Kings Food Markets
Opened: 1942-2020
Previous Tenants: none
Later Tenants: none
Location: 159 Maplewood Ave, Maplewood, NJ
Photographed: November and December 2020
Contributor: Laura (closed store photos)
This has to be one of the longest continuously operating supermarkets in New Jersey. Clearly this tiny, 7600 square foot store is one of the very early Kings Food Markets, and almost identical to the former location at 461 Passaic St in Hackensack (just in mirror). I captured the store in its final days in business back in November 2020 the day store closing signage went up at this store, Gillette, and Hoboken River Street. ACME Markets agreed to buy 19 of the 25 Kings stores, as I've mentioned, and this wonderful but tiny location was not in the agreement. My two-part farewell tour for Kings included this as the last stop in the first day. The store officially closed December 5, 2020.
The store in its third-to-last week of operation was looking a bit more raggedy on the outside than it did back in 2018, when we last stopped by here, but the inside was looking as good as ever. This was a few days before the store closing liquidation actually started, so we won't see any signs of closing inside except...
The Short Hills (Millburn) store listed was one of the locations purchased by ACME. Take a look at it here. We enter to produce in the first aisle, which runs along the front wall of the store. Frozen runs along the left side of the store, with deli in the back left corner and meat in the back right corner. Dairy takes up about half of the right side wall with checkouts in the front half. Grocery aisles run parallel to the front of the store. Like Summit, the decor package is beautifully scaled down here...
Tiny but complete! Notice that although this store is quite old (1942, to be exact), we see basically nothing old here. No relics to be found! The fixtures were purchased by ACME.
Even the usual suspects -- lighting, doors/foyer, and so on -- seem to have been updated.
Moving into the left side of the store, we find a freezer aisle that can't be more than about four feet wide.
But the cases and decor are very nicely updated! Notice that the flooring transitions into carpet after the first aisle.
The grocery aisles are incredibly short. I'm seeing some stock thinning out in chips, but it's hard to tell whether that was the store winding down for closure or just normal stock levels at the end of Thanksgiving week.
Looking back up towards the front of the store in the freezer aisle. It is and always has been a very attractive store, just tiny and low-volume!
Deli in the back corner. Notice that in the scaling-down of the decor, the text was lost naming the departments. Instead, we rely on just pictures to navigate.
Deli/cheese corner in the back with wood flooring again.
One thing's for sure. In many of the larger Kings, the walls were very empty because there wasn't a lot of decor up there. There's plenty of decor on the walls here, even with no text!
Aisle 8 is the last grocery aisle, with half of it opening up to the deli corner. In the other corner, behind the tea here, is the meat department.
Awesome compact selections here.
Meat and dairy in the back of the right side aisle.
Looking towards the back wall of the store above. All of the fixtures were probably brand new in the 2012-14 or so remodel.
You can see just how tiny the front-end area is here. Now jumping back to the first aisle for an overview of the front-end. (Normally, when I say "jumping" across a store it would be thoroughly impossible. Here, you might actually be able to do it if you get a running start.)
I am so glad to have gotten the full tour of this store before it closed! It remains to be seen what will happen with this space (and to be fair, I'm writing this back in November 2020 the day after I visited, so whatever will happen probably already has happened by the time you're reading this). But here I come in early February 2021 to update this post with some pictures coming to us courtesy of a contributor who sent in a few shots of the store closed and beginning to be cleaned out. ACME purchased some of the fixtures from this store, probably to replace older ones at other locations.
I would love to report that another operator has moved into this space, but so far no one has indicated any interest. We'll keep an eye on this, though. ACME might not have bought this store, but they did once have a location in Maplewood. Check it out tomorrow on Grocery Archaeology!
UPDATE: So despite the fact that I've lived in Livingston, Union, Elizabeth, and Summit, I have just found out that apparently Maplewood is in Essex, not Union, county. Whoops.
Who will take over this location?
ReplyDeleteThe store wasn't sold, so nobody yet.
DeleteThat different Kings logo on the "we will be closed for inventory" sign is quite interesting. Was that a relatively short-lived logo used just prior to the chain's sale to ACME? If so -- has ACME continued using it, or have they stuck with the more prevalent and recognizable whisk logo? There's definitely something to be said about the latter approach, especially when remaining readily and easily identifiable after a big ownership change is concerned. A similar example I can think of is the Goody's logo before and after the sale to Stage Stores.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that ACME purchased some fixtures from this store despite not assuming its lease. Don't get me wrong, I like the reuse strategy, it just seems a little unusual since a lot of stores are wasteful and seem to replace a whole bunch of stuff when takeover events like this take place.
I very much agree with you about the décor! Funny how this store has so much more on the walls (in terms of lack of empty space, at least) compared to the larger Kings -- even with no text. In fact, I don't miss the script/cursive-like font at all... and those framed pictures look great (I especially love the way the frames add dimension). Using just images and no text reminds me of A&P.
Finally, nice contributor photos of the closed store!
Lots of stuff to talk about here, so I'm going to go through each point you bring up...
DeleteIt is indeed an interesting logo. It was adopted by Kings between December 2019 and January 2020, KB US Holdings declared bankruptcy in August 2020, ACME submits a bid in October 2020, the sale closes on January 23, 2021. So it predates the bankruptcy and the ACME acquisition, but only by a few months to a year. The Balducci's logo was also refreshed around the same time, transitioning from the first to the second logos linked below:
http://ryeridgeshoppingcenter.com/leads/balduccis-food-lovers-market/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balducci%27s#/media/File:Balducci's_Circular_Logo_oxblood.png
Interestingly, Kings never actually put the new logo on any stores -- even the store(s?) renovated in the post-logo change, pre-ACME period. Verona was remodeled around July/August 2020, with almost no real changes, but some signage that matches the new, blue logo.
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2021/03/tour-kings-food-markets-verona-nj.html
Now you have to remember that, at the time of the 2019-2020 logo change, there were still some Kings stores out there that were never renovated with the Inspiration Strikes campaign 2012-2019 (Bernardsville, Hoboken River Street). So at some very late point but before the bankruptcy declaration, a remodel started at Bernardsville -- a strictly cosmetic one, to be sure, the fixtures were ancient right up until the end -- but was stopped midway through since the store was not included in the purchase deal (neither the original stalking horse bid by TLI Bedrock, nor the eventual winning bid by ACME). So that store had bright blue walls but no other decor, the 2012-2019 logo on the outside, and even the pre-2012 logo remaining in some places inside.
ACME is continuing to use the updated Kings and Balducci's logos for everything but the physical plant, where all the signage is still the 2012-19 (whisk) logo. The single exception to this is that some stores have received very simple updates with things like new aisle markers, but all of that was done in the pre-ACME, pre-bankruptcy period.
It seems to me, although I couldn't be sure, that ACME is using the secondhand fixtures not for actual installation in the stores, but as temporary fixtures sent store-to-store for major remodels. I know in my ACME, all the freezers and most of the other cases throughout were replaced so there was a transition period between the time of removing the old cases and installing the new cases, during which time we got cases from the closed Balducci's in Reston, VA (complete with Balducci's stickers still on them). I've yet to see the fixtures appear in any of the ACMEs permanently, even in the oldest stores.
Yeah, this decor package definitely works well in the smaller space. I'm still trying to figure out who's behind the decor package, since there are definitely elements of DY Design throughout (I think I mentioned this back on the Hoboken post, with the matching text and tile designs with Supremo). But man, I'd be really surprised if a decor package this bland came from DY Design, whose portfolio includes The Food Emporium at Howard Beach, CitiGrocer in Elizabeth, Cherry Valley Gun Hill, and many more...
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/04/tour-food-emporium-howard-beach-ny.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2019/08/tour-citigrocer-elizabeth-nj.html
https://www.marketreportblog.com/2019/01/tour-cherry-valley-marketplace.html
Well, that's probably the longest comment I've ever written! But I hope that addresses some of your questions, and some of it honestly I just wrote out to help me think. I hope it makes sense...
Thanks for all that great insight! So it sounds like the new logo does indeed remain the current one after all, which is actually kind of surprising to me (but in a good way). I checked their website and saw that the entire branding there seems to be based around the new logo too, and it all looks quite nice. Hopefully later on down the line ACME will get around to refreshing the storefronts and interior décor packages to better reflect the new branding.
DeleteIt's a shame that we'll never see the result of that Bernardsville remodel, as I'm curious to know what Kings and their designers envisioned this new décor as... because I imagine getting ACME involved will feel a lot more corporate. (Not that, as you said, the previous "Where Inspiration Strikes" package was all that special, what with how bland it is. But you know what I'm trying to say.)
As for the fixtures, thanks for the input there -- that makes sense. I wonder if Kroger does something similar; I've seen them transfer old cases from one store that gets new cases to another remodeling store with even older cases that need replacing. But I don't know that I've ever seen any temporary cases in action.
No worries about the length of the comment -- like I said, the information is appreciated! Sorry for the late reply as well...
Yeah, I think ACME's remodels will look more like what we see in other Albertsons banners. That may make it less unique, but it'll make it more attractive. I want to kind of track what I see Albertsons doing elsewhere... in the parallel store brands, we typically see a Quality Built variation in the mainstream one and a more variable one in the specialized one. Check out California's mainstream Vons, which seems to use Lifestyle variations, and upscale Pavilions, which has been using this decor package: https://agigc.com/portfolios/p20899-pavilions-laguna-beach-ca/ Or Massachusetts' mainstream Shaw's, which uses a Quality Built-type decor package, and the urban and higher-end Star Market, which lately has been using the same decor package as Pavilions (but used a custom-type decor package previously, loosely based on a combination of Lifestyle and Quality Built). So if ACME is consistently using Quality Built (and they still are, for sure), it stands to reason Kings is gonna get that Pavilions decor package or else some completely custom decor. But that all remains to be seen. Let me just say to anyone who might be reading... if ACME brings that Pavilions decor package into Kings, I will most certainly NOT be disappointed.
DeleteI'm so behind in replying to this comment that by now you've already explained all this stuff in a full-blown post, but still, it's all definitely a very good analysis -- and further proof that hopefully, the corporate package that the Kings stores do wind up getting will be something really cool-looking, like the linked Pavilions package! I definitely second what you said, for anyone who is reading this :P
DeleteJust a FYI- the Maplewood store is actually 11,700 SF. All of the backroom, (offices, Freezers, organic prep, storage) is at a full height basement level. It was built in 1928 and was an A&P in the early days. The rack system is actually in a room on the roof.
ReplyDeleteThe property was just sold and GreenWay Markets is taking it over.
DeleteThanks to both commenters here! I wasn't aware there was a basement here, although it certainly makes sense. Also was very much not aware that this store was ever an A&P but again, that makes sense! It definitely has the look of a Kings and not so much an A&P, so I assume Kings remodeled it at some point -- unless the similar stores like Hackensack were also A&Ps previously...?
DeleteAs for the Green Way Markets news... that's great! I now see a post from two days ago on Facebook announcing the same thing. I'm hoping to get to the store tomorrow so I'll grab some pictures!