The Independent Edition

Extra Supermarkets Owner: Orfilio Chaviano and Nick Gonzalez Opening:  Spring 2024 Cooperative:  none Location:  80 Central Ave, East Orange, NJ Photographed:  December 20, 2023 Extra Supermarkets is preparing a second store in East Orange! Their original East Orange store is in the former ShopRite at 563 Central Ave , and now a second one is under construction in a former 11,000 square foot Rite Aid-turned-Walgreens 16 blocks (a little over a mile) to the east. This one is just a couple blocks west of the Newark border, while the other one is about the same distance to the Orange border. The store was announced last September and is expected to open this spring (originally expected to open last fall). In addition to Extra locations in East Orange, Newark , Maplewood , and Dover , this group owns Food Depot stores in Newark , Kearny, and Belleville (although the East Orange one that was supposedly in progress a while ago has been canceled and the building is now ...

Food Depot Supermarkets Owner: Orfilio Chaviano and Nick Gonzalez Opening:  not yet announced Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  1 Main St, East Orange, NJ Photographed:  June 14, 2023 and July 25, 2021 Well, it's not the greatest picture (just out of a bus window) but here's a look at what will soon be the Food Depot in East Orange. The store was for a long time the Western Beef , although the store closed around 2020 and a banner went up on the old building announcing Food Depot was coming soon, a local chain with locations in Newark , Kearny, and Belleville coming soon . While there hasn't been any signage installed subsequently -- and unlike Belleville, there's nothing on the Food Depot website about this location -- there's been substantial renovation progressing around the building. The shot above is from just a few days ago but I realized I had photographed the store pretty extensively during its major construction but never posted the pictures. Those a...

Tropical Sun Supermarket Owner:  Tony Yoon Opened:  2001 Cooperative:  Associated Supermarket Group Location:  390 Main St, East Orange, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Our final store along Main Street in the eastern part of East Orange is Tropical Sun Supermarket! A Caribbean store featuring a wide range of specialty products, much like Farmboy Country Market , this 12,000 square foot store started out as a Kings Food Market (and, by the way, was our first post on Grocery Archaeology ). Kings didn't make it all the way until 2001, when Tropical Sun opened, but I don't know which tenant was in the space for that time. Tropical Sun also owns a fish market next door. I have no idea how the store would've been set up originally, but today the main entrance is in the back facing the parking lot. We're going to tour it from the front door though, because that's how I visited (I parked on the street). We enter to dairy and frozen in the first aisle...

Lee's International Food Market Owner:  Xian Lee Opened:  2005 Cooperative:  none Location:  401 Main St, East Orange, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Previously at 407 Main Street, Lee's International Food Market is now at the other end of the same building. Check out the previous store here ! Our next stop is a former supermarket in the next block east on Grocery Archaeology .

Olive May Natural Foods Owner:  Nasar Arain Opened:  1924 Cooperative:  none Location:  516 Main St, East Orange, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 We're here just across the street from Brick Church Plaza to take a look inside New Jersey's oldest operating natural foods store! That's right, although this store has changed ownership, it's been continuously operating since 1924. Inside, the store features a juice bar, vitamins and supplements, general grocery, and dairy/frozen. It looks fairly newly renovated. The front wall has the juice bar, with the register and vitamins on the right side wall. Dairy is at the back, with frozen on the left side wall pictured here. Grocery aisles line the middle of the store, running parallel to Main Street. I swear I took a picture of a grocery aisle, but my phone seems to have eaten it or else it simply evaporated into thin air. The store, though, is very nice! Our next stop is a few blocks east on Main ...

Extra Supermarket Owner:  Alberto Mendez Opened:  2018 under current ownership; 1980s under previous ownership Cooperative:  none Location:  563 Central Ave, East Orange, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 We're here today to tour the original Extra Supermarket! There are two branches of Extra: Alberto Mendez owns East Orange (this one), Maplewood , Lyons Ave in Newark (which we'll tour soon), and Dover (previously Bravo); and Mitchel Lopez owns Elizabeth, Avon Ave in Newark (both of which we'll tour soon), and Jersey City . Mendez's stores, which are the older locations previously owned by Lopez's father, were Krasdale affiliated but are now independent and sell Best Yet, and Lopez's stores are Retail Grocers Group. We first saw this Extra Supermarket, which was previously a Village ShopRite and before that a Good Deal, back in 2019 in a quick snapshot. You can get an idea of the store's orientation there. The front wall, facing Central Av...

Steve's Market Owner:  Stephane Koffi Opened:  2005 Cooperative:  none Location:  601 Central Ave, East Orange, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 Another small store along Central Avenue in East Orange diagonally across the street from Charlie Supermarket . Our next stop will be at the eastern end of this block, which we'll be touring tomorrow here on The Independent Edition!