TOUR: ShopRite - Union, NJ

ShopRite of Union

Owner: Robert Sumas / Village Super Market

Opened: 2014

Previous Tenants: Pathmark

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 2401 US-22, Union, NJ

Photographed: March & May 2019

Today we're touring the 62,000 square foot Village ShopRite of Union! Though it's newer than Livingston or West Orange, it's actually slightly smaller, which you can definitely feel inside. I believe this store was the third Village to open with this brand-new decor package -- and man was it impressive when it first opened. The grand aisle includes all the usual features along with multiple different prepared foods bars, sushi, soup, sandwiches, and even store-made barbecue. This is a store I know not to visit at peak times because it's simply too crowded. My 2019 visits were both at unusual times, so we'll see it not too crowded.

The layout is a bit unusual because it's divided into two separate rooms. The grand aisle is in the first room, with produce on the right side, bakery on the back wall, and deli/seafood on the left side. Prepared foods, coffee shop, cafe, and pharmacy are on the front wall. There's then a single walkway at the front of the store to the next room, which is the main grocery store. Meat lines the back wall, with dairy and frozen at the far left side. Floral is in the front left corner.

Despite the somewhat odd layout, the interior design is spectacular. All of the decor and fixtures are top-notch. Nothing is left over from Pathmark. Or is it? Check out that shopping cart. Actually, there's a long saga behind this store's shopping carts. The store opened with a beautiful, brand new set of oddly small metal carts which vanished around 2016, when they brought in a used set of blue Technibilt Renaissance carts from the Elizabeth Pathmark (now Food Bazaar), complete with their aisle directories and Pathmark logos. Over time, this fleet had the aisle directories removed and the Pathmark logos scratched out, which we can see here. By the end of 2019, all of the 2014-era metal carts and the 2016-era Pathmark carts were gone, replaced by a set of new black and gray ShopRite Technibilt Renaissance carts.

Looking across the grand aisle towards produce, with the front wall to the right. What a beautiful floor!

Prepared foods in the front of the store.

Looking across the grand aisle from the front left corner.

Bakery at the back of the grand aisle. The decor here is nice, but a little busy. This was toned down for later remodels.

The seafood and deli decor, however, is amazing! One of the ways you can tell this store is on the smaller side is the very small size of these service departments. Grocery aisles begin behind these service counters to the left.

First grocery aisle looking great. The deli and seafood counters are on the other side of this wall.

And the meat department looks amazing with matching aisle markers!

Simple but very attractive service butcher on the back wall.

Gorgeous health and beauty department in the first few aisles with pharmacy on the front wall.

The grocery aisles actually have category markers, which we can see here, with little icons for each department that match the aisle markers. Looks great!

Both of my pictures of the freezer aisles came out as duds, so we're going to have to just live with this. But I've said it before and I'll say it again, best milk signage in any supermarket. Period.

The dairy department, which lines the outside wall, promotes the Wakefern-owned Readington Farms, where all storebrand milk, dairy, eggs, and poultry sold in Wakefern stores come from. US-22, in fact, will take you right to Readington if you head about 30 miles west of this store.

Beautiful floral department in the front corner.

A few things to notice here on the front end. First, the icons I mentioned on the aisle markers are visible here. Second, notice that this is in fact an early version of the decor package which did not include the updated checkout lane markers. And finally, notice the specific reference to the Sumas family, something we hadn't seen in earlier decor packages (such as this, this, or this). Looking good -- and I like the green! In late 2018, a brand new supermarket opened just 300 feet behind this store. I've been to both since the new store opened, and let's just say one store is really suffering -- and the other is a ShopRite. Come back tomorrow to tour the Union LIDL!