The Independent Edition

Food Depot Supermarkets Owner: Orfilio Chaviano and Nick Gonzalez Opened:  June 30, 2023 Cooperative:  Krasdale Foods Location:  325 Washington Ave, Belleville, NJ Photographed:  July 2, 2023 We are back at the Belleville Food Depot to check it out! The 12,000 square foot, Krasdale-affiliated store opened on Friday 6/30 in a former Walgreens that was originally built as an ACME. Food Depot has extensively renovated the interior and exterior of this store, and we saw it about two weeks ago almost finished with the final touches being put on. The store is in its soft opening phase, and as we'll see it's very very close to complete. There are some price tags that need to be added and a few sections of an empty shelf here and there, but it's basically ready. As we can see above, the store feels much larger than it is and feels like a complete supermarket, not like a little store in an old drugstore. Produce lines the right side of the first aisle, with meat on the left...

  Having completed the Harrisburg area, we're now headed off to summer break! We've got three weeks off from regular posting, during which time we might be checking out some updates and other notable news, but on July 17th we're back and resuming our visit to the Coal Region. Lots more to come (and to be honest... I didn't have a lot of time in the spring to write, so this is also to help me catch up writing)! In the meantime, enjoy the weather and the beach, or however you might be spending your summer and I'll see you soon!

BG's Value Market Owner: Dianne Koval Opened:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  301 S Market St, Millersburg, PA Photographed: August 15, 2022 Our final Harrisburg-area store... which isn't really in the Harrisburg area, but about 20 miles north along the Susquehanna River... is the third of four BG's Value Markets out there, with two we've already seen in Minersville and Pine Grove , and a fourth I haven't been to yet. I don't know much about the history of this store, but the roughly 25,000 square foot store appears to have had an expansion on the left side, visible above. It's not really noticeable inside, which means the store was renovated most recently at the time of the expansion or after it. Here's what the property looks like from the main street. I'm assuming the beige siding parts on the facade were originally windows, but it's hard to tell. We enter on either side of the foyer to produce on the right side of the store, bakery i...

Apna Bazar Farmers Market Owner: Himanshu Bajaj Opened:  2022 Cooperative:  none Location:  85 Gateway Dr, Mechanicsburg, PA Photographed:  August 14, 2022 Today's post is a quick look at the Apna Bazar Farmers Market in Mechanicsburg, PA, taking the roughly 19,000 square foot space previously occupied by Grocery Outlet . Just last year, the Indian supermarket opened in the closed Grocery Outlet, which moved a bit south in 2022. It appears to be related to the Apna Bazar we saw in Edison , but as I mentioned on that post, it's very hard to tell for sure. It doesn't look like Apna Bazar is reusing much if anything from Grocery Outlet. While there are plenty more supermarkets in Mechanicsburg, that's all we'll be seeing this time around, and tomorrow we're headed just north to Enola for a look at a relatively new store over on The Market Report !

Shop Fresh Marketplace Owner: Nick Nasser Opened:  March 3, 2023 Cooperative:  Great Valu Markets Location:  7 Naughright Rd, Hackettstown, NJ Photographed:  June 13, 2023 We return to Shop Fresh Marketplace of Hackettstown, which opened in March in a former A&P on route 46 just outside of the town. In fact, I attended the soft opening on its first day in business, March 3rd. An official ribbon-cutting was later held on April 1st. I returned to the store on June 13th to find the store well on its way to going out of business. Think I'm exaggerating? I was one of two customers in the store and found the shelves mostly empty... While the store is still very attractive, it is also clearly soon to close. Social media posts as far back as late April show shelves beginning to empty out, and clearly that process has only continued. Most of the service departments have closed, too, leaving only the deli in operation. All the prepared foods are gone... ...and although ...