TOUR: Superfresh - Irvington, NJ

Irvington, NJ is immediately outside of Newark to the south, and is also a lower-income community. It was the location of the prototype Pathmark Sav-A-Center in 2007, which was successful enough that A&P began to roll out the Sav-A-Center branding and remodels to other Pathmarks as well. The location was acquired by Food Jungle Inc., run by the same family that runs the Superfresh Food World stores in Belleville and Bloomfield. James Lee is the owner and manager of this location.

Many A&P acquisition stores are now suffering and struggling to do even the volume that A&P did, but I think this store is going in the reverse direction. After visiting again a few months ago, I was really happy to see the store was in great condition, and very busy. Unlike some others, this store is really improving with time.

Above, a photo from my first trip. Below, my more recent visit in August 2017.

Superfresh is really taking a no-nonsense policy on loitering in and around the store, which is great. In fact, a group of young boys who offered to bag customers' groceries and take them out (for money, of course) was kicked out by a manager as I was checking out.

Not much question as to what the store used to be. While the cart corrals are the same, the carts have all been replaced.

As with most Pathmark stores of this era, you walk into the middle, which is produce. The entrance is straight ahead above. Pathmark would have had HABA in the section to my right above and grocery aisles to the left above, but Superfresh moved HABA to the front wall and international foods into the HABA section.

Large and spacious produce department. You'll notice the store looks empty in these pictures from August 2016, but on my August 2017 visit, I'm pleased to report the store was exactly the opposite. Very busy with lots of people doing large shopping orders.

Customer service is immediately to the left when you walk in, and the pharmacy (not open in 2016, open by 2017) is in the corner.

This HABA selection is likely run by an outside vendor, and standard items like toothpaste or soap are along the front wall past checkouts.

Pharmacy not yet open at the time of my first visit.

This section has all been rearranged. This is the side wall, and the HABA shelves here are gone, replaced by international clearance and sale items.

Lots of international foods, and very well-displayed.

And yes, they did fix this upside-down promotional sign!

Meats run along the back wall, with seafood and then deli.

Very nice grocery aisles. The shelving is all brand-new and the aisles are extremely clean. The selection was actually surprisingly good both visits on basics and less common items.

I really like the tile backsplash on the walls behind the service counters. It's a nice touch.

Don't ask me what my cell phone was doing in this picture, but it gives you an idea of the deli and hot food counter.

Close-up of the deli counter (very nice!) with very nice employees, both times.

Milk is in the back corner with dairy along the last aisle. Technology isn't being so cooperative here -- anyone know how to rotate an image in Blogger?

Up in the front corner, there's a section that was closed off and was supposed to be a liquor store coming soon, where Pathmark had its bread and bakery section. Superfresh doesn't have an in-store bakery. I think the story is that Superfresh couldn't get a liquor license here, so they decided to get one in Belleville instead for the Superfresh there. This liquor store section has since been turned back into a bread/bakery area.

However, the liquor graphics remain.

The wall to the left is actually the front wall. Checkouts are on the other side of this wall straight ahead.

A look along the front-end.

The whole front wall now has HABA shelving running along it instead of the water.

Interesting that this store is represented by ILA Local 1964 instead of UFCW. I don't know the difference, but some Key Food stores are ILA and some are UFCW. ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Acme, Foodtown, Food Bazaar, and others are represented by UFCW.

One thing that caught my eye on my more recent visit...