovation that shuffles around some of the departments and has turned it from a farmers market-type store with some groceries into a fairly straightforward supermarket with a disproportionately large produce department. Not all the change is positive, though, and some of the produce cases we can see below to the right were empty when I visited. Then again, there was some excellent produce and that appears to have been where the organic selection used to be. I was a bit concerned when I came back and saw those empty cases and then the mostly-empty bakery department in the back. The service counter that was there had been removed and replaced with shelving for bread that was mostl...

Giant Farmers Market Owner:  Sang Kim Opened: ca. 2013 Cooperative:  none Location:  350 Ramapo Valley Rd, Oakland, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 The 15,000 square foot Oakland Giant Farmers Market has opened up in part of a former Grand Union . Now, Oakland is a ShopRite town , so it's pretty remarkable that this farmers market has carved out a market niche for itself. We've previously seen the Giant Farmers Market in Waldwick , the newest location. There's also one in Hackensack , which we unfortunately will not be visiting. And the store itself is beautiful. Mostly a place to buy perishables, it is anchored by a large produce department on the left side of the store with dairy in the back of the first aisle on the left. Dairy lines the back wall with meat, seafood, and deli on the right side wall and a sushi counter in the front corner. Here you can see about half the store is produce. Grocery aisles take up the back part of the store. And...

Giant Farmers Market Owner: Sang Kim Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  none Location:  19 Wyckoff Ave, Waldwick, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 The largest of three Giant Farmers Markets, the Waldwick location opened in 2018 in a former Stop & Shop which, in turn, replaced a Grand Union that closed in 2001. Acme Style actually captured the Stop & Shop just before it closed back in 2017, which you can see here . At 22,000 square feet, the location is rather large for a perishables-focused operation like Giant Farmers Market. So much of the store is taken up by regular grocery aisles, although the selection is still fairly limited and there is no storebrand, except for a few Parade items in nonfoods that I saw. The produce department, which is in an expansion at the far left side of the store, seems to have been expanded from its original layout into the former grocery aisles and bakery department. Today, the left 1/4 of the store or so is produce, with sushi, bake...