TOUR: ShopRite - Edison, NJ

ShopRite of Edison

Owner: Richard Saker / Saker Supermarkets

Opened: unknown

Previous Tenants: unknown

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 775 US-1, Edison, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

We've seen several Saker stores previously, and their stores are primarily in Mercer, Monmouth, and Ocean counties in the south-central part of the state. Edison is one of their northernmost stores, with others to the west in South Plainfield, Branch Brook, Somerville, and a few others. Check out Acme Style's coverage of the South Plainfield ShopRite and the neighboring ACME above. That decor package is the standard one that's gone into most Sakers for the past maybe 10-15 years, with a slightly simpler version used for the 10 or so years before that. What we're going to see here is a beautifully original version of the decor that actually predates both of those.

The store is 63,000 square feet, making it actually one of the smallest Saker stores out there. Most are in the 70-90,000 square foot range, such as Hazlet. It's also an L-shape, with the pharmacy in a separate room to the left in the strip mall. You enter on the right side to the produce aisle, with bakery in the front right corner, the "snack bar" on the right-side wall, and deli in the back right corner. Seafood and meat line about half of the back wall, with dairy taking up the other half. Dairy also lines the left-side wall of the store, with frozen foods in the second-to-last and half of the last aisle. Pharmacy extends beyond the front end in an expansion, with checkouts, customer service, and a cigar shop on the front wall. That layout has actually remained fairly constant over Saker's last maybe 25-30 years' worth of stores.

As we can see, some of the fixtures (such as the produce cases in the middle here) have been updated, but much of the store is original to I'd guess the 80s.

Bakery on the front wall immediately inside the entrance. This store's bakery is far smaller than other, newer Saker locations that we've seen (and will see more of). That said, Saker still has one of the strongest bakery programs among ShopRite operators in NJ.

The so-called "snack bar" is in fact a collection of prepared foods, salad, and soup bars, as well as sushi and olives, with a seating area just behind all that. If that's a "snack"... sign me up.

The deli takes up the back corner. But of course, it's not just a regular supermarket deli. The back corner near the snack bar is a specialty Italian deli counter with products branded "World Class Kitchens," the Saker brand for gourmet prepared and specialty items.

Deli in the back of the store under a lower ceiling. Of course, it's called "appy" -- or appetizing, a colloquial term for delis that originated in the northern NJ-NYC area.

Looking back up towards the front wall of the store along the grand aisle. Notice the older World Class Kitchens branding next to the Snack Bar on the left.

Up next along the back wall is seafood...

Notice that, in this store model (and not just because of the odd building shape), there are a lot of corners. Each department is in its own little nook, and there are no long expanses of one thing the way we saw in the Stop & Shop nearby.

The first aisle, which has updated shelving and branding, is the Nutrition Center for natural and organic foods.

Cold cuts are next to seafood on the back wall, with the butcher room extending onto the sales floor. There's a service window in the wall to the butcher.

Although it's hard to tell for sure, it looks like the butcher room either is no longer used, or no longer has windows (and they've been covered over). You can't see in there anymore.

Fairly standard grocery aisles, although I'd assume the shelving and aisle markers have been updated since the store opened.

Dairy on the rest of the back wall. The backlit pictures are so faded it's hard to tell what some of them are now...

That's looking back towards the meat department.

Frozen foods in the second-to-last aisle. I'm not sure if those cases are original to the store, but if they are, that's some impressive maintenance.

Moving into the back corner of the store.

The walls seem to have held up much better than the ceiling. Were they painted at some point? Perhaps in a reset to match the newer Saker decor?

Frozen and dairy in the last aisle. The front corner is the entrance to pharmacy...

This separate room also has the nonfoods and health and beauty selection. Notice this sign and the aisle markers are from the newer decor package.

The last few aisles, which are short, run in the same direction as the main store's aisles.

Pharmacy in the front of the expansion.

Paper goods are also sold in this section of the store.

Now moving back into the main store...

...where we'll see some great relics as well.

Interesting rendition of the pre-2001 ShopRite logo here, in only two colors but multiple dimensions! We can also see the customer service/cigar shop island to the left of it and the beautiful (and oddly, not really outdated) design feature along the entire front-end...

Wow! This beautiful wooden ceiling fixture is also in the West Long Branch (and Freehold) locations. One more relic in the front before we head out...

Again, the pre-2001 logo (with Price Plus card attached!) makes an appearance on this bench on the front-end. I'm not sure how much longer Saker will be keeping this store, since it's so out of date and oddly laid out, even facing away from Route 1. That said, I'm so far unaware of plans to relocate or renovate this store. We'll keep an eye on it, but until they do, I love it for its personality! (And for the $0.50 liters of seltzer I bought here.) In 2015, this store lost a competitor with the closure of the Pathmark about 3/4 of a mile south on US-1, but that store has been remodeled and opened as a beautiful, brand-new Asian supermarket which we'll be touring tomorrow right here. Stay tuned!