Update: SuperFresh - Paterson, NJ

SuperFresh

Owner: Willie Park

Opened: 2016

Previous Tenants: A&P > Food Basics > Farmboy Country Market > Farmboy SuperFresh

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 465 Getty Ave, Paterson, NJ

Photographed: February 2021

Okay, folks. Let's see if Blogger is going to be nice to me today. It's our final day of Bergen & Passaic Counties, and we have a few final stores to update or revisit. And if everything publishes the way it should, this should be the first store to appear on The Market Report, with the next stores being Food Fair and Food Universe here in Paterson, along with SuperFresh up in Glen Rock. There's also a Special Report over at The Independent Edition of the newly opened Green Way Markets.

So let's discuss this store. For a piece of totally useless trivia, it's the southernmost supermarket within the city limits of Paterson, with the Clifton border being just a block or two to the south. It's also located just next door to the former A&P headquarters (now home to the Paterson Board of Education), which also at one time held an A&P supermarket. This store was built in the 70s to replace that one, but was later converted to discount banner Food Basics. In the 2015-16 bankruptcy, the store was purchased by Queens-based Farmboy Country Market and branded as such, later becoming the first SuperFresh under co-branding. We toured the store when the renovation was still in progress in 2017, and the remodel included replacement of some of the decor and addition of service deli, halal meat, seafood, and meat departments. And then we revisited the store in 2018. At some point in late 2020, this store and Bloomfield (a SuperFresh Food World) both dropped their co-branding, becoming just SuperFresh. Today, only Belleville -- which we'll be touring soon -- remains as a co-branded SuperFresh Food World. I am unsure whether that switch was the result of a change in ownership at these two stores, but I can confirm that the switch here in Paterson also brought an interior renovation. Let's remember that this is just three years after the completion of the latest remodel. All of that beautiful, brand-new decor was removed but so was all of the remaining Food Basics decor. I checked in on the progress at this 35,000 square foot store in late February 2021 to find the renovation in full swing, and the last step of new decor to be installed the only thing that hadn't happened yet. I want to mention briefly before we head in that I do believe SuperFresh is finally catching on, after an initial rocky start with several failed stores and some branding stumbles (like the co-branded SuperFresh Food World and Farmboy SuperFresh locations). All of the SuperFresh stores I've visited lately have been looking really good, and they for the most part seem to be fairly busy. This one was not particularly busy, but I was also here at an unusual time.

The interior is a totally different experience from how it used to be. Gone are the piles of cheap merchandise and random sale displays everywhere. The interior, especially the grand aisle here, has been extensively cleaned up and streamlined with all new fixtures. As we can see here, the old tile flooring has been scraped up and the concrete underneath has been nicely finished. The ceiling and walls have been painted. The new experience is much higher-end, but it certainly removes some of the charm of the treasure-hunt atmosphere of the previous iteration of the store.

The new positioning might simply be a refresh of an older store but it may also be a recalibration of the store's identity as the neighborhood (and all of Paterson, actually) begins to gentrify.

While for the sake of historical preservation, I'm sad to see the Food Basics decor go (I believe this was the last store with it still intact), I certainly don't miss it with the new appearance of the store. I do hope there's some really awesome decor to go along with the new look.

Halal butcher on the side wall of the store. The former deli counter just to the left of this, which remember was only installed in 2017, has been turned into a Middle Eastern-style bakery department which was still in progress at the time of my visit. I don't seem to have gotten a picture of it, but there's a much larger selection of halal packaged meat in cases opposite from this counter than there previously was.

Seafood looks pretty much the same as it did previously, tucked away in the back corner here. The regular (non-halal) butcher counter has been upgraded with all new cases and a much larger selection.

The butcher counter takes up the corner here. This section was previously covered up for the backroom, with the service counter only taking up the front part. You can also see to the far left the halal display island, which is newly installed. The packaged meat previously lined the cases on the first grocery aisle, but that has been switched over to sale displays which you can see a few pictures back. Packaged meats now line the back wall, where dairy previously was, and dairy has been moved into the second-to-last grocery aisle. A lot of reshuffling has gone on in the rest of the store, with liquor being moved out of aisle 1 and to the front wall of the store beyond the checkouts; the customer service counter being moved back into the former floral department; and the frozen foods being condensed into just the last aisle and the former ice cream alcove being repurposed for the new deli/prepared foods department.

I believe, although I'm not entirely sure, that the grocery aisles have been shortened to accommodate these new meat cases along the back wall. It also seems likely that these cases are simply moved over from where the meat previously was as they do not appear to be new cases.

As we can see, the new appearance of the store throughout is much more modern and streamlined than it used to be. Let's check out some of the grocery aisles...

The grocery aisles are absurdly clean and well-stocked! We can also see that they've actually replaced all the grocery shelving, getting rid of the warehouse style shelving that Food Basics had installed. I'll say it again, the new appearance really changes the store's positioning from "value warehouse" to a much higher-end experience, which of course is both good and bad. (From a few spot-checks, it seems that the prices are around the same as what they used to be, though.)

Definitely a very different look from the previous grocery aisle setup.

It seems that, since the grocery aisles were shortened in the back, the former seasonal/sale area in the front was removed and the grocery aisles now extend through that section. That's why we have the random SuperFresh sign hanging in the middle of this aisle -- that would've been installed directly over one of the sale displays. Also notice that, inside, all of the remaining signage still has the Farmboy branding (for now, at least), and the circular also advertises the store as Farmboy SuperFresh. Those are relatively minor inconsistencies, though.

Nonfoods looking as sharp as ever.

A perfectly-stocked dairy department takes up the second-to-last aisle. One light burnt out up there -- I think because of how great the rest of the store looks, we can let that one slide.

Frozen foods in older but repainted cases takes up the last aisle, aisle 11. At the front of aisles 10 and 11 is the new deli department, which also has baked goods, a seating area, and an impressive prepared foods department even complete with a hot food bar and pizza oven.

This corner is looking great and very up-to-date! The front end is also looking especially good with the new paint job on the walls and ceiling, and the new floor...

A great overview shot to wrap up our update! Now, make sure to check out the other stores today I linked above, along with our Essex County group starting tomorrow!