The Independent Edition

Grassroots Natural Market Owner: Paul Kralyevich Opened:  2005 Cooperative:  none Location:  20 1st Ave, Denville, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 We have arrived in downtown Denville for three stores -- Grassroots here, a former Grand Union a few blocks away, and an ACME just south of downtown! We've also previously seen the Foodtown , which closed a few years ago, in the Mount Tabor section of town down on route 53. Grassroots is a small but complete natural food store with a nice selection. It's quite cramped though inside. There's a good selection of all the basics here with a lot of specialty items too, and some nonfoods. Only a few grocery aisles, and they run side-to-side. Here's a HABA aisle, and then we move back into grocery on the other end of the store... And we wrap up with a small deli counter at the far left side of the store. Before we leave Denville don't forget to check out the former Grand Union  (kind of) and the ACME ! But don't worry, we...

Downtown Supermarket Owner:  unknown Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  none Location:  228 Main St, Butler, NJ Photographed:  July 2021 We have three stores to check out today in the Kinnelon/Butler area, the first of which is this small store in downtown Butler! It seems to be a combination of two small storefronts which was first a dollar store, then briefly the Grand City Supermarket before becoming the Downtown Supermarket around 2018. Despite the paper in the windows, the store is open for business. It was just closed because I drove by on July 4th. And today, we're also visiting a former A&P in town as well as a Stop & Shop right over into Kinnelon. Now by the way, I am aware that these are not in the immediate Parsippany and Great Piece Meadows area as I promised at the top of the post, but we are just doing one brief detour day today before heading down into Boonton tomorrow for two stores on The Market Report and one on Grocery Archaeology !

Wolfson's Market Owner: Lester Wolfson (seems to have sold in 2011) Opened:  1921, 2011 under current ownership Cooperative:  none Location:  480 Boonton Tpk, Lincoln Park, NJ Photographed:  August 2019 Wolfson's Market is our final stop here in Lincoln Park! Make sure to tour the ShopRite and former A&P here. An interesting note here is that the ShopRite is owned by Larri Wolfson while this store was owned by Joseph Wolfson and later Lester Wolfson, and I do not know whether they're related although I have to assume they are (in a town of 10,000 with two grocery stores, what are the chances that two unrelated Wolfsons would own those two stores?). Anyway, it does seem that this store was sold in 2011 but it's unclear who owns it now. This store of just 7500 square feet is a wonderful classic grocery market but still well-run today. There's a really good selection of all the grocery basics, as well as a liquor department. Dairy is here in aisle 1, and I belie...

The Village Market Owner: Joanne and Marty Mulhearn Opened:  2017 Cooperative:  none Location:  702 US-202, Towaco, Montville, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 We are on 202 between Parsippany and Lincoln Park passing through the Towaco section of Montville Township, a very pleasant and very small community of just about 5000 people. So if yesterday's post is an example of an exceptionally bad small general store, today we have an exceptionally good small general store. This little place opened up in 2017 in a new development and is all of about 2300 square feet, but they manage to pack a lot in. That includes produce, meat, seafood, a full deli, prepared foods, a few shelves of general grocery, dairy, frozen, and baked goods. The selection and interior design is more of a premium experience for sure... This is the front side of the store (facing the parking lot), and is the first aisle. Grocery, dairy, and frozen are behind me. The second aisle, which is also the last,...

Lake Parsippany General Store Owner: unknown Opened:  ca. 1980 - 2021 Cooperative:  none Location:  171 Kingston Rd, Parsippany, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 Here in the southern part of Parsippany, there really aren't any supermarkets. Residents likely go to either the Stop & Shop in Morris Plains or Wegmans in Hanover to the south, or else the Whole Foods or ShopRite to the north. Up until earlier in 2021, there was also the Lake Parsippany General Store, a 3500 square foot oversized convenience store in what was a very early ShopRite (unclear when or who owned it). Though plans to redevelop the dilapidated property date back to 2016 , the store actually continued on in business (and deteriorating) through early 2021 when it was put up for sale and, when it was not purchased, closed for good. The store might have stayed in business until 2021, but it was certainly was in decline for many years. We can clearly see that outside, and inside, it was lookin...

Subzi Mandi Cash & Carry Owner: Jasbir Singh Opened:  2016 under current ownership, ca. 2000 previously Cooperative:  none Location:  251 Littleton Rd, Parsippany, NJ Photographed:  June 2021 Today we are taking a look inside this Subzi Mandi at the corner of Littleton and Parsippany Roads just south of US-46, along with a former ACME at 46 and Parsippany Road. We saw this once before as a former Grand Union, but today we're focusing on the Subzi Mandi. We've also previously seen Subzi Mandis in Iselin and Piscataway . This store is more similar in size to Piscataway than Iselin, at between 6000 and 7000 square feet. It's extremely deep but very narrow, taking only a small slice of the Grand Union that once occupied this whole building. Much like what we saw at Tirupati, secondhand carts abound before we enter the store... Here's something interesting. Note that these carts are (mostly) the same age, but we see three different handles: a 90s orange ShopRite h...