The Independent Edition

Livoti's Old World Market Owner: John Livoti Opened:  2017 Cooperative:  none Location:  1151 NJ-35, Middletown, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 It's time for our second of the three Livoti's! We saw the oldest location, Aberdeen , a few days back and we'll see Englishtown when we circle back through the central part of the state. At just over 14,000 square feet, this one is slightly smaller than Aberdeen but right in the same space range. The newly-renovated Middletown Marketplace was previously anchored by a 47,000 square foot Pathmark, which has been subdivided into a Bed Bath & Beyond and a TJ Maxx. Inside, the store looks a lot like Aberdeen, although it's a bit more modern with a slightly different decor package. Produce takes up about 1/3 of the store, with nonfoods and some general grocery in the shelving under the produce bins. We have deli and seafood on the back wall, with butcher in the back left corner. A cheese and pizza island is at the back of th...

Dearborn Market Owner: Richard Saker / Saker Supermarkets Opened:  2015 under current ownership, 1925 previously Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  2170 NJ-35, Holmdel, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 We are here in Holmdel to tour its one and only grocery store, Dearborn Market! (Holmdel also previously had an A&P, which we're taking a look at today on Grocery Archaeology .) The 21,000 square foot gourmet grocery store and garden center -- not including an outdoor greenhouse space, by the way -- was purchased in 2015 from its former owners by the owners of Saker ShopRites, whose Hazlet store we saw just over a mile west a few days ago. This is widely rumored to be in response to Wegmans indicating interest in the property, and their plan was said to be to demolish the existing building and use the nearly 1 million square foot (or approximately 23 acre) property for a newly-built Wegmans supermarket. Of course, this would hurt the nearby Saker ShopRite...

Livoti's Old World Market Owner: John Livoti Opened:  2010 Cooperative:  none Location:  1077 NJ-34 Photographed:  January 2021 It's time for our first of three Aberdeen stores, and it's also our first Livoti's of three! Livoti's is an excellent Italian specialty market with those three stores plus one more in a former ACME-turned-Top Tomato  in Freehold which hadn't opened yet when I was down in this area. While Top Tomato had a total bust in central New Jersey here (with extremely short-lived stores in Freehold, Holmdel, Atlantic Highlands, and Brick), Livoti's has been the exact opposite. Now the Freehold store was briefly an ACME, but this Aberdeen store is also in part of a former ACME. Acme Style covered the store in Livoti's early days, and while it seems ACME referred to this location as Matawan, Livoti's calls it Aberdeen. This was Livoti's first store, opening in 2010. The 16,000 square foot store includes about 2/3 of the former ACME...