The Independent Edition

Patidar Supermarket Owner:  unknown Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  none Location:  649 US-206, Hillsborough, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Our final Hillsborough store is also our final Greater Somerville store! In 2018, local Indian grocery chain Patidar Supermarket opened up in 24,000 square feet of a former Edwards-turned-Stop & Shop in the southern part of Hillsborough. This part of New Jersey is one of the Indian immigrant enclaves in the northern part of the state, and Patidar is Hillsborough's first Indian grocer. Patidar, which also has a few other locations in this area, took the right half of the store. There's really nothing left from Stop & Shop inside, and Patidar installed all-new fixtures and decor, making it a really nice store. Unfortunately, it's extremely hard to get into and out of compared to the other stores here in Hillsborough, and it's set way back from the street with no good signage. That seems to be rendering it less-than-packed a...

206 Farmers Market Owner: Song Suh Opened:  2008 under current ownership Cooperative:  none Location:  626 US-206, Hillsborough, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Notice anything familiar about that facade? That's right, it's a former A&P! The awning has been redone since A&P left, but the bones are there -- A&P just would've had brown shingles on the awning, instead of the signature bright turquoise Bottle King awning. Acme Style first reported on this store back in 2013, and I'm back here for some more pictures in summer 2020. The store looks to be 8100 square feet of the A&P's 24,500 square feet. I also assume, though I could be wrong, that the A&P closed shortly after the ShopRite opened directly across the street. Acme Style has pretty good coverage of the store's history as an A&P, but at the end of the day, I'm here for the current farmers market. It's part of the Farmers Market Group, which also owns the Route 10 Farmers Mar...

Aqui Market Owner: Araceli Perez Opened:  1999 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  617 E Main St, Bridgewater, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Bridgewater is the final of four Aqui Market locations that we are seeing on the blog! I've been to Journal Square  (which closed in August, by the way) and Garfield Ave in Jersey City, and our wonderful contributor Gerry brings us coverage of Califon which we'll also be seeing soon enough in my own pictures. This store is about 17,000 square feet and was built as an A&P. I assume that the facade, which does not resemble anything I've ever seen on an A&P, came after the opening of Twin City Supermarkets which switched over to Aqui Market around 2018. (This was the last of the original three stores to be converted, and for a while was co-branded with both Twin City and Aqui Market logos.) Clearly, the bones of the store here are quite old. But it's been remodeled recently and it's looking pretty good. Prod...

Latino Mini Market Owner: Hugo Castanaba Opened:  unknown Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  207 E Main St, Bound Brook, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Anywhere else, a "minimarket" would refer to a small convenience store, maybe with some bottled soda and some chips. But here in downtown Bound Brook, the Latino Mini Market is a 4500 square foot store that's practically a full grocery store, with produce, meat, deli, frozen, dairy, and grocery. This store has a lot to offer, with several grocery aisles, produce here in the first aisle, a service butcher/deli on the back wall, and dairy/frozen at the left side of the store. It looks fairly recently renovated, with some newer fixtures and flooring. We can tell that the store is older, but it's been very nicely maintained. I would say there are maybe five aisles here, but they're not that long. Dairy is here in the back of the last aisle, with frozen foods in the front corner. There's a little alcove on ...