The Independent Edition

Pennington Quality Market Owner: Lawrence Rothwell Opened:  1981 Cooperative:  IGA Location:  25 NJ-31 S, Pennington, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 We arrive at one of three supermarkets in the small town of Pennington, NJ (population 2500). The other two are a ShopRite and a Stop & Shop, and believe it or not this IGA is ever so slightly larger than the ShopRite in town at 36,000 square feet. (The Stop & Shop is 57,000 square feet and deadly boring.) Let's take a look at this Pennington Quality Market, a really nice and well-run grocery store that seems to be quite a popular choice for Pennington shoppers. We begin with bakery in the front right corner (try the brownies and thank me later). Produce takes up the rest of the first aisle, with meat/seafood, prepared foods, and deli in that order right to left on the back wall. We have dairy, frozen, and a cafe at the far end of the store. As we can see, this store is also on the older side but is looking a l...

Woo-Ri Mart Owner: Heung Park Opened: 2017 Cooperative:  none Location:  64 Princeton Hightstown Rd, West Windsor, NJ Photographed:  February 2021 I was in for a few surprises here at the Woo-Ri Mart in West Windsor. The first is that buried behind that new facade is actually a pitched-roof ACME, whose ceiling is exposed inside as we'll see. That was quite the shock to me when I stepped into the store. Turns out, while this is now referred to as West Windsor, back when ACME was here they called the store the Princeton Junction ACME, which of course I was familiar with from Acme Style . Princeton Junction refers to this area of West Windsor Township, so I wasn't aware that those were the same place. The second surprise, which I only actually came across while writing this post, is that this 22,000 square foot store was opened in 2014 as a Mrs. Green's Natural Market  as their first (and only?) New Jersey location after ACME closed in 2009. It then closed in 2016, wit...

McCaffrey's Food Markets Owner: Jim McCaffrey III Opened:  1996 Cooperative:  none Location:  335 Princeton Hightstown Rd, West Windsor, NJ Photographed:  February 2021 We arrive at our second McCaffrey's, and the chain only has two locations in New Jersey so we'll see a few more but over in PA. This 40,000 square foot store opened in 1996 as McCaffrey's third location (Yardley, PA opened in 1986, then Princeton, NJ in 1992) and appears to have been a new-build store at that time. We will get the feeling that this store looks a bit older than Princeton, so I assume Princeton was remodeled in the 00s while this store was not. That said, this store looks absolutely beautiful inside, and like the other locations is very high-end. We enter to produce in the front right corner, with deli/cheese behind it. Deli is in an island backing up to the grocery aisles, with prepared foods and seafood around the perimeter. Meat lines the back wall, with dairy in the second aisle, ...