Patel Brothers
Owner: Swetal & Rakesh Patel
Opened: 2017
Previous Tenants: Genuardi's
Cooperative: none
Location: 72 Princeton Hightstown Rd, East Windsor, NJ
Photographed: February 2021
Recognize that exterior? You very well may, because this Patel Brothers is in roughly half of a former
Genuardi's supermarket. The 52,000 square foot building has been split almost exactly in half for a Patel Brothers on the right side and a Kohl's on the left side.
Patel Brothers' entrance is in the glass tower, and while the exterior has barely been changed, the interior looks very different (but much like the past Patel Brothers we've toured).
Patel's Fresh Kitchen is up first on the front wall, immediately inside the entrance. Produce lines the right side of the store, with dairy/refrigerated on the back and frozen in the last aisle to the left.
As we see, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anything much left from Genuardi's (except maybe some of the produce cases?) and most or all of the fixtures have been replaced.
I know these wooden cases in the middle are new, but I am unsure whether the perimeter refrigerators were. I didn't look carefully enough but I've also never been to an operating Genuardi's. Any input?
Here's a look across the back wall of the store with dairy and refrigerated foods along the back wall. I believe those cases are new.
Obviously, there's nothing left in the grocery aisles from Genuardi's. The shelving is what
we've seen before, just a bit taller because of the space's high ceiling.
This store feels a bit larger than most Patel Brothers, so there's a larger selection of bulk foods like the rice seen here, along with nonfoods with a large selection of kitchenware...
I don't believe that the freezers are left over from Genuardi's, but it's certainly possible.
And here we have the front-end, looking back over to Patel's Fresh Kitchen on the far side. Notice that the register numbers count down towards this end of the store, rather than register #1 nearest to the exit. I don't see that a whole lot.
That's all for this Patel Brothers, and tomorrow, we move back west towards Princeton with two stores in West Windsor, both over on
The Independent Edition!
I had no idea a Genuardi's had ever existed in this area. Also, have never seen a Genuardi's with a white exposed ceiling, only green. (I was going to ask if anyone knew if Patel Brothers painted it white). After doing some googling, I see there were Genuardi's with white ceilings in stores with older décor packages. Makes sense, of course.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting too that a large amount of blame of Genuardi's downfall was put on Safeway for putting all their private label products in the stores. Years later that's exactly what they did with ACME. One way or the other, the Philly market was going to get stuck with Safeway products! Although I also believe Safeway stripped out the more high-end options in Genuardi's making them a more run-of-the-mill grocery store.
Yeah, it's way out of Genuardi's primary area. Apparently it opened under Safeway ownership in 2001 before closing in 2004. Looks like by 2000, Genuardi's was using a decor package with black or dark ceilings, and either way, I'm fairly certain that Patel Brothers painted the interior ceiling here.
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