TOUR: Stop & Shop - Ridgewood, NJ

Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001

Previous Tenants: Grand Union

Location: 175 Franklin Ave, Ridgewood, NJ

Photographed: December 2020

Our first of two supermarkets here in Ridgewood is the Stop & Shop, built probably in the 70s as a Grand Union. Indications are that despite the store's cramped downtown location and small size at just 38,000 square feet, it's still a very profitable location because of the money that's been put into it. There's even a second floor (where the windows are on the right) that has a liquor department, which appears to be an outside business, and a pharmacy department. Interesting placement and combination. We enter to the grand aisle, with bakery in the front right corner and produce lining the rest of the first aisle. Deli and seafood are at the back of the grand aisle, with meats lining the rest of the back wall. Dairy and frozen are at the far side of the store.

Notice the upgrades that Stop & Shop has done to the place, not only with the second-newest decor package but the curved ceiling over produce, an upgrade from the Super Stop & Shop remodel probably soon after they took over from Grand Union.

Tiny bakery counter in the front corner. I couldn't tell whether they bake in-store, but if they do, the bakery would have to be in the basement. There's clearly no baking equipment here on the sales floor.

Deli in the back right corner, which seems to have half of its lights out. Unfortunately, seafood also seems to suffer from the same issue...

Sorry for the picture. It's very unusual at least for me to see an older Stop & Shop like this that still has a functional seafood counter. Most of them have closed the service seafood.

Meats line the rest of the back wall.

Nature's Promise natural foods aisle is up first, with signage hanging over the back of the produce cases.

A quick glance at the front end, with signage for the pharmacy here. Actually, you have to go back to the bakery counter where there's a staircase up and an elevator. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any pictures on the second floor, but you can see it just above the blue pharmacy sign.

Clean but boring grocery aisles. I find that, both in terms of appearance and product selection, Stop & Shop has some of the weakest center stores in the area.

Weirdly, no department signage over the butcher counter here, but I do love the fact that the arches from the front windows, a Grand Union touch, are carried over into this department's design. It's a great look.

Aisle 12 is frozen foods, with dairy and nonfoods in aisle 13, the last aisle.

I do like these aisle markers, I think they're attractive and easy to read. But I actually like the next newest decor package's aisle markers better, which we'll see in a little bit.

Back on the front end, we can see the second floor liquor store with its window above the "Check It" sign.

Customer service is just out of frame to the right on the front wall. Clearly, this store despite its small size, has been heavily invested in and nicely updated. It's possibly because there's a Whole Foods on the other side of the downtown -- or that there's another supermarket just 500 feet away. Come back tomorrow to check it out!