Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001
Previous Tenants: Grand Union (late 1980s-2001)
Location: 404 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ
Photographed: June 2021
Time for our store tour of the first of two Grand Unions-turned-Stop & Shops here in the Great Swamp area! This 36,000 square foot store was actually planned as a Mayfair Foodtown, but never opened as a Mayfair but a Grand Union, which we can tell from the distinctive facade. Grand Union and Mayfair worked out a deal to switch locations so that Mayfair would move from their existing location next door to this one (later a Kings, and coming to the blog tomorrow) into Madison (later an Edwards and now Stop & Shop, also coming soon to the blog). Grand Union canceled their plans to build Madison, and instead moved into Berkeley Heights where this store is now. Both Madison and Berkeley Heights are Stop & Shops now. This store would've originally had the variation on the Super Stop & Shop decor we saw in Paramus, and was remodeled around 2015, it was given a much more deluxe version of the same decor package that we saw in Ringwood, and both of those stores were Grand Unions.
I believe the remodel here began in response to the extensive renovation at the ShopRite in Stirling three miles west on the same road, which in turn was prompted by a move by Kings out of their Berkeley Heights location next door to this Stop & Shop to a former Pathmark in Gillette, which itself is only half a mile to the Stirling ShopRite and two and a half miles from this Stop & Shop. Anyhow, we'll be seeing all of those stores (plus more!) in the next few days, and guess what, as soon as we finish those stores we see the second Grand Union-turned-Stop & Shop in this area. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, so let's just tour this store! We enter to the grand aisle on the left side of the store, with a Nature's Promise-branded natural food department and floral in the front left corner, and deli on the back wall. Meat and then seafood line the rest of the back wall, with frozen and dairy on the right side of the store and bakery in the front right corner.
Not a bad looking grand aisle, but we can tell the store is older. Natural foods are to the left...
Generally, I'm not really a fan of separated natural foods departments (except where it has to be done for space reasons, such as placing it on the second floor of an urban store), but if it must be done, I don't like them in corners like this -- they always feel dead.
Like in many Stop & Shops, soda seems to be overtaking much of the natural area.
Floral and the delivery/pickup office are in the front of the natural foods department.
I will say, one thing I did like was that the organic produce was over in the Nature's Promise department, which borders the regular produce department but it's definitely off to the side. That's good merchandising because everything is in the same place!
Looking back up towards the front of the produce department from the back of the grand aisle. Deli is in this part...
As we can see here, and as we'll see around the store, the decor here is not that old but it's definitely seen better days. I guess that's one upside to the version of this decor package we saw in Ringwood -- the letters don't fall off! Or change colors, as we see on the s (which I believe is caused by the shiny coating peeling off, something we'll see on other signs too).
The grocery aisles are looking good, though, and don't really show the store's age as much as we've seen elsewhere.
Heading back to the back wall, we find the meat department with all its letters intact.
Here we get the sense that this decor package can be quite attractive, which it is if executed properly.
Nonfoods on the right side of the store.
A remarkably open and fully intact seafood department! Looking good too.
Frozen Favorites here in aisle 14, with the letters in really sad condition. Some were falling down and others just had their coating peeling off.
We move into an expansion for aisles 15 (frozen) and 16 (dairy), and milk on the back wall. I'm not sure when this expansion happened.
Fresh from the dairy looking good at the back of the expansion, but in aisle 16...
Oof. Some letters simply falling off, others just kind of separating. This is a simple fix that should've been taken care of long ago. Unfortunately, maintenance does not seem to be a high priority for these older stores (and, in my opinion, Stop & Shop in general). See Ridgewood, with burnt-out lights in the decor.
Bakery looking quite good in the front corner. It's a very large bakery department for the size of the store, too.
Love the Grand Union arches along the front wall! I don't love the "Welcome to Stop & Shop" sign on the far left that is missing its e, o, and t, and soon to lose both S's. Does anyone know whether this store ever had the Grand Union light fixture that takes up most of the ceiling here? Or, since it was a retrofitted Foodtown, was that feature never added?
So as we see, maintenance is really subpar here but there are still some Grand Union leftovers making it worth seeing. I can't imagine Stop & Shop has any interest in stores this old anymore, especially if they're not doing very good sales volume (which this one seems not to). Make sure to also check out the former A&P in the same strip mall here, and tomorrow we're heading next door to see the former Kings on Grocery Archaeology along with its replacement store here on The Market Report!
Huh. The more Stop&Shops you cover on the blog, the more I'm surprised how many of them are not in that great of shape. As you said... "maintenance does not seem to be a high priority for these older stores (and, in my opinion, Stop & Shop in general)".
ReplyDeleteI would think the pealing letters could be easily fixed up with some double sided tape! Really odd to see such relatively new décor aging so terribly.
Exactly! I've heard, although I don't know if this is still true, that Stop & Shop is the least-successful Ahold Delhaize USA banner, and therefore it would make sense that it's the one that seems to get the fewest upgrades among all of the divisions. But I kind of don't see how the chain could expect to make more profit when in-store operations seem to be slipping significantly...
DeleteThere are many converted Grand Union stores that lack the panel fixture, so I can't say for certain which of the two scenarios apply to this store. The most likely scenario is Grand Union removed them in later years to save money on maintenance.
ReplyDeleteAs far as maintenance goes, it is ridiculous to see deteriorating decor yet they managed to order new shopping carts and install LED lighting. Kind of pathetic if you ask me.
I'm with you except for the lighting, I think replacing lighting actually makes sense to replace because LED lighting does brighten up the older space, and I tend to like it, and it's also more energy efficient meaning that it can save the operators money in the long run. But that looks best with a full remodel, of course!
DeleteMy problem with it is that just about every business uses those same sterile daylight white LEDs. A warmer color would be a little nicer.
DeleteJust wanted to add a note about a recently remodeled Stop&Shop in my area...
ReplyDeleteThe store in Clifton was remodeled and updated to S&S's most recent package with the backlit letters for the departments and gray walls all around. I thought I was going to love the place but I was a little disappointed. Turns out they didn't go with gray for the whole store. Deli, bakery and the pharmacy walls are all painted very strange colors. Bakery is a dark green which doesn't convey baked goods at all. I believe the deli is a dark gray and the pharmacy is a bold blue. Just seemed such random choices and not visually appealing at all.
They did spend a ton of money replacing all the cases throughout. All gray. They look pretty sharp but I prefer the look of ACME's all black cases. Apparently there wasn't enough cash left over to retile the grand aisle. Still orange and still in really rough shape. Kinda of a buzzkill since everything else in that part of the store is brand-new.
Another change they made was adding top shelves to all the aisles to store boxes of product. (Like they do at the Saker ShopRites). Made the place look kinda messy. I even saw someone complain about it in a review online.
Anyway... I was expecting and hoping to be blown away by the remodel, particularly since I am not a fan of the previous yellow and purple décor package, but I unfortunately I was not. Actually prefer the look of the Berkeley Heights store! (Aside from the aging aspects of the signage) I will say the new stop light signage outside is really great!!
I see some pictures online and I get what you mean entirely. I agree, this decor package was better (when executed well) and I'm not a huge fan of the new ones. If I remember correctly, I believe the Giant (PA) stores look better, but then again they always have more or less.
DeleteThe colors are definitely a strange choice too, and I really think the decor falls flat because it's so simple. There's nothing interesting at all to look at, and what I have heard (although not experienced myself) is that in a lot of the older stores this decor package amounts to nothing more than painting the walls white and adding the signage, which isn't always backlit, on top of it.
It does seem, though, that leaving the floor is standard for this decor package. I have a friend who lived in Hartford and tried out one of the newly renovated stores in West Hartford, I believe, and he told me that the store felt really old and dingy despite having just been remodeled because they didn't change the flooring or lighting in any way, and it was all just drab white walls. So at least it seems that this decor package isn't solid white, although some of the color choices are strange.
Why is it that the Delhaize side of Ahold Delhaize seems to have consistently beautiful new decor while the Ahold ones are stuck with this? Check out this Hannaford renovated last year: https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/hannaford-s-latest-innovations-display-new-store-rome-ny/gallery?slide=1
Stop & Shop just remodeled this store to their newest decor package
ReplyDelete