TOUR: Stop & Shop - West Caldwell, NJ

Stop & Shop

Opened: 2009

Previous Tenants: Stop & Shop > Kings

Location: 875 Bloomfield Ave, West Caldwell, NJ

Photographed: May and December 2020

Bloomfield Avenue, or County Route 506, is a major thoroughfare through Essex County, originating to the west at US-46 on the Pine Brook (Morris County)/West Caldwell (Essex County) border, then passing through West Caldwell, Caldwell, Verona, Montclair, Bloomfield, Belleville, and Newark before finally spilling into Broadway just north of downtown Newark. We're beginning at the west end, just to the west of its intersection with Passaic Avenue/CR-613. We'll be spending a lot of time at that corner over the next few days. Today's store was built as a 30,000 square foot Stop & Shop with an attached Medimart pharmacy in the 1970s before being sold to local chain Kings Food Markets in the 1980s when Stop & Shop pulled out of New Jersey for the first time. This was one of five stores sold, and the others are Hillsdale, Garwood, Millburn, and Parsippany, which was later closed. However, the property was still owned by Stop & Shop. Stop & Shop decided not to renew Kings' lease in 2009, when they moved back into the space, expanding it in two directions to reach a total of approximately 58,000 square feet. Although it's a large store, it's very wide and shallow, so it feels a little smaller than it is. A garbage can from the store's early days as a Stop & Shop remains on the property.

That first exterior picture comes from my first drive-by picture back in May of 2020, but I returned for full interior pictures in December of the same year. The main entrance is on the left, where we enter to produce on the right side of the grand aisle with deli and bakery on the left side. Seafood, meat, and dairy line the back wall with frozen foods in the last two and a half aisles, with a natural foods department and a floral department in the front right corner. This store does not have a pharmacy.

I was just thinking about how many of Stop & Shop's carts are refurbished Walmart carts when I made this lucky find in the parking lot!

Now jumping into the extremely plain interior. The sameness of all the colors is overwhelming. That said, some stores with this decor package (which was installed by Stop & Shop when they moved back in in 2009) had their walls painted white, which brightens up the space but really doesn't work design-wise -- see Kingsbridge.

Prepared foods in the front corner, with deli in the middle and bakery at the back of the grand aisle.

This decor package has to be one of the weakest among big-chain supermarkets in the last 15 years, right? It's just all the same color and, to be honest, pretty ugly on its own. That said, it's been nicely maintained in this store 12 years after opening.

Bakery is the last department along the side wall of the store. Packaged cold cuts and meat are at the back of the grand aisle. Since the store is so wide, the entire meat department and the entire dairy department are both on the back wall.

Looking across the back wall of the store, you can really get a sense of just how wide the store is. But it's not a gigantic store, since the aisles are very short. Also, that's a great place for the stock cart of boxes...

...actually, I guess it would only be a problem if the counter were actually staffed. That said, this is an uncommon sight in a Stop & Shop -- a fully stocked service seafood counter. Most have switched over to just self-service packaged items.

Here we can see frozen meat and dairy on the back wall. Like many Stop & Shops, this store has a large nonfoods department at the far end of the store. It seemed to be undergoing a reset at the time of my visit...

Aisles 21 and 22 are health and beauty.

As I said, the store was expanded by Stop & Shop, and these last few aisles under a lower ceiling were definitely the expansion on this end.

The whole store feels a little dingy, but this corner is definitely the dimmest place in the store. It looks like the milk coolers aren't lit, but shouldn't they be?

Aisle 23 has one side of frozen foods, with 24 and 25 being frozen on both sides. That's not as large a section as it sounds, since the aisles are pretty short.

Moving into the front corner, we find the Nature's Promise-branded natural section, definitely the nicest part of the store.

Floral is just on the other side of the entrance/exit on this end of the store.

And wrapping up with a look across the front-end...

Up next we'll be taking a look at the three (!!) other current and former supermarkets at the intersection of Bloomfield and Passaic Avenues here in West Caldwell, with the first being just a quarter of a mile east on Grocery Archaeology tomorrow!