Grocery stores of Main St. Hackettstown
I need help recalling some history...I'm having a Senior moment...when I was a small child in the early 50's, my mother worked at the Food Basket which I think was located where the Hack. Hardware is now located. I remember that my aunt worked in a grocery store where Ford was located..was that a Grand Union?
OnlyChild Where the ford dealer was was an ACME when in i was growing up dont remember the food basket
AOMthe Food Basket was where Hometown Hardware is located now...Grand Union was where Marshalls is located now...Grand Union was at one time located in the Flock building
oldman 
JL When I moved to Hackettstown in 1973, I believe the now Mansfield Shoprite was a different food store then. Does anyone remember if I'm right?
copygirl The store before Shop -Rite was affiliated with Laneco, which is no longer in business. I think the store was called Food Lane.
PBM the supermarket that operated before Shop Rite in the Mansfield mall was Falks... they went out of business...in the mid 1970s...Falks was only affiliated to Laneco.....because Laneco bought several Falks locations when Falks went out of business... Shop Rite of Mansfield opened in 1977
Thanks for helping my memory. What confused me is that I recall one of my aunts worked at A grocery store which was located at former Ford location...then I had another aunt who worked at a Grand Union, but thought it was Main St. As well.
Oldman, you, you referenced the Flock bldg? Where was that?
The Flock Building is now owned by the Trading Post across the street from them on Main St. where there is to be a new consignment furniture store. I worked there years ago when it was Leeter, Inc. ( a clothing store)_.
joyful Yes, that's it...now all the pieces fit in my head. And Leeters...I was a steady customer. Thanks, Joyful.
heres what Grand Union looked like when it was located in the Flock building...many many years ago there were two A&P markets on main street also
Pretty cool photo, oldman. I was reading the sale signs, love those prices.
Anyway, what is smoked calas. I did a Google search and it just brings up old grocery ads from numerous stores giving the price, but I can not find out what it is.
Anyone know?
Tidy: I think smoked calas is a smoked beef...the short shank of beef. If I recall it was not always the most desirable cut of meat to eat but very inexpensive..Not positive.
calas is a beef tendon...that can be served grilled or used as a soup bone...see the picture enclosed
If it was tendon, there would be no meat. The picture is definitely a "shank" including bone and meat. I have a very extensive 12 volume "encyclopedia of cooking" that says it's a shank but could possibly refer to either beef or pork. But as joyful said, the bottom or "short" shank as opposed to the top half.
GC I loved to go to the Food Basket with my Mother because it had a metal type mat that you had to walk over before entering the building. It would open the door automatically for you.
Oldman,Do you remember the wooden floors and the ramp that went uphill halfway through the store? I used to love rollerskating in there because it tickled my feet! Awhhh - what memories.
By the way, the old Hometown hardware used to be Snyders motors (studebakers)?
I am so glad you have a photo of the old grand union. My husband and I both grew up in Hack. and he does not remember it (wrong side of town).
I love these old memories!
Thanks
betty smith the last time i was in the backroom of Hometown hardware...the old car lifts were still in place...I was shocked to see the lifts still in place
Bette, my husband said he bought a Dodge Coronet from Snyders...they sold Studabakers and Dodge. Wow, what memories you all have. I've lived here all my life and it seems I just have selected memories....sure hope I don't lose those!
years ago all supermarkets had the pressure mats that opened the doors...both entrance and exit...now they have motion sensors...to open and close the doors
GC...it depends on who the butcher was...not all butchers work the same...Have you ever worked in a meat market...I have
My husband was born and raised in Hackettstown. Asking him he said the American Sawmill was a Iron Ore Foundry and his father also worked there and Snyders was not at Hometown Hardware site but instead next door. Hometown Hardware location previously housed a grocery store.
I didn't think Shop-Rite in Mansfield open until the mid-eighties. I could be wrong though. Use to shop at the Shop-Rite on Stiger Street, until it burned down. I do remember the Grand Union and then Basics.
bug Shop - Rite was there before the mid - 80s. It was open before the one on Stiger Street burned down.
You are right, JL the one Shop Rite was open before they opened the one on Stiger St. I am trying to recall what year the fire was on Stiger Street. Maybe 1984 or 1985?? I remember standing outside that night and hearing the weirdest sounds like cans popping and the blaze was unbelievable.
as I stated before...Shop Rite of Mansfield opened in 1977...I was one of the first people inside the building after the lease was acquired...in the late 1980s...the Shop Rite underwent a huge renovation...becoming the largest supermarket in northwest NJ...and was re-named Shop Rite The Marketplace
If Shop Rite opened in 1977...Oldman, how could you be the first people inside the building in the late 1980's? Maybe I misunderstood your post?
joyful - It's the lack of punctuation. I believe the "1977" goes with the "lease acquired". But then "1980s" goes together with "huge renovation".
Thanks, GC...I figured that must be the case. That is what I get for checking in with HL first thing in the morning..
Joyful,
I think I can help with that date. The fire at the Hackettstown ShopRite was early morning (before 10am?) a week or two before Thanksgiving 1985. Story hit national news and arson investigators were called in because store was fully loaded and three employees were presumed dead. The store burned for a full week and smelled like a massive BBQ as far away as Budd Lake.
My job was to interview survivors to:
1) help determine where the fire started;
2) document the moments leading up to the fire for legal, regulatory, and insurance purposes;
3) develop a brand new business model that would allow ShopRite to thrive and grow in a highly competitive marketplace.
Everyone gave a huge sigh of relief the moment Fire Marshals deemed the fire an accident and then we all sighed again when we confirmed no one perished in the fire. It was our luck, the three "presumed dead" were not inside the store when the alarm went off. They lived less than a block away so they had gone home (on break) before the fire started. With all the chaos that followed the alarm, the three didn't think to let anyone know they were okay. ugh.
Once all the questions and concerns were behind us, ShopRite looked towards their future. CEO requested I stay on for a few more weeks to help his HQ & store locations solve day-to-day operational challenges - challenges that all retail food stores shared at that moment in time. I was simply delighted to be given the opportunity to work with the survivors to brainstorm 1) how to innovate retail food store business operations and 2) design safer and more efficient work environments.
I still smile when I see policies and procedures implemented on that very day still serving retain food stores well. My hat goes off to ShopRite for embracing change and sharing their lessons learned industry wide so all stores could benefit!!
Shop Girl Is the origin of the Flock building related to Flocktown Road on Schooley's Mountain?
Erik B. Anderson ShopRite on main street burned on a monday night. I was there. The night crew was scheduled to report to work at 11 o clock. the store was completely burned down by the next morning.
cbel I don't think the Flock building has anything to do with Flocktown Road. I worked for many years in Leeters Dept. Store which was later on the site of the original Flock building. It is now Marty's cycles.
I wanted to set the facts straight. Maybe you should get a chance to see the place where you work burn down.
I would imagine, Oldman, that it must have been a really bad time for you when Shop Rite had their fire especially if you worked there at the time.. I know I lived then just a few doors away from the store and it was really a very memorable and sad night.
oldman: It's a sad story to be sure, whether it was on a Sunday or a Monday. No disrespect intended.
As an aside, I worked for 27 years for a company that closed two major facilities recently. Bell Labs in Holmdel and Whippany. Broke my heart. Don't know which days it happened. Doesn't matter.
Firefly cbel, They closed Whippany down completely? What are they going to do with that building?
pampur You people are talking about butchers. Does anyone remember going into the butchers or delis and there would be sawdust on the floor ? Didn't it have something to do with moisture or something like that. I remember kicking it around and sliding on it as a kid.
Len Pampur: I don't know.
I was just an administrator at Bell Labs, but I worked for a good many years with chemists, phycisists and theoriticians. I was so proud to be among them.
Especially Horst Stormer who won a Nobel Prize while I was there.
I was so proud to have been a small part in the success of Bell Labs.
the sawdust on the floor was there to keep the employees from slipping and falling... and absorb the residues from meat processing... it was also meant to keep out rodents like mice...I used to have to spread the sawdust...it was a dirty job...but somebody had to do it...spreading the sawdust and then sweeping it up...then I had to clean and sanitize every part of the meat department in the store...those were the days...
Shop girl ...are you for real...the story you have posted...has no relation to what really happened...the fire happened in 1986...there was no interview of survivors.No one perished in the Hackettstown ShopRite fire. There was no fire alarm at the store. Never heard this story before...and I was there that night. this is the only picture I have from that night.
Bell Lab in Whippany is completly torn down. Bayer is putting up a new building in its place. Heard it will be open in the spring as the new corp. headquarters.
Not that it means anything, but getting back to the fire at Shop Rite. It was Monday January 6th 1986 at 10:37pm the fire alarm came in.
I dont know what story Shop Girl was reporting on, but this is the correct time and date.
Old Man and turbo guy are correct. I remember it well. Independence Twsp was the only road dept that had a track loader. (Alice, as they called her) Their road dept brought Alice down to break a hole in the side of the building to access the fire so the fire dept could put it out. Lots of aerosol cans flying into the sky like fireworks.
Ms I remember standing across the street too( my then future husband was over there fighting the fire ) (at Bergen tool lot) and hearing those weird sounds of the cans bursting....That sound and that terrible blaze stayed in my memory for a long time.
what I really liked was all the snotty comments I heard after the store burned down..."They emptied the store out"..."They moved all the equipment out of the store before the fire" " They burned the store down"...the store burned down intact and in place.
Oldman...if you have lived in this town as long as I have...you must know that it is always going to be a "small town" with "small town gossip" and "even smaller minded people"...take it from where it comes....We know better and that is all that matters.
Maybe if the Hotel in Netcong (where the Netcong Shoprite now sits) had not burned down..there would be fewer rumors and speculation about the Hackettstown ShopRite fire(wink wink)
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