The Independent Edition

Bloomingdale Supermarket by Foodtown Owner: Adam Shapiro Opened:  January 5, 2024 Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  78 Main St, Bloomingdale, NJ Photographed:  January 8, 2024 After what felt like a long period of time with lots of Key Food updates, it seems like this latest round of updates has been heavy on the Krasdale! Here's a look at a store that's neither: Allegiance Retail Services (Foodtown/Pathmark/Green Way/Shop n Bag) has opened its latest store in the small northern New Jersey town of Bloomingdale, a store of just 8,000 square feet (although it may have basement space) that was built in the 1950s as a Big Leader Supermarket, then became a ShopRite in the 1960s, then a Pathmark before the store moved to the Kinnelon location that's now Stop & Shop in the 1970s. (It must have been quite the upgrade to go from 8,000 square feet to the Kinnelon location's original 40,000 square feet.) Other independents occupied the space after that, ...

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 ...

Giant Farmers Market Owner: Sang Kim Opened:  2018 Cooperative:  Retail Grocers Group Location:  19 Wyckoff Ave, Waldwick, NJ Photographed:  November 12, 2023 It's time for a quick update at the Waldwick Giant Farmers Market! We first saw it in 2020  and since then, it's gotten a minor renovation that shuffles around some of the departments and has turned it from a farmers market-type store with some groceries into a fairly straightforward supermarket with a disproportionately large produce department. Not all the change is positive, though, and some of the produce cases we can see below to the right were empty when I visited. Then again, there was some excellent produce and that appears to have been where the organic selection used to be. I was a bit concerned when I came back and saw those empty cases and then the mostly-empty bakery department in the back. The service counter that was there had been removed and replaced with shelving for bread that was mostl...

Fairfield Welcome back to the Corrado's Market in Fairfield! If you recall, I was blown away when I went to this Corrado's as I definitely visited it at its high point. But Corrado's as a whole has been declining steeply and quickly, with the first cracks in the operation showing when they canceled their upcoming Brick store (and apparently doing the same in Old Tappan ). Their strip mall in Wayne was foreclosed on, then the store closed last month . They closed stores in North Arlington and Denville in 2021 and 2023, respectively. While I don't know exactly what's going on inside the company, it sure looks like it's crumbling before our eyes. Then again, there's no sign of that when you enter Fairfield, with a beautiful, fully stocked produce department, a huge deli packed with fresh products, and a massive fully-stocked salad bar. There's even fresh pizzas out in a dedicated service counter. But that good first impression is ruined if you look clo...

Hackensack Market Owner:  Dilip Patel Opened:  by 2000, 2004 under current ownership Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  120 Passaic St, Hackensack, NJ Photographed:  July 23, 2023 and June 4, 2022 Welcome to the Hackensack Market! This store appears to have opened in the 1990s -- although a store called the Hackensack Market had existed near the corner of Main and Passaic, a few blocks east, as far back as 1914 and I'm not sure if there was any relation. But this building at 120 Passaic St was an Oldsmobile dealer until roughly the late 1980s or early 1990s, with the supermarket opening around the end of the 90s. It also appears to have been sold in 2004, which is likely when Universal Food Markets bought the store. Although I'm not sure, the Dilip Patel who I see listed as an owner for this store might be the same person as the Philip Patel who owns the other Universal-affiliated store in town. I have two photosets of this store, one from the summer of 2...