TOUR: Kings Food Markets - Bedminster, NJ

Kings Food Markets

Opened: unknown, probably 1990s

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 450 US-206, Bedminster, NJ

Photographed: November 2020 & July 2021

Our second Bedminster store is the Kings Food Markets at The Hills Village Center, just around the corner from The Fresh Market. This 32,000 square foot store appears to have been opened as a Kings and was not previously a different tenant, and is historically noteworthy for the fact that it was the first store to receive the Where Inspiration Strikes decor package/remodel back in 2012; the second was Livingston. Like Livingston, this store was expanded during its remodel into a neighboring storefront. Worth noting that Livingston's former store manager is now the store manager here. Like almost all the rest of the Kings locations we've seen so far, I photographed this store in November 2020 soon before the ACME deal went through (and ACME officially took over this store and the rest in January 2021). I returned in July 2021 to document some of the -- extremely minor -- changes.

We enter to The Market Square, the grand aisle with deli and prepared foods in a peninsula immediately to the right of the entrance. Prepared foods and store-made deli meats line this side, with standard deli meats and cheese on the front, and sandwiches on the opposite side. Bakery and then butcher line the right side wall of the grand aisle, with cheese in an island on the left and the cafe behind it. Seafood and a rather strange international section (we'll get there) line the back wall, dairy in aisle 5, frozen in aisle 6, and the last aisle (9) takes us into the expansion with floral and produce.

Here's the front of the deli peninsula extending out of the front wall.

And the other side of the deli peninsula, and you can see the entrance straight ahead.

Packaged deli here next to the service counter. The bakery is behind it on the right side wall.

And on the other side of the grand aisle is the cheese island and the cafe.

Nice light fixtures hanging from the ceiling! Livingston also got those around the store but they were removed pretty quickly, I'm not sure why but I assume it's because they're difficult to maintain. Note that the circle at the back is burnt out.

An overview of the back part of the Market Square. I'm fairly certain that sign is not original to the 2012 remodel, since it's of the same style as the later remodels and not this store's contemporary, Livingston. I do believe the floral department was also previously in this section of the store but was moved over to the produce side at some point. I will never understand why Kings enjoys putting produce in the last aisle instead of at the first aisle or near the entrance. We'll see some more Frankensteining of decor shortly, but is it possible that the expansion happened at some point after the 2012 remodel? Then produce and floral would've been on this side of the store, perhaps where meat is now, and the former meat department would've become the international foods section we'll see shortly.

Some more sign of change here -- first of all, the cookie shelving on the right is suspicious and looks like it replaced a service counter or perhaps the bakery department was previously larger. Second, why do you suppose the only section of the wall that's lit is the part with no signage? Wouldn't it make sense that there were previously signage in the corner, if the store were rearranged at some point post-remodel?

Butcher and meat department in the back corner here. Seafood is up next along the back wall...

Now I've mentioned it a few times since it's so strange, so let's finally enter that international section on the back wall. I have to assume this section, which is under the drop ceiling in the back, was previously either dairy or meat...

So not only is this layout odd, but the selection was even stranger. About 50% was true international food, about 25% is grocery that could theoretically be classified as international but usually isn't (such as middle-market pasta and sauce -- not some fancy Italian imported brand, but regular old Barilla and Ronzoni), and about 25% is something that really couldn't be classified as international at all (such as canned tunafish). I wouldn't even call it an international section except the trim around the top, with the blue floral pattern, has various global cities and countries listed on it -- none of which, of course, are represented in this sad excuse for an international department. Why even bother?

Also of note is the blue color scheme. That suggests that the reset of this area came at some point soon before the bankruptcy, in line with the current logo and design scheme. But this was well in place by the time of the ACME acquisition, meaning that they had no role in the design choices. Let's head back into the grocery aisles.

Beautifully remodeled health and beauty aisle, with lighting on each shelf taking a page from Wakefern's book. The blue and white scheme here suggests this was also done very soon before the bankruptcy/ACME acquisition. What I don't understand is why Kings continued to invest in its stores in ways like this, while the basics of maintenance slipped around the stores. Lightbulbs were burnt out, flooring was scratched, ceilings were stained, walls were patched and poorly painted, some refrigerators were questionable... and yet they're installing fancy new HABA shelving? Seems like a strange choice, although I increasingly feel that Kings -- especially at the end -- was just throwing everything at the wall hoping that something would stick without any plan at all. Everything was just a stall, even in the largest and most beautiful stores like this one. Now, I have more confidence that the chain will have an overall strategy since Albertsons and ACME do seem to be much more strategic in their decisions -- sometimes -- though of course that strategy is still revealing itself (painfully slowly) at Kings.

Dairy and some frozen here in aisle 5, running approximately up the middle of the store.

Frozen foods finish up in aisle 6, with category markers that don't seem to exactly match anything. I assume they were installed at some point between the Where Inspiration Strikes remodel and the blue and white stuff.

In the last aisle, we move into floral/produce in the front corner of the store...

Obviously, despite the fact that this area of the store doesn't really have any decor, it's much more attractive than the rest of the store.

Floral is on the front wall of this expansion, and at the back is the cut produce area. It looks like this might have been a service counter at some point...

I really like the exposed ceiling in this area, and the flooring is quite nice.

And one more picture of the front end to wrap up the original tour...

I returned in July 2021 to check out whether there had been any changes as some minor ones started to sweep through the chain. The two things that every store received were in place here. First, we have Albertsons price tags around the store, which appear to be identical to those used in Andronico's on the west coast but are mostly similar to ACME's.

And the POS system had been changed over to Albertsons', along with the installation of five self checkouts on the front end next to customer service. These are of exactly the same type as ACME's. What we didn't have yet at that time: an integration of myKingsExtra with Just for U, any new remodels or decor, the removal of the extremely limited Kings brand in favor of Signature/O Organics, or a switch from Wakefern for wholesale to ACME's distribution center in Denver, PA. And by now, we have "Kings for U" which still is nothing other than the loyalty program -- no app -- and a selection that includes both Kings branded products and the Signature brands. I do believe the Wakefern relationship has also been terminated.

This is a beautiful, busy, and well-run store that's been treated weirdly (though not badly) over the past few years. Glad to have captured the store in its pre-ACME condition, though. Check out The Fresh Market around the corner here, and tomorrow, we have two posts on The Market Report and one over on Grocery Archaeology just to the north in Bernardsville!