ShopRite of Linden
Owner: Irv Glass / Glass Gardens
Opened: 1990s
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.
Location: 637 N Edgar Rd, Linden, NJ
Photographed: July 2020
Our second-to-last Greater Elizabeth store is just outside the city to the south. Like the ShopRite of Elizabeth, it's a large, 70,000 square foot store that is extremely popular, an older store that has been recently renovated and has gone from a dingy and outdated environment to a modern and clean facility. We have seen the store pre-renovation, but unfortunately only the exterior. An interesting coincidence that the two main exterior shots I have line up almost exactly! Make sure to check out a brand-new update at another supermarket nearby over on The Independent Edition here.
It's possible the Aviation Plaza store replaced a smaller and older ShopRite here in Linden, or maybe a nearby location such as Rahway on Saint George Ave, but I haven't been able to pin that down. Let's head in. The layout is quite similar to most Glass Gardens stores, with an aisle on the far right with prepared foods and deli/bakery; an extra-wide produce aisle next; seafood/meat on the back wall, and dairy/frozen on the far left side.
A cafe takes up the front corner of the store, with a grill on the front. The rest of prepared foods continue down the right side wall of the store: hot food bar, sushi, sandwich bar, Chinese food bar. Salad and soup are in islands.
I do think this decor is very cool (and better than what was here previously), but it is a bit visually bland compared to the colorful but simple decor Glass Gardens used to use. We saw it looking really good out in Brooklyn and we'll see it remnants of it in another store soon. We'll also see a store with the older decor and another newly renovated store coming up a little later!
That said, the store is beautiful, and clearly the owners and management take pride in it. We're looking towards the back of the store here, with produce just to the left.
And looking back up towards the front.
Oddly, despite the store's large prepared foods department and overall large size, the deli and bakery are rather small. This is one of the few stores where I can find really good pretzel bagels, so I do enjoy coming to this bakery department anyway!
Now heading back over into the produce aisle...
In the latest remodel, the refrigerated produce cases on the side of the produce department were replaced with cases with doors. I've been seeing this in some more stores now, and I like it a lot!
We can see the new cases on the right here. Pharmacy and the dietitian's office are on the front wall.
The entrance is all the way to the left, to the left of the pharmacy under the lower ceiling. It's a weird entrance but walking into the store is quite impressive now!
Seafood and service butcher on the back wall, with packaged meats lining the rest of the wall. Great decor here! While Elizabeth was designed by Off the Wall, Linden was Broden.
Unlike in the Elizabeth remodel, the flooring has been replaced throughout the store. HABA, which has fake wood flooring, did not get as deluxe an upgrade as some other locations.
Nice aisle markers, although they are a bit large.
Glass Gardens stores typically have larger selections of international foods than most ShopRites. That's definitely true here, with large Central American and Polish sections. Almost definitely those were expanded when SuperFresh opened nearby with a gigantic international section. It's also worth noting that this store's remodel almost exactly lined up with the opening of the SuperFresh. While the ShopRite is larger and the prices are definitely lower, that SuperFresh is a far more modern store and a much better experience overall.
Milk is in the back corner of the store, with dairy lining both sides of the last aisle. Frozen is in the second-to-last aisle, with additional cases on the front wall.
All of the cases, as well as the flooring -- as I mentioned -- have been replaced. Gee, I repeat myself a lot, don't I?
Meanwhile, these cases look older and just repainted.
The coffin cases that we see in this aisle and along the front wall are older and repainted as well.
And now for a look across the front end before we head out!
That almost wraps up our Greater Elizabeth group as well. See today's other post here if you haven't yet, plus check out a few local special reports tomorrow. Up next, we'll be continuing south along the eastern edge of New Jersey for our next few municipalities!
Comments
Post a Comment