TOUR: Stop & Shop - The Heights, Jersey City, NJ

Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001

Previous Tenants: Safeway (1950s-1962) > Finast (1962-1995) > Edwards (1995-2001)

Location: 232 Central Ave, The Heights, Jersey City, NJ

Photographed: December 2020

Our final store here on Central Avenue is this Stop & Shop! (Make sure to check out today's other post of a small grocery store in the next block north here.) As for some background on this store, it was built in the 40s or 50s as a Safeway, which became a Finast, which became an Edwards, which became a Stop & Shop. JoshAustin610 gives us that history insight, and also says that this is one of the longest-running supermarkets in the area.

At just shy of 20,000 square feet, this store is one of the smallest Stop & Shops still operating. It's the first of three tiny NJ locations we'll be seeing, and all of them retain their early 2000s "Super Stop & Shop" decor. This is a crazy example where the Supremo Food Market -- four blocks east, which we'll be seeing tomorrow -- is actually about 6,000 square feet larger than this Stop & Shop. Stop & Shop appears to have been interested in relocating the store to a larger location on a property that eventually became a school on Jefferson Avenue about half a mile to the south. It's worth noting that another former Safeway (later Twin City), at 253 Ocean Ave here in Jersey City, was demolished for a school.

My apologies for the pictures. The store is tiny and cramped, and was packed with people at the time of my visit. But we still get a good idea of the store, with produce lining both sides of the first aisle, meat on the back wall, and frozen/dairy in the last aisle with baked goods in the front corner. Unlike the other two tiny NJ Stop & Shops, which were both former Mayfair Foodtowns, this store has produce in the first aisle and meat on the back wall (that's switched in the former Mayfair stores).

I really like the hanging panels on the right. I must say, this decor package actually works very well in this small space. We saw a variation on this same decor package in the Paramus location.

The newest thing we're seeing is the decor, which would've been installed when Stop & Shop took over in 2001. The cases and other fixtures almost definitely are older than that, perhaps dating to Edwards' opening, and I wouldn't be surprised if the flooring and maybe lighting dates back to the Finast days.

We can see the aging floor and shelving clearly here. But hey, at least it's clean and all the lights work! As we'll see, though, the Supremo is definitely the nicer of the two stores.

Dairy (and yes, it does have decor, it's just too low to be seen from this aisle) lining the outside wall of the store, and we can see that some of the cases seem to be leaking, as is common in older stores. Frozen lines the cases facing.

No in-store bakery, but we do have a small corner for bread and packaged baked goods in the front here.

Here we can see the dairy decor. And can we take a second to appreciate what a random assortment of stuff is on that aisle marker? No mention of anything relating to dairy at all, and all the kitchenware is just hanging above the coolers, there's no dedicated section for it.

A look across the front-end before we head out! This is a wonderful classic store that's not to be missed for supermarket history fans -- but simply too cramped and outdated for pleasant shopping on a regular basis. That's left to Supremo a few blocks east, which we'll be touring right here tomorrow!