TOUR: Kings Food Markets - Midland Park, NJ

Kings Food Markets

Opened: 1990s

Previous Tenants: Grand Union > Vitale Foodtown

Location: 85 Godwin Ave, Midland Park, NJ

Photographed: August 2019 and December 2020

Today's store tour is an accident. Well, let me put it this way. I didn't intend to tour this Kings, nor any other Kings, the day I visited. But I was en route from the ShopRite of Wyckoff to my next stop in Glen Rock, and happened to drive by this location. I don't typically put a lot of time into covering Kings, but I think that might be a mistake since many of their locations have interesting history and their bankruptcy late last year caught me off-guard, reminding me they might not actually be around forever. (On that note, these pictures came from before the ACME acquisition.) This one, for instance, is a former Grand Union-turned-Vitale Foodtown which was acquired by Kings in the mid-1990s when Vitale went under. Having been expanded three times, once on the right and twice on the left, it ends up being around 35,000 square feet, one of the larger Kings locations. It's just about 800 feet, or right around the corner, from a larger ACME that we saw yesterday. One final note before we move into the tour, notice that the main sign has "Kings Food Markets" fully spelled out, something I don't recall seeing at any other store. Most just say "Kings." That said, with the expansions, the store is extremely wide, with this being basically the center but not the entrance. The entrance is all the way at the far end of the store, where the grand aisle is located in the left-side expansion.

The store originally ended where the main facade ends, and you can see the entrance tucked away under the green cart return sign. A small Kings sign is at the far end, which faces out towards Godwin Ave.

Looking across the old Grand Union/Foodtown side of the store. The original store, which still feels like a Foodtown inside, is 21,000 square feet. You enter and turn left to enter the grand aisle, which Kings brands the Market Square.

Floral and deli line the front wall, with packaged deli and coffee on the side wall, and bakery and seafood on the back wall. Cheese and self-service bars make up the center of the Market Square. Oddly, the produce is not in the Market Square, but instead in the last grocery aisle. I'd assume that at one time produce was in the first grocery aisle, which is now lined with more packaged deli and some general grocery. Quite an odd arrangement.

Not too many flowers to be found here in the floral department, but lots of upscale home goods. I wonder if floral has been scaled back since the renovation, or if this is how it was designed. If it has been scaled back, wouldn't it make sense to remove the word "flower" from "Flower Boutique" and leave this area as just the "Boutique"?

Deli is next on the front wall. The store is oriented perpendicular to Godwin Ave, so the wall to the right here actually faces the street. Beautiful floor!

Packaged deli and coffee on the side wall, with service bakery at the back corner. Packaged bakery lines the back wall of the grand aisle expansion.

Seafood and sushi are next along the back of the grand aisle.

A large cheese island takes up much of the middle of the grand aisle. Now, you might expect the first grocery aisle to be produce (and it probably was, in the Grand Union/Foodtown days), but instead we have an odd mix of more packaged deli and some grocery.

Here we can see that this expansion is in fact two previous storefronts, with the original Grand Union starting where the columns are on the right and the second storefront starting where the lower ceiling begins on the left. The grand aisle is beautiful if oddly laid out, but the rest of the store has a very pleasant Foodtown feeling, especially because it hasn't been significantly changed since the Foodtown days.

Meats in the corner where the grand aisle meets the main store, with dairy lining the rest of the back wall.

Hard to tell, but the grocery shelving was probably installed by Kings, not Foodtown.

Customer service in the front corner of the original store. The entrance is just behind the customer service counter to the right. Notice that the grand aisle flooring continues along the front end.

The grocery aisles are very clean for sure.

Kings tends to have a larger selection of HABA than other comparably sized stores.

Dairy on the back wall. These cases look fairly new, so they may have been installed at the time of the latest renovation around 2012.

Warehouse-style shelving for nonfoods in aisle 9, with frozen facing. Frozen also takes up aisle 10, with produce in aisle 11.

Beautiful flooring in the produce aisle.

Oddly, though, there's no produce department signage, just the Kings slogan, "Where inspiration strikes." I like the wood light fixtures hanging over the produce aisle, though! I'd assume the original Grand Union ended where those columns are.

International foods (with a pretty cool make-your-own infused olive oil machine) in the front corner. Because of the area's demographics, nearly all of the international selection is Italian, but there's also some Kosher, Latin, and Asian. This is a very nicely laid out department, and a nice feature to have. My Kings does not have an international department.

Looking back along the front wall towards the grand aisle. I returned, once again kind of by accident, while visiting the nearby ACME and found that the exterior had been painted gray. The below picture is from December 2020...

That wraps up this accidental store tour, and tomorrow we'll be heading over to Ridgewood just to the east to see another store here on The Market Report!