Newark Avenue is a’changing. Just the other day an entire new block of food-related enterprises appeared off the Avenue along Erie as if David Copperfield swooped through town(by mistake, taking the JSQPATH instead of the Q train). There’s the second location of some Brooklyn restaurant, a butcher, an Italian espresso bar run by Italians, and maybe a bunch of other things I haven’t discovered yet. The newness is capped off by Torico, a long-standing ice cream parlor par excellence, at 20 Erie. Standing strong on the south side of the Avenue occupying a wide berth is the inveterate discount department store CH Martin. Hold strong, my friend, against the tide. You see, back when my uncle – wearing thick black glasses, sporting Bata chuppals, and probably 100 rupees to his name – stepped off the 747 after a 64-hour flight from Mumbai to Newark back in the 1980s(when the«Dotbuster» gangs roamed J.C. and Edison but lost their futile battle against my rapidly multiplying tribe), he stayed for a short time in Jersey City. Like the Red Cross, only for a small fee, CH Martin provided him with warm garments to cover his skinny subcontinental frame through the cold Northeast winters. Here’s the funny thing. I moved to J.C. about a year and a half ago. I was telling my uncle the other day about this great store on Newark Ave where you could buy practical stuff for really cheap. He’s like,“oh, yeah, CH Martin,” as matter-of-factly as a New Yorker wearing Canada Goose. Hear me out, people. Why pay $ 50 for a pair of brand-name gloves when you will end up with only one glove after a week? Why not buy five pairs of generic, moderate-quality gloves of assorted colors for like $ 35 from CH Martin? That way, by the end of the winter you will have three non-matching colors of gloves remaining(two right hand and one left hand). That’s a whole lot warmer and cheaper than having only one Michael Kors glove left when it’s just the second week of December.
Lina D.
Place rating: 4 Bayonne, NJ
Cheap is correct, and not a bad thing if you want summer clothing that will only be worn a few times. 100% cotton sleeveless tops in assorted bright colors for $ 1.99. And they accept returns. Why would anyone complain? Wear it and throw it out!