TOUR: The Fresh Grocer - Colonia, NJ

The Fresh Grocer of Colonia
Owner: David Maniaci / Nicholas Markets

Opened: 2020

Previous Tenants: Stop & Shop > Circus Foodtown > Nicholas Foodtown

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 510 Inman Ave, Colonia, NJ

Photographed: June 2020 and July 2021

The fourth and final Nicholas Markets store that we haven't seen yet is here in Woodbridge, in the Colonia section. We've previously seen their Washington, North Haledon, and Cedar Grove locations in their Foodtown and Fresh Grocer incarnations. Unfortunately, I didn't get to photograph this store before its conversion to The Fresh Grocer, but this was the first Nicholas Markets store to convert back in February.

Nicholas Markets acquired this store in 2015 from Food Circus (later Circus Fresh Foods), which owns other Foodtown stores to the south, in Monmouth and Ocean counties. They've been struggling for many years now, as has Foodtown in New Jersey in general, but some stores are still hanging on. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it might be that Food King, a different Foodtown operator, bought the store from Stop & Shop in the mid-80s, and that chain was then purchased by Circus.

The 25,000 square foot store is by far in the roughest shape of all the Nicholas Markets stores. It was not remodeled when ownership changed back in 2015, and it's very much showing its age. It remained with its Food Circus decor at the time of my visit but we'll see some places where a remodel was beginning back in June of 2020. We'll also get to tour the store during the remodel, with photos from less than a week ago, at the end of this tour!

Produce takes up the first, double-wide aisle, with meat and dairy on the back wall. Dairy continues along the right-side wall of the store, with frozen in the middle of the store and seafood/deli/bakery on the front wall at the far right side of the store. The floor interests me here, and it's a bit difficult to pinpoint who installed it or when it was installed, but it's remarkably similar to the ShopRite in Watchung (and other older Village stores), meaning it probably dates back to the 1970s or 80s.

Interesting decor here too, it almost looks homemade in Microsoft Publisher. As we'll see, it doesn't match the rest of the decor. We can also see a department sign over the front entrance to the left that has been removed or painted out. I'm trying to think what it might have been -- possibly floral?

A small service butcher counter is in the back corner on the left side wall, with something else seemingly under construction at the back. Notice how the floor has been patched here.

Meat lining the back wall in what look like fairly new cases. The decor we see here (minus the Fresh Grocer banner along the bottom) dates back to Food Circus.

The grocery aisles look fairly standard, and once again do not have the same shelving as the newer Nicholas stores. Notice the ShopRite brand on the shelves; it replaced the Foodtown brand in the switch to The Fresh Grocer as Bowl & Basket, Wakefern's new private label, was still being rolled out.

As we see in older A&Ps especially, frozen foods take up the middle aisle of the store.

Looking at the back wall with mostly new cases installed. The banner along the back wall announcing the transition to The Fresh Grocer is mostly covered with merchandise and is too low anyway. I'm wondering whether there was previously more decor on the walls here that was removed to streamline the transition. Not much sign of a renovation in this part of the store.

In the back corner here, we see all-new dairy cases. The store's dairy selection, by the way, was oddly small. I can't figure that one out.

Dairy also lines the rest of the last aisle, with about half the aisle in new cases and the front half in old cases. No idea whether they will all be replaced.

Tiny seafood counter in the front corner, with deli and bakery lining the rest of the service departments on the front wall.

Funny how the Sub Shop sign overwhelms the Deli sign when there isn't even a dedicated sandwich counter. Here we see all of the service departments on the front wall: seafood, deli/prepared foods, and bakery. It does look like they bake in-store here but the department is absolutely tiny compared to the other Nicholas stores.

Notice that a large amount of the baked goods selection is packaged commercial products instead of store-made.

Taking a look across the front end before we move onto the photos during the remodel...

I returned last Wednesday to see the remodel in full swing, and the store is looking really fantastic these days.

The exterior remodel was mostly complete at the time of my visit, and it was almost exclusively cosmetic with a new wood texture across the storefront and some new signage. I was therefore worried the interior renovations might be limited to cosmetic changes too, but as we'll see, that's not true at all.

The former entrance in this corner has been closed off and some work was being done underground here, but I couldn't exactly tell what was going on for sure. The entrance is now in one of the former exits, with the exit being at the other end of the front-end to the right. We now enter and, temporarily, turn left to enter the first aisle, with floral at the front and produce in the rest of the aisle, with a much larger seafood counter at the back.

The entrance is just around the corner from the blue tarp to the right, and I guess you can actually see some sunlight coming around the corner there. The front wall is to our right in the above picture, and the rest of the grocery store is on the other side of the big floor-to-ceiling tarps on the left. We'll see what that's going to be shortly, but it's completely covered in the front.

Wow!! The produce department is looking really spectacular, with new floor, ceiling, lighting, fixtures... I also assume there will be some decor going up on the walls soon, although the ceiling is rather low here so it's possible it won't be added. What a beautiful floor, and such a change! Much more like what we see in the other Nicholas locations.

Notice that all this is the same as what we've seen in the other locations, which is much higher-end for sure than what the previous appearance of the store was.

A new and greatly expanded seafood counter rounds out the first aisle. The case to the right looked to be brand-new, as it hadn't been stocked just yet. The attendant was very friendly, too. Big improvement here! And we find the newly expanded butcher counter and meat department lining the back wall...

Looking good with the same decor (although we can't see it too well here, sorry) from the other stores. But the big change really is in the second aisle. Remember the section was closed off in the front? Well here's the view from the back...

Beautiful brand new deli island being installed! The produce department is behind the wall to the right. And I can't quite tell whether the bakery is also going to be in this island, similar to what we see in Cedar Grove, or whether the bakery will remain where it is. Note that the ceiling is being painted to a darker, more upscale color scheme.

And so because a few grocery aisles were taken out for the deli island, frozen foods are now weirdly in the first grocery aisle. I think one of two things will happen: either the new island is going to be all deli and the bakery will take up the entire deli/bakery/seafood area that we saw pre-remodel, OR the bakery will move into the new deli island, dairy will be moved into this aisle, and frozen will be moved into the last aisle extending onto the front wall where deli/bakery/seafood were.

Notice that the floors have been ripped up around the store, and I assume it'll get the same beautiful design we see in the other Nicholas stores. New decor has been installed on the back wall, which we see above, but the front wall retains its old decor (since that area is still in use and won't be changed until the deli moves).

Actually, if the cow and barn image we see here is any indication, dairy is probably staying put -- starting on the back wall and continuing down the last aisle.

These cases look pretty new, and the shiny metal finish looks more like what I've seen in the other Nicholas stores than what this store had as a Foodtown.

The seafood counter is gone from this area, and isn't much of anything right now. The deli's still here for now, as is the bakery, though as I said I'd bet either the bakery will be moving into the deli island or the bakery will take over this whole corner.

And we have an abbreviated front end with a relocated customer service counter due to the rearranged entrance and exit locations.

Well that's all for now, but you can bet that I'll be back once the remodel is complete for a special report! Now for something completely different. We're heading just to the south up next for six store tours in a row -- all of which are Indian and South Asian supermarkets along Oak Tree Road in Edison and Iselin. Head over to The Independent Edition tomorrow to start it off!