TOUR: ShopRite - Emerson, NJ

ShopRite of Emerson

Owner: Inserra Supermarkets

Opened: 1981

Previous Tenants: Valley Fair department store

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 425 Old Hook Rd, Emerson, NJ

Photographed: December 2020

Our next store tour is this ShopRite here in Emerson! It opened in 1981 in a former Valley Fair department store as a replacement for the Westwood location. It was remodeled around 2010 (outside at least, I'm assuming the interior remodel was completed around the same time). Take a look at what the exterior used to look like here. 

Despite its updates, the 53,000 square foot store feels sorely outdated because of its facility. Many of the fixtures seem to not have been updated since the store opened in 1981, the ceilings are very low, and the layout is just plain weird. An entrance at the right side of the store takes us into the pharmacy, with a Snack Center to the right on the front wall. Soda and water line the first aisle, with deli tucked away in the back of the first aisle. Meats line the rest of the back wall, with seafood and dairy in the back left corner. Produce runs right up the center of the store, with 10 aisles to the right and 10 to the left. A nice symmetrical setup -- except for the fact that the entrance puts you into about aisle 5, so the produce and deli departments are inaccessible from the entrance. Frozen and dairy are on the far left side of the store, with bakery in the front left corner. In other words, it's a layout that probably looked good on paper but just doesn't work in this space.

Pharmacy and Wellness Center on the front wall immediately to the right of the entrance.

And the Snack Center is just next to it. This corner felt very awkward, but I do think it was intended for this use.

So unlike most Inserras of this time, this store's first aisle is just an average grocery aisle. Great retro mirrored shelving, though.

Cheese and deli in the back right corner of the store. I didn't get a closeup, but one of the signs that the store is beginning to reach the end of its life is that the deli has been cut back to about half the size. Notice the chip displays covering the right half of the service counter.

The meat department also seems to be smaller than it used to be, with frozen meat in the freezer cases to the right here (and continuing into the deli department, as we can see in the previous picture), then deli items and prepared produce in the next case, then fresh meat after that.

Groceries in aisles 1-6, with nonfoods and HABA in 7-9.

Produce takes up aisle 10.

The produce fixtures in the center are clearly quite old, probably original to the store. In fact, I was surprised to see them still in use. The cases lining the sides of the aisle may be just as old but have been painted.

Since produce does not line an exterior wall, the decor has been converted to hanging signage.

Some random produce and deli items visible here at the end of the meat department. This is actually a very rare state of deterioration for a ShopRite. It's still a completely functional supermarket and seems to do a pretty good business, but clearly in decline.

Seafood and sushi are up next along the back wall, and once again both departments have been cut back. We can see some of the seafood is empty and covered up, while the sushi department no longer makes sushi in-store. The selection has been cut back and more packaged items are in the display.

Dairy begins in this alcove in the back (maybe originally part of the department store's backroom space?). Frozen lines aisles 18 and 19...

Older blue freezer cases on the outsides of the aisles, with the center row having been replaced. I'd assume they were originally coffin cases.

Second freezer aisle. Aisle 20 is paper products, with dairy on the outside of aisle 21.

Up next in the front corner is the bakery, which also has been scaled back. I don't know if the departments were all simply built to be too large or if the store's business really has declined that much since it opened. Former service cases facing into the store have had their front glass panels removed to convert them to self-service...

Notice that the stock in these cases, also, is mostly not store-baked but packaged from elsewhere. There are, however, still two cases on the side of the counter with service baked goods.

Like I said, I don't know if the store's business has declined but it sure seemed busy to me at the time of my visit. Customer service, like in most Inserras, is in an island facing the registers.

That's all for the Emerson ShopRite! Up next we have our final three stops in Paramus, starting with a store over on The Independent Edition!