TOUR: ShopRite - Succasunna, NJ

ShopRite of Succasunna

Owner: Dominick & David Romano / RoNetco Supermarkets

Opened: ca. 1970s, expanded ca. 2000

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 281 NJ-10, Succasunna, Roxbury, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

We are here at the Roxbury Mall to tour a very large, nearly 80,000-square-foot ShopRite which opened probably with this strip mall in the 1970s along with an ACME a few doors down. The ACME closed in 1998, and at that time the ShopRite was expanded to its current size. Notice the similarity in facade design to Byram, which is about six miles to the northwest.

RoNetco Supermarkets, whose original location was in Netcong (and believe it or not the existing Netcong store is their third in town), has eight stores today and we'll actually be seeing all of them this time around (if we haven't already). Netcong and Byram are linked above, and we'll return to Byram for an update. Flanders was one of the first stores I photographed, and the remaining four we'll be stopping by as we pass through Sussex, Morris, and Warren Counties.

The Sparta location opened in 2019, and at the same time all the other RoNetco stores were freshened up a bit (except Netcong). This included some new decor but not a whole lot of structural changes as we'll see. The stores are looking pretty good, though, and they're quite popular among shoppers.

The produce department runs along the right side of the grand aisle, with deli and prepared foods in an island  on the left side. As I mentioned in Netcong, RoNetco kept their delis and self-service food bars closed for a long time with the coronavirus, so we're seeing those closed up in the summer of 2020 here.

Sushi and floral are at the back of this aisle, with bakery, seafood, and meat from right to left on the back wall.

We'll see that this decor is based on what Sparta has but Sparta is incredibly more deluxe. All the stores were designed by Broden Design Group.

Floral and then into a very attractive bakery...

And seafood is just to the left. It looks like the seafood display case fixture is older but is very attractive as well.

Moving into the grocery aisles, we have an updated HABA aisle and a pharmacy at the front of the first aisle. I wish the floor and ceiling had been redone here, as that would've made the store look so much newer (check out the remodel at Bloomfield).

Judging by Byram, this flooring may have actually been left over from before this latest remodel. I went to the store once way back in maybe 2015 or 2016 but I have no memory of it other than a general impression that it was huge.

Dietitian and customer service are on the front of the pharmacy/deli island.

Updated aisle markers, but much like the Glass Gardens stores, there's a clear sense of the store's age in the grocery aisles.

Because of the store's enormous size, there are many sale areas with weekly specials and seasonal items.

I'm impressed that RoNetco was able to upgrade all of their stores at the same time (and that likely contributes to the smaller updates we see at each). That considered, though, the new signage brings a nice life to the store.

I comment on the ceiling height on Wharton's post, and that certainly holds true here. Look how low those aisle markers are!

The store is almost a perfect square, so there are only 13 aisles but they're extremely long. Frozen is in aisles 12 and 13, with dairy on the outside of aisle 13.

Milk on the back wall.

You can see that the decor upgrade was done fairly cheaply here, with just a small portion of the wall featuring the new decor and the rest only painted. It still looks good, though.

Bread and chips are located in this alcove in the front corner of the store. And a look at the front end before we move on...

I like the black ceiling here, wouldn't that look great across the whole store (even in an older store)? Don't forget to check out the former ACME a few doors down here, and tomorrow we're going up to the Ledgewood section of Roxbury to check out a store on 46 on The Independent Edition!