The Independent Edition

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 ...

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 ...

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 . (Apologi...

   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...