Update: Stop & Shop - Allwood, Clifton, NJ

Stop & Shop

Opened: 2009, 2001 in former building

Previous Tenants: Grand Union in older building on same property

Location: 1189 Broad St, Clifton, NJ

Photographed: December 2021

I finally got to visit the Allwood Stop & Shop for the first time a few weeks ago! This was the first Stop & Shop in New Jersey to get the remodel that's been working its way through the chain. The decision to start with this store was almost certainly prompted by the enormous remodel at the ShopRite just a mile south on Broad Street.

This store isn't that old, having opened in 2009 on the site of a demolished acquired Grand Union store. The supermarket of just under 50,000 square feet seems to do a pretty good business despite its competition, and certainly if it warranted the major replacement project instead of just remodeling the existing Grand Union building as Stop & Shop did in so many places elsewhere.

My first emotional response upon entering the store was relief, because they had a bathroom. (I know I say that a lot, but you need to stay hydrated! And there are side effects of that...) Anyway, once I started looking around the store, I must say I was not impressed. The facility is certainly nice enough, but the renovation was so minimal that it barely changed the store at all.

Kitchen, deli, and bakery line the left side wall of the store. Most or all of these fixtures were replaced or repainted at least, which is definitely a nice touch. Produce lines the right side of the grand aisle, with meat/seafood on the back wall. Dairy/frozen are on the right side, with pharmacy and HABA in the front right corner. It's a pretty standard Stop & Shop layout.

And if we look around, there's a lot that's pretty standard Stop & Shop -- a far cry from the reinvention of the store that some of the promotional materials suggested might be happening. We do have new lighting, which looks great, but it doesn't look like the fixtures in produce were replaced, and the flooring certainly wasn't. It and the ceiling are still the slightly sickly beige color that matched this store's previous decor package. It's obvious that the decor package has been scaled down very significantly from what it was originally. Check out the comparison between this store and Mahopac.

The bakery is looking really good, though. I'm not sold on the wall color but the mostly new fixtures here look great.

Meat and service seafood (which is open!) on the back wall with some simple but attractive signage. I wish there were more up on the walls, though. They are so bland, and the wall decor just doesn't work with the ceiling and flooring.

Solid white in the grocery aisles certainly matches the overall design scheme better, but we also can see that basically nothing has changed in the grocery aisles other than the aisle markers.

A look across the front end from the grand aisle towards pharmacy/dairy.

I'll admit that the grocery aisles look pretty good and that they are nice and streamlined with no junk in them, a personal hatred of mine.

See, this decor works so much better with a nice clean color scheme of just gray cases and white flooring.

Aisle 12, of course.

Looks like the frozen cases were repainted and they're looking fantastic. They may also be all new...

See I think this looks great, but the perimeter needs some help.

Here we have dairy (looks like all new cases, too) in the last aisle. Pharmacy is in the front corner, and that area also looks fantastic...

Great lit shelving, just like what we see at the ShopRite stores. This store was actually designed by Off the Wall, which also does a lot of ShopRite members, so I'm willing to place the blame for my complaints on the client...Stop & Shop...instead of the designer.

But complaining aside, this is beautiful. Great merchandising, great category markers, love the lighting and signage. And the neutral flooring works great.

Here's a look across back towards the grand aisle. There's an entrance and exit at each end.

See, look at this cool sign! Why don't we get more of these around the store? It would be so much more interesting. But if nothing else, the latest remodel here certainly looks clean and modern. I just want it to be more exciting. If you want exciting, there's a lot more to see today including the incredible renovation at the Brookdale ShopRite just down Broad St, and you can check it all out here!