The Independent Edition

Farmer Joen Farmers Market Owner: Ju Gil Joen Opened:  ca. 2014 Cooperative:  none Location:  205 NJ-23 N, Sussex, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 We arrive in Wantage for a look inside the Farmer Joen Farmers Market (formerly the Route 23 Farmers Market) in the Wantage Plaza, just next door to Sussex Meat Packing . This strip mall was also previously home to a Jamesway, later Ames, department store as well as a Foodtown but I'm unclear exactly where each of those was. This roughly 20,000 square foot store is in what I suspect is half of the Foodtown space, but I don't know that for certain. Unlike some of the other similar stores we've seen recently, this is a rather large space displaying almost exclusively produce. I wonder how successful this store is, since we can see it was deserted when I visited. The Sussex County area is a highly rural area, so there's also lots of local produce available around this area. A look at refrigrated produce on the back wall. Lookin...

Sussex Meat Packing Owner: Henry VandenAkker Opened:  1960 in Wantage Cooperative:  none Location:  205 NJ-23 N, Sussex, NJ Photographed:  July 2020 The Wantage Plaza was once home to a Foodtown, which I believe took up roughly 37,000 square feet just to the left of this small butcher shop which is now partially home to the Farmer Joen Farmers Market , which we're also seeing today. (That may have also been the Jamesway/Ames that anchored the mall, in which case this butcher shop would be in part of the Foodtown space.) Heading into the 5,000 square foot Sussex Meat Packing store, we first find a deli along the left side wall of the store. Frozen foods and then service butcher take up the back of the store, with a small dairy section in the front and one grocery aisle in the middle. I wasn't going to stop here (nor Farmer Joen next door), but the strip mall drew my attention with what looked like a former supermarket and then I noticed the two operating grocery stor...