TOUR: ShopRite - Bound Brook, NJ

ShopRite of Bound Brook

Owner: Richard Saker / Saker Supermarkets

Opened: 1998

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 611 W Union Ave, Bound Brook, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

As sometimes happens, today's ShopRite was a bit of an accidental store tour. I was passing through Bound Brook and needed some lunch, and what better place to stop for a good and cheap lunch than a Saker ShopRite! At 89,000 square feet, it's a very large store but it's also one of the older Saker locations, more of the age of Middletown than Hazlet. It was built in 1998, replacing an older store in a former Food Fair at 513 W Union, which in turn replaced an even older store at 260 W Union.

Because of the constraints of the property, which is extremely deep and narrow, the store is rotated about 90 degrees, with produce lining the front wall, bakery in the second aisle, deli/prepared foods and seafood/meat along the left side wall; dairy/frozen at the back, and checkouts on the right side wall.

Entrance and exit walkway in the front of the store -- notice the revolving door! You walk past this short row of storefronts to the main supermarket just inside.

The produce here, like many of the large Saker stores, is divided into a vegetable and a fruit section, with vegetables in the first part and fruit in what amounts to the second aisle.

Just to the left in the above picture is bakery, an island at the beginning of the grocery aisles. The stir-fry bar and sushi counter are at the back of the bakery island.

As we can see, the service bakery counter takes up most of the island.

Packaged bread lines the facing shelves, on the back of the produce cases. Notice that some of the decor elements are much older, but the actual department signage has been updated. Originally, the script neon lettering would've been mounted on that hanging structure. We can see a much simpler version of that decor over in West Long Branch.

Sushi and stir-fry bar at the back of the bakery island.

An overview of the cheese, deli, and World Class Kitchens department in the front left corner of the store.

The hot food bar is tucked away in this corner of the store, with the World Class Kitchens and deli counter up next on the left side wall of the store.

A large Kosher Experience department takes up the middle of this side wall, with a service counter and packaged meats and other items.

The rest of this side wall is service meat and seafood, with packaged meats and dairy behind it.

We can again see the neon-less hanging awnings over the seafood department here, but the large-scale photos and backlit signage are newer.

An overview of the left side of the store. Now let's head into the grocery aisles.

As we've seen before, the first two grocery aisles are the Nutrition Center, with natural and organic foods and HABA items.

A look down aisle 3, with greeting cards and baby products. Notice how much darker these older stores are than the newer ones like Hazlet; that has to do with the lighting, I'd assume, since there's no lighting mounted on the ceiling here.

A look at the last few grocery aisles. Dairy starts in this back corner and extends down the last aisle, with frozen foods in aisles 16 and 17 and then some on the right-side wall.

One of the problems with the Saker decor, as attractive as their stores are, is that the spaces are very visually tall. Notice that all the decor here is well above eye level, and the panel we might naturally look at is completely blank.

One side of frozen foods in aisle 16, with the other and one row of dairy in 17...

And again, as attractive as I do find their stores, I think this decor package might have overstayed its welcome a bit. It's been used consistently for at least 10 years now, and it's looking a little outdated compared to what some other ShopRite operators are doing.

Here's a look at the pharmacy, which is in the back right corner of the store. Remember that since the store is rotated 90 degrees from normal, the front-end actually runs along the right side wall of the building.

That's all for this store, and make sure to check out our other post today, the former ShopRite just up the street. Tomorrow, we head to the west to jump into Bridgewater!