I
mentioned yesterday that we didn't come to Great Neck for the Best Market. We did, however, come to Great Neck for this Associated Supermarket owned by Peter Giunta. It started as an A&P, I'm pretty sure, in the 1970s or earlier (the awning we see in the first picture and below match the 1970s-era A&P awning), before being converted to Waldbaum's at some later point. The current Best Market would have been a replacement store for this location in the early 1980s, before Waldbaum's closed in that location in 2015. Associated opened here in 1982 and has been operating since, though they did expand the store very slightly to just over 17,000 square feet.
The first picture shows the side of the store facing the back parking lot, and this side faces the street. Checkouts run along the right side wall, with meat and deli on the left side wall. Dairy lines the front wall with produce on the back wall.
Here's approximately what it would have looked like as an A&P. Oh, and speaking of what it looked like as an A&P, did I mention that all of the decor inside is nearly intact? We'll see that some of it has been painted over but it's largely intact on the walls.
The produce department, for one, looks pretty much exactly as it would have on (re?-) opening day in the 70s. Cases, shelving, decor, lighting. There is some new merchandising in the produce cases, but that's about all.
How about those aisle markers? We'll see a closeup in another aisle. And I could be remembering wrong, but I don't believe there was a salad bar here now (as the aisle marker says).
And what a great look at this decor! The store is clean and beautifully stocked as well, so it's been kept up nicely through the years.
Organic produce at the end of the produce department, with frozen meats at the end of the first aisle. Meats then run along the back of the store.
We can see the decor has been painted over towards the back, which continues around the rest of the store. These freezer cases are quite old, but we'll see other cases replaced around the store.
Looking along the back wall. Nice and spacious for a small store.
If you look very carefully, you can see where the colored stripes around the deli lettering was. The decor is a little bland, but the tile on the back walls is very nice.
Freezer cases, including some being refurbished, line the second to last aisle. We see more signs of case renovation in the last aisle...
Dairy lines the opposite side of the aisle...
Very nicely stocked!
Check out that aisle marker! So it looks like the frozen foods originally would have run along the opposite side of this aisle, and were switched to the second-to-last for the selection to be expanded.
Front end. Looks like the lane markers are different, though I don't know for sure.
Nice endcap! This is actually stacked against a back board, it's not just piled that high.
Past the front end is a second storefront that Associated has been expanded into, which features Kosher foods.
Very cool concept, and a useful addition in the extra space!
Associated Supermarkets
181 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck, NY
Photographed December 2018
So cool to see the original décor still intact, up to and including the aisle markers! Great find with this store. Love the use of the expanded storefront as well.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's awesome as an artifact but also as a store (it's very well maintained). I was very excited to find it as I hadn't seen interior pictures previously.
DeleteAlso, congratulations, you have just made the 1000th comment here on The Market Report!
Oh wow! What do I win? :D
Delete...my respect
DeleteThe greatest prize of all!
DeleteWoW! Great find! The two-tone green striping around the Produce signing looks great. They must have re-painted it at some point, but they never changed the design! The rest of the department signs probably originally had various two-tones like reds for meats, yellows and oranges for deli and blues for dairy. Those round overhead lights over the registers look like the ones they used in A&P Food Bazaar and The Food Emporium in the 1980's.
ReplyDeleteFrom your knowledge, is it fair to say this was a somewhat simple version of this decor package? I have another store photographed (which is a larger store to begin with), that has larger signs, larger lettering, and more accents around the store. Or has any of that just been painted over in this store?
DeleteWhen we moved to Allenwood Rd in Great Neck in 1978, there was a Waldbaum's on the corner of Allenwood & Middle Neck Rd, side by side with the A&P. We were delighted since we moved from Brooklyn where we could walk to a few supermarkets. When Waldbaum's eventually moved to East Shore Rd and then to the shopping center on Great Neck Rd, the A&P (maybe by then Associated) expanded into some of that space to its current size. Then, after Waldbaum's went out of business, its store on Great Neck Rd became a Best Market, which went out of business last year, leaving Associated as the only general supermarket in GN. We still live on Allenwood Rd and still walk around the corner to do some of our food shopping, although we also go to Whole Foods (a ten minute drive away) and to Everfresh, the Kosher food store a short walk north on Middle Neck Rd. And the there's Marine Fisheries on Middle Neck Rd near Everfresh where we buy fish & seafood and it's been in GN for as long as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the details and memories!
DeleteThat aisle end is probably from the original days when it Waldbaums.
ReplyDelete