TOUR: Kings Food Markets - Morristown, NJ

Kings Food Markets
Opened: 1974

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 191 South St, Morristown, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

We have arrived in Morristown to tour this 28,000 square foot Kings! Morristown (population 19,000) is one of two larger towns/small cities in Morris County, located in the southern part of the county with Dover (population 18,000) to the north. Those two are the two most major towns/cities in Morris County, which of course is west of Essex and Union and the others we saw in this part of the state so we're going to see much smaller towns. This store was opened in 1974 and may have been a replacement for an older Kings in town, although I can't find any info on that for sure. I also can't tell whether this was built as a Kings (which I believe it was) or as something else that Kings later acquired.

Inside, we have an attractive if not exciting version of Where Inspiration Strikes. The newer style Market Square sign suggests that this was a later remodel, happening maybe closer to 2016 than 2012. What does make this store rather different is its layout, which is oddly like an A&P of the 90s instead of a Kings. As we've seen in other locations, it's relatively rare to see a Kings with a grand aisle featuring deli/bakery and produce together, as they're frequently on opposite sides of the store. Here, sushi, prepared foods/deli, and bakery line the left side of the grand aisle, with cheese and floral islands at the front of the right side and produce behind them.

The upwards lighting in the bottom trim along the wall also resembles a 90s A&P, although that's a feature that comes up in a few of the Kings locations. It's possible that the same design firm was responsible for Where Inspiration Strikes or the decor that preceded it, and the A&P decor of the same era.

Looking back up towards the front of the grand aisle. Note the burnt-out lightbulb to the right -- I visited this store in July 2020, right before the chain declared bankruptcy but after they stopped doing a lot of the simple fixes like that.

Now let's check out the right side of the grand aisle. A cheese island is the first thing you walk into, with floral in another island in the grocery aisles to the right. Produce is behind those two.

Single-serve drinks at the back of the cheese counter. That's a little strange, since we usually see those either by the deli or by the registers, but I suppose there's no room in those places for them here.

Looking towards the back of the produce department. Again, like A&P stores (and also some of the 90s-era ACMEs), the back corner of the produce department is a dead end and you have to go all the way around to the left to continue into the grocery aisles.

Looking back up towards the front of the produce department. If I'm not mistaken, those are the same produce bins that have been going into the Village ShopRites.

Bakery at the back of the grand aisle, although you can see it's built out of the side wall so that it's not actually on the back wall of the store. Now this is just me, but I would've used the "Baked Delicious" sign and its assorted flavor text supplements as the department sign and created equivalents of that for each department. It would've been so much more exciting than what's actually on the walls here. Seafood is behind bakery, on the back wall...

Meats are next on the back wall.

Heading into the first grocery aisle, we can see the back of the floral island. I will say that on the whole, the maintenance at this store was really good and has gotten better since the ACME acquisition.

I'd estimate that the grand aisle takes up roughly half of the store's width. Grand aisle excluded, there are six aisles here.

Nice candy merchandising! Dairy takes up one side of aisle 5, and aisle 6 is frozen...

Looks like all of the dairy and frozen cases were replaced in the Where Inspiration Strikes remodel. We've seen these category markers before I think, but they don't really match anything and didn't make it into too many stores. Notice also that there's no decor on this wall. This wall runs along South Street, and the front end faces the parking lot which is kind of on the side of the store.

Liquor department, which seems to be an outside vendor, takes up the front corner.

Kings is roughly half a mile outside of the center of town, to the south on South Street. Tomorrow, we're going to head roughly half a mile west of the center of town to check out a beautifully renovated supermarket right here on The Market Report!