The Independent Edition

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...

Tirupati Farmers Market Owner: Ajay Kumar Opened:  2019 Cooperative:  none Location:  1549 US-46, Parsippany, NJ Photographed:  December 2020 We have two more small Indian supermarkets here in Parsippany, and the first of those two is Tirupati Farmers Market here on route 46 just west of Delight Big Bazaar ! The store appears to be just over 5000 square feet, making it quite small. It was previously a Subzi Mandi but became Tirupati, which doesn't appear to have any other locations, in 2019. Before we head in, what do we see outside? You can just barely read it, but the shopping carts are secondhand from Waldbaum's. Now let's head in -- we enter to the left side of the store... Bulk foods line the left side of the store, with frozen foods along the back wall. Produce and refrigerated/dairy are in the last aisle, with checkouts lining the front wall. I assume that the flooring is left over from Subzi Mandi or even a previous tenant, since Subzi Mandi typically uses ...

Delight Big Bazaar Owner: unknown Opened:  2016 Cooperative:  none Location:  1470 US-46, Parsippany, NJ Photographed:  August 2019 We are continuing west along route 46 for our next store! This 25,000 square foot store was built, probably in the 1970s, by Pantry Pride as a replacement for the one that later became Pathmark just to the east. It later became a Foodtown, then a Drug Fair and then a Cost Cutters. Now I might actually be wrong about that, and the Pantry Pride/Foodtown building may be just around the corner at 200 Baldwin Rd, which honestly looks more like a 60s/70s supermarket. But anyhow, the store opened around 2016 as Delight Big Bazaar, an Indian supermarket which expanded the space to just under 30,000 square feet. Delight Big Bazaar is the largest Indian supermarket in this area. Taking a look at the entrance and exit, we see magic carpets still intact for the entrance and the scar from one at the exit on the sidewalk! That's a strong indication ...

Top Quality Food Market Owner: Jine Huang Opened:  2003 Cooperative:  none Location:  818 US-46, Parsippany, NJ Photographed:  May & December 2020 In a small property right in front of a mall containing a former Stop & Shop /Bradlees and a ShopRite /Kmart, we have the 12,000 square foot Top Quality Food Market, a Chinese supermarket -- in fact the only one here in Parsippany which does have other ethnic markets as we'll see. Kam Man isn't far away though. The store opened in 2003, but feels much older inside so it's possible it opened in what had already been a grocery store. It wouldn't surprise me if one of the Chinese stores here at this location predated the ShopRite, because it's quite a strange setup to have one grocery store in the outparcel of another. We enter to aisle 12, which is the first aisle of produce and the second is 11. The right side of the store looks to have been prepared foods or the like at some point, but now seems to be long-empty...