Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001
Previous Tenants: Grand Union
Location: 859 NJ-17, Paramus, NJ
Photographed: November 2019
The Market Report finally arrives at this classic store! I'm going to go a little light on the history here because Acme Style
extensively covered the store back in 2014. I needed to get here to photograph it for myself, but the best part is aside from the removal of the seafood department and a general deterioration of the store... it practically hasn't changed at all since Acme Style covered it! The store, inside and out, is still almost entirely original to Grand Union's 1980s remodel, and has barely been touched by Stop & Shop. Plans call for this store and a neighboring former Kmart to be demolished and replaced by a new 55,000 square foot Stop & Shop. This store has a lot of similarities to the
Wayne ShopRite, as we'll see, but in this instance as well the demolition instead of renovation probably has to do mostly with the facility itself, not the size. The existing store is 38,000 square feet.
Not a fruitbowl in sight in the wonderfully 1980s exterior.
You enter at either end of the glass foyer, with the first aisle being on the right side of the store. Acme Style said they found the store busy back in 2014, with the
new Fairway having just opened in the Fashion Center Mall. Well, it's 2020 (2019 when I visited the store, but same difference), this Stop & Shop was dead, the Fairway has closed, and there's a new kid on the block -- Stew Leonard's, which we're touring in a few days. The massive supermarket powerhouse that is the Glass Gardens-owned
ShopRite of Paramus is, as always, indestructible.
The liquor department is in the front right corner, with produce lining the first aisle (right side wall). Meats line the back wall with dairy, frozen, and a closed seafood department on the left side. Pharmacy and bakery are in the front left corner, with deli in an island in the middle -- just like the Wayne ShopRite. However, in this case, it's actually open to the front-end, meaning it's far more visible.
Stop & Shop acquired Grand Union's liquor license at this location. Interesting mashup of the two previous logos on the banners here, they look homemade!
Notice that the Stop & Shop sign is just fitted into the sign frame of the old Grand Union sign, essentially an older version of what we saw in
Ringwood. Also notice that the Grand Union category markers remain on the front wall here!
A very dingy produce aisle is the first department we see.
Two minor changes here. First, there has been one additional produce case installed at the back of this aisle, where there used to just be sale goods (and long ago, Grand Union's salad bar). Second, the "something special" sign has actually been fixed! Both of these changes can be seen based on Acme Style's
original picture.
The first grocery aisle is labeled aisle 3, presumably counting the double-wide produce aisle as the first two. Grand Union's Pick a Bouquet sign remains!
The deli/cheese island begins at aisle 7.
Cheese faces the back wall, with prepared foods and packaged deli on either side. It's clear this area's selection has been cut back significantly. For instance, the Gourmet Olive Bar we see advertised here seems to be long gone.
Hot food case now only with one rotisserie chicken.
The deli, which faces the front end, is much more inviting than the Wayne ShopRite's. It also looks like these cases might be slightly newer.
Back to the dingy grocery aisles.
There's a lot to see here: a Grand Union-era decor package retrofitted with an early 2000s Stop & Shop decor package with the category markers from the latest decor package.
This shot gives a good idea of how outdated the store is. Even stores like the Wayne ShopRite have been maintained better, but Stop & Shop has not invested in this store at all.
Dairy in aisle 14, frozen in 15 and one side of 16, with closed seafood, bread, and bakery on the other side of 16.
Moving towards the back of aisle 15 we see more homemade-looking signage over "Natural Frozen Foods" to the right.
I don't know why Stop & Shop has so much trouble with service seafood departments. Very few stores have them compared to the other big chains in this area. Even the enormous Union store used to have one but doesn't anymore. At the time of Acme Style's visit, the service cases had been replaced by low self-service cases with packaged seafood. That's all been removed and the area is now used only for sale groceries. However, I could stick my head (and more importantly, my phone) behind these shelves for a look at the former seafood department...
The previous cases are still there, just covered up by the new shelving. Lots of other discarded fixtures from around the rest of the store are stuck back here.
Packaged bread is next along the side wall, with a very small service bakery in the front corner.
The pharmacy on the front wall has been extensively remodeled by Stop & Shop, but much of the rest of the front end remains...
Even the huge light fixture panel over the registers is still intact, although not sporting the original Clean, Fresh, and Good stained glass.
I love how original to Grand Union the front end is!
In the background you can see the deli (red and white tile) facing the registers. The enclosed walkway along the front of the store is now filled with sale items and shopping carts.
I'm glad I got to visit and document this store before it closed for good, it was certainly worth it! Now this store is located all the way at the north end of Paramus, and it'll be a little while before we finish up the stores to the south in town because we're going to take a detour to the east to finish out northeastern Bergen county. Jump over to
Grocery Archaeology tomorrow to check out a former supermarket in the next town over!
You know it's bad when the majority of the shopping carts are older!
ReplyDeleteThe amount of retrofitting makes me think this store wasn't meant to last long. How that store has been able to operate for as long as it has is quite shocking.
Exactly! Especially with Stop & Shop, which as you've mentioned, uses a lot of the newer refurbished Walmart carts. Not too many of those around here.
DeleteI think you're right, because there are a few other stores that were more like this and they were all renovated beyond recognition (Tenafly, Brick) or replaced (Sparta, Clifton). I'm surprised it's taken/taking this long to replace it, and I wonder if Stop & Shop has maybe decided not to go through with the replacement if this store is doing so poorly as it is...?
Pretty cool to see all the relics here, but it is unfortunate they didn't take better care of the store.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely!
DeleteThis is exactly the type of Grand Union I was referring to with the deli as an island in the earlier posting about the ShopRite and how it was set up.
ReplyDeleteI always called it glass front, as with Grand Union (at least up here), the entire front was glass (including where Stop & Shop now has their name on the sloped section).
This must have been an earlier model, as ours were from the early 1990's, and definitely seemed a bit larger (though maybe it just seemed that way). In at least one store of this design in our area, the pharmacy was in the front corner as an angled counter, with short aisles taking up the rest of the corner with the HABA items on those. Not sure if that would have been the case here (would have required bakery to be elsewhere, unless it started without one being a bit older?).
Very interesting addition, so thanks! I'm thinking maybe if that's the case with the original layout, would it be possible the bakery was originally in that strange alcove where the bread is now? That would mean service bakery and service seafood were on the same wall right next to each other, which seems to make more sense than the two counters being separated by a random bread department -- since I haven't seen this setup with bread on an outside wall in any other Stop & Shop. And I'm sure that you're right that this was an earlier model; don't forget that at the time this store was built GU's corporate offices were very nearby in Wayne, so they would probably have been doing the experimenting with new models on their home turf, then perfecting it and bringing it out to their other regions.
DeleteCould be any of a number of things.
ReplyDeleteCould be the idea of the bakery in the packaged section.
Might be that it wasn't at all.
Even the pharmacy might or might not have existed (we had GU stores with one and others without).
Is there any way to tell that the seafood was in that spot with GU (it is tiled, but not sure if the tan color goes with them)? Our local one (which was a later model than this - probably one of the few late 1990's stores) had the meat and seafood cases side by side (and later they cut costs by combining the two into one section and leaving the other empty).
Could it possibly have been that the sales area ended where the darker color floor is and the rest was "behind the walls" and S&S opened it up for a bit more room in a small store? Or even GU at some point?
Also seems likely that if this store is older (as you mention the 1980's remodel, not that it was a new build in the 1980's) that anything is possible as it wouldn't necessarily conform fully to any "new store" design, having to work within an existing space.
Yes, looking at Historic Aerials it looks like the renovation happened some time between 1979 and 1987. And I do think the flooring is original, since all of the perimeter has that darker flooring. However, you might be onto something because the other perimeters seem to extend farther out into the sales floor ... is it possible that there was once another aisle there? In other words, there were no service departments in that last section but the last aisle actually ran along the perimeter wall and that section was pulled in at some point? Complete and total speculation, but that's a sure possibility I think.
DeleteWould also make sense as it seems that seafood and a bakery would be the types of service items that wouldn't have been common prior to the time of remodels. Also you have to figure that the deli was somewhere else originally (as the island was a new thing with this style), so perhaps that was the "corner deli" and then the breads just along the wall on straight shelving, not the inset section... or even dairy on that side as is common in many stores (though I remember the idea of having it in a couple aisles being common in this style so another possible move).
ReplyDeleteMaybe even both (dairy on the outside wall with breads facing).
Also - having glanced at the original Acme post, I was surprised to see that Grand Union also had their name where Stop & Shop does - most of the stores here had it up top, under those curved lights. Maybe something they tried and changed later, or just something odd to the area (there are strange rules some places on signs).
Ooh, that's a very good point.
DeleteWord on the street is the property has been sold, thus this S&S will be closing this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks for passing that on!
DeleteClosing date is Jan 13
Deletethat was a good desine colour and also good things
ReplyDeletethis dump is finally closing
ReplyDeleteI remember the GU renovation here around 1986. Over the registers in the middle of the lights area was a long triangular directory with items and their aisles. In the glass area there was nothing but three wooden kids things to sit on (like a horse). Other than that very much the same today as you describe!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memories!
DeleteI thought the closing here was all in preparation for a replacement store on the same property. I now see that is not happening. Stop and Shop is gone from this property for good. Too bad.
ReplyDeleteI think those plans were canceled, but I don't entirely know why. It is too bad, and it means these very large spaces are now completely abandoned. I mean, Paramus is so packed full of retail I'm sure they won't stay empty long, but it's still a shame.
DeleteI miss it Terribly.
ReplyDelete