Waldbaum’s always seemed so far away…

Did you have a store when you were a kid that always seemed very far away? For me growing up in New Jersey so close to New York I would see commercials for the supermarket chain Waldbaum’s almost daily. Yet in all of our travels through the Garden State, I never saw one in person in my youth. It got me wondering if kids on Long Island were seeing commercials for stores that could only be found in New Jersey? Perhaps an exotic drug store or supermarket and thinking, “someday”?

As an adult, I went to my first Waldbaum’s when I was out on Long Island and the experience was, well, just like going to any of the supermarkets in my area. I am not sure what I was hoping for. An exotic spice section? Old school butcher? Most likely, I was just hoping it would look like the advertising I saw in my youth…