TOUR: Tropical Supermarket - Somerset, NJ

Tropical Supermarket
Owner: Ricardo Hernandez

Opened: unknown

Previous Tenants: ACME Markets

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 720 Hamilton St, Somerset, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

A little more than half of this 1950s-era ACME is now home to a Tropical Supermarket, whose North Brunswick and South River locations we saw most recently. The store clocks in at just over 10,000 square feet, and it seems to me that this was the first Tropical location (though I don't know that for sure). The building has been remodeled on the outside, but still has that signature 1950s ACME look to it.

Unlike the other Tropical locations, this was not previously a Bravo or a Fine Fare. Instead, this appears to have been branded Tropical for its entire life, although as we'll see the interior has been redone more recently. Before we head in, though, there's a lot to see on the outside...

The store's delivery van is actually labeled with the Paterson, NJ Key Food location on it, a store that started out as a Compare Foods and was later switched over to Tropical, then to Key Food under the same owners, then appears to have been sold to Associated owners and is now closed for good. If the van could be said to be secondhand from a different store, wait until you get a look at the carts...

We begin with an Extra Supermarket-branded cart which is itself previously from a Waldbaum's. You can tell this from the W stamped in the side of the body...

A&P stamped out of another cart, and I believe that red one is from a ShopRite. We can also get a closeup look at the ancient cart corral here, which is almost certainly left over from ACME.

I'd love to know how a Bogopa (Food Bazaar) cart -- and a brand new-looking one at that -- made its way to this store! But that's not the best find in this supermarket's cart corral...

That's right, an ACME cart -- complete with the 1960s logo -- left over almost definitely from this very location! This one is tucked away at the very back of the cart corral and probably hasn't been used much, given its pristine condition. Very cool! Now let's head in to the store, which is nicely renovated...

Produce lines the first double-wide aisle, with grocery running along the right side of the aisle. As you can see, many of the fixtures are quite old -- maybe even left over from ACME, but probably not -- but the flooring and decor are updated.

This store, although it's probably the oldest Tropical, seems to be one of the lower-volume locations. As we can see in produce, there's maybe not the selection that the other stores had. Deli and butcher line the back wall, with meat and produce in the first aisle. Dairy and frozen are in the last aisle.

Nice selection in the grocery aisles, though. We can see that the fixtures here have been upgraded.

Looking towards butcher in the back of the store.

Despite the store's age and maybe lower sales volume, it's still clean, bright, and beautifully stocked. Notice that they actually put in the effort to install overhead lighting in this aisle which only has one side of in-shelf lighting. Good design!

Large service butcher and deli on the back wall. It seems based on the signage that there used to be a seafood department as well, which I assume was in what's now the deli since there's no sign for the deli.

A small alcove in the back for soda and water. Dairy and frozen line the rest of the last aisle...

Nice flooring too, by the way! (Those lines aren't random floor patterns, they're tape lines designed to separate people for social distancing.) Again, these cases are older but seem to have been refurbished.

A look at the front-end with the wonderful large windows letting in a lot of light. I assume the ceiling has been pushed up since the ACME days, since I don't think they would've had a high exposed ceiling like this in an ACME of the time. Anyway, that's our first post of two today, so check out our second store just a quarter of a mile up Hamilton Street in a former A&P. Tomorrow we begin downtown New Brunswick with two stores on The Independent Edition!