One more stop in Haverstraw (actually, West Haverstraw) today before we head north up the Hudson River tomorrow! We'll take a quick look here at a Stop & Shop, the larger supermarket in town.
Now, to be clear, I didn't say the more modern store, although
Ideal isn't exactly state-of-the-art either. Funny thing is, there's only one logo on this store, and it's on the side! Granted, this side faces the highway, but it's still strange not to have a logo on the front.
No, you're not seeing things. That's a massive curved glass greenhouse-type facade. Here's a better look from Google Maps...
Oh yes. Just let the beauty of that sink in. Yikes. This store is at 7 Samsondale Plz, West Haverstraw.
Photographed June 2017
What exactly did this start as? And was it constructed in the 80s or just remodeled to have that facade then? (It helps the store is a dark gray, since now that's becoming Ahold's color of choice, it seems.)
ReplyDeleteThose are all good questions, but I unfortunately don't have definite answers to any of them. Based on Historic Aerials, it appears that the store was expanded between 1974 and 1994, which would put it solidly in the 80s. That likely would have coincided with the exterior design we see now. I don't know whether it was built as a Stop & Shop or not, but I don't believe I've ever seen this facade design on any other location.
DeleteI know this store well. It originally was a small Pantry Pride opened in the late 60’s or early 70’s in a pre-existing shopping plaza anchored by a CH Martin (a small Woolworth-like store). A couple of years after Pantry Pride closed (it was empty) it was leased by Inserra Shoprite expanded significantly into the parking lot which is why the entrance faces sideways (that was the only way to expand) in 1979/80 and Shoprite opened there in 1980. A nice (then) state-of-art store it had a large produce department with small center aisles, dairy ran most of the length on the rear of the store. It had two aisles of frozen foods (two stand-up door cases and a wraparound coffin case in both aisles with end displays in the from and back - by the way the aisles were 12 feet longer than most stores so there were seven sections of frozen cases instead of the (then) usual six sections).
ReplyDeleteThe meat department ran the last aisle of the store - meats came in as full sides of beef - in this store (and others) Inserra used fresh sides as opposed to processed, plastic-sealed Iowa Beef Processors beef like other Shoprite operators used. The meat was outstanding and the butchers were all expert. This was an odd store in that it never sold sale items in numbers like other stores did - it sold regular non-sale shelf stock like crazy, however, the aisle would get killed everyday and they had a full night crew. It was a profitable store.
The business was amazing considering the lack of parking. Eventually Inserra built a new, monster store with plenty of parking two miles up 9W in Stony Point. Stop and Shop leased the store when Inserra vacated. S&S made two changes: there used to be a walkthrough between where the far rear of the store was to the rear parking lot. That was enclosed and made extra space for S&S and the other end of the store was expanded further into the parking lot. They had a full half aisle of Goya and Latin foods which would get picked clean everyday and there were multiple Goya deleviries ever week. They had a bake-off bakery and a Sabrett hot dog stand. It was one of the first stores to use the IBM scanning system which was inferior to the NCR system and more labor intensive. And that’s what I know!
Wow, thank you for all the information and the memories! All of that makes a lot of sense. Did this store last all the way until Stony Point opened? Which was around 2005, right? That looks like a very nice store, but I haven't been able to get up there yet. That would make Stop & Shop's opening a lot later than I would have guessed. Very interesting stuff!
DeleteI checked the Journal News archives and found that Stop & Shop opened in West Javerstraw in February 2008. I don’t know when Shop Rite closed but around 2005 sounds reasonable. Apparently, the community didn’t want Shop Rite to close in West Haverstraw, and even gathered petitions.
DeleteI don’t know exactly why Shop Rite went out, however it may have to do with an increase with rent, though the store did killer business It was plagued by limited parking, a small back room, and a high shop-lifting rate. Inserra may have already struck a deal with the developer of the Stony Point shopping center and elected to close rather than commit to a higher lease. This is all conjecture. The 70,000 ft Stony Point Shop Rite store didn’t open until 2010 but indication is it has the highest volume in Rockland County. It’s a nice lookin’ store. The shopping Center is more conducive to high volume.
By the way - someday post a former Big V Store - I have some stories concerning one of the worst run chains in the Co-op.
DeleteAlso a former Walkbaum’s or two - I know you remarked somewhere you weren’t a fan of Waldbaum’s but I have a number of stories about it and I was a fan.
This winter, I'm hoping to get up to this part of New York again and visit some of the Big V stores, the Stony Point ShopRite, and actually get inside this Stop & Shop.
DeleteI've never actually been to a Waldbaum's but I shopped regularly at A&P for years and I was not impressed -- but to be fair, those years were some of the last years that the chain was in business. I have a few former Waldbaum's, here's some examples off the top of my head:
http://groceryarchaeology.marketreportblog.com/2020/06/778-manor-rd-staten-island-ny.html
http://groceryarchaeology.marketreportblog.com/2020/06/375-tompkins-ave-staten-island-ny.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/07/tour-western-beef-supermarket.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/02/tour-food-emporium-albertson-ny.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/04/tour-food-emporium-howard-beach-ny.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/03/tour-key-food-supermarkets-rockville_14.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/02/tour-associated-supermarkets-great-neck.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/02/tour-ideal-food-basket-jamaica-estates.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/02/tour-food-universe-marketplace-fresh.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/02/tour-food-universe-marketplace-bayside.html
Most of those have been pretty significantly modified -- but there's a few examples to hold you over until I get some more!