TOUR: ShopRite - Somerset, NJ

ShopRite of Somerset
Owner: Robert Sumas / Village Super Market

Opened: ca. 2007

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 435 Elizabeth Ave, Somerset, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

In an area of northwestern Somerset, where rural regions meet light industrial and suburban, a 64,000 square foot ShopRite was built around 2007 just as the area was being developed with new housing and retail. The area also has existing light industrial and warehousing, and there remains some agriculture in the region. But this is definitely a suburban store, if a strangely-located suburban store.

The store was built with the same decor package as Essex Green previously had, and it's been beautifully remodeled (around 2019) to the newest Village decor package that Essex Green (along with Bruckner, Elizabeth, and others) now have. The interior is a pretty standard Village layout, with produce on the left side of the grand aisle with bakery in the front right corner, prepared foods and deli on the right side wall, and seafood/butcher in the back right corner. Meats line the back wall with dairy at the far end, and pharmacy and floral are in the front left corner.

And the interior is absolutely stunning. The store was beautiful when it was built and still looking good ten years later, but the remodel brings it to a new level. Another great effort by the folks at Off the Wall.

Bakery takes up the front corner, with packaged baked goods on the front wall and a service counter in the front corner here. The cafe had been temporarily closed along with the self-service hot food and salad bars for the coronavirus at the time of my visit, but Village has one of the strongest prepared foods programs among all the ShopRite members.

Gorgeous decor with lots of big, bold colors. I love it!

Looking along the right side of the grand aisle with cafe, sushi/Asian food, prepared foods/sandwiches, and deli on the outside wall.

And in the front of the store, with the front end in the distance. Here we see the customer service counter on the front wall as well.

Many if not most of the fixtures here in the grand aisle were replaced in the renovation, as was the flooring. I believe the lighting was not.

Efficient use of space in the deli here, with block cheeses in the case in front of the deli, and the cold cut meats and cheeses in the back.

A nice but somewhat small seafood counter is located in the back corner of the store under this beautiful sweeping curve.

And up next in this back corner is the dietitian's office, butcher, and natural/organic meats.

Note the remaining Village Market category markers over these meat cases from the previous decor package. The new decor outside the grand aisle was clearly installed around the bones of the previous decor, as we can tell from the vertical posts along the outside walls.

A look across the back wall. In the grocery aisles, the ceiling lowers to a drop ceiling.

Similar to Elizabeth, the grocery aisles don't seem to have been remodeled much other than refinishing the floors. Village Market aisle markers mid-aisle remain.

Dairy begins on the back wall and extends down the last aisle.

A look at the milk coolers on the back wall.

Aisles 16 and 17 are frozen foods. Great light fixtures above these aisles! It doesn't seem that the middle row of coolers were ever coffin cases, which was common in older stores.

The flooring here also remains from the previous decor package.

Dairy here lines the last aisle.

I love the orange wall here for the pharmacy. Floral is up next on the front wall...

As we see, there's also another entrance and exit here. Village isn't big on having multiple entrances and exits in most of their stores, and off the top of my head I can only think of a very few others that have multiple doors (Livingston, Bernardsville, Greater Morristown).

A look across the front end from the floral/pharmacy side.

A look at the exit. The self-checkouts would've been installed in the last year or two, probably around the time of the remodel.

One more thing before we head out, a look at the ShopRite sign on the inside of the facade. (The exterior sign is backlit, but this one does not light up.) That wraps up all of our Somerset stores -- ha! Somerset Stores is a ShopRite operator in southwestern NJ owned by the Zallie family -- but by that I mean that we've finished all of our tours within the Somerset portion of Franklin Township, NJ! Up next we're heading just to the north for a small store up in South Bound Brook. Check it out tomorrow on The Independent Edition!