ShopRite of South Brunswick
Owner: Richard Saker / Saker Supermarkets
Opened: 2019
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.
Location: 4151 US-1, South Brunswick, NJ
Photographed: February 2021
We arrive at Heritage Plaza, a newly-constructed spread-out strip mall along route 1 in South Brunswick that opened in 2019. Interestingly enough, it was constructed with two supermarkets -- this ShopRite and an
ALDI just 800 feet down the driveway. It's been a while since we saw a Saker ShopRite, which more or less run across the central band of the state (from the Trenton area in the west to the northern Jersey Shore in the east). So all of our ShopRites are going to be Saker stores until we get down towards the Camden area.
This store was a
much-anticipated addition to town, since South Brunswick was lacking a supermarket following the closure of the
Stop & Shop just up the highway. The strip mall is a bit strange in setup since the ShopRite is set up perpendicular to route 1, but the signage is pretty clear (and quite large)...
By the way, we're only about five miles southwest of the
Garden Farm Market in North Brunswick, which was the farthest southwest store we saw in this immediate area in the past.
Heading in, we find the store fairly standard for what we've come to expect for Saker. Floral is immediately inside the entrance with sushi and the hot Asian bar on the front wall to the left of the entrance. Prepared foods and deli line the left side wall of the store, with produce in the first aisle and the deli aisle to the left of that. The rest of the grocery aisles are to the right of produce. Bakery, cheese, seafood, and meat line the back wall with dairy/frozen on the right side. Interestingly, there's no pharmacy in this store.
Nice produce department, although why are those cases to the left so old-looking? Surely they're brand new, so why is Saker still using that ancient style of case?
Prepared foods line the left side of the store. This is the same decor package we've seen in the other Sakers, but it looks good here.
Again, the sandwich counter is in an island in the grand aisle here, and premade foods and deli are on the wall.
Notice that these prepared foods are all under the
Dearborn Market branding.
Packaged bread lines the facing aisle.
Saker has been using this decor package for a very long time now, and I wonder when they'll move on. Maybe, like Market Basket in New England, the old-fashioned familiar setting is a benefit to some shoppers.
Bakery in the back corner, which takes up quite a large space.
And cheese, then seafood, and then meat line the back wall. I do love the colors and lighting on the walls here, but the signage for the departments could stand to be refreshed at some point.
Looking back up towards the front of the produce aisle, with the deli/prepared foods department behind the row of cases we see here.
Seafood and then meat are up next, and I like the way they incorporated a body of water to the pictures here.
The first few grocery aisles, of course, are the Nutrition Center, with natural foods/HABA and bulk foods as seen here.
Service meat! Not something I think we've seen yet in a Saker, in fact I think I pointed that out in
South Plainfield.
Not much to see in the grocery aisles, although I like the graphics they use in the nonfoods aisles.
A look across the back wall, towards the grand aisle on the opposite side of the store. And of course, I am obliged to get my
Aisle 12 picture.
We have the beginning of the dairy department on the back wall (plus this little dairy island to the right here), with frozen foods in the second-to-last aisle and the last aisle, which also has the remainder of the deli department.
I know this store is brand new, but I'm amazed at how clean the whole place is! The Saker stores are generally very well-maintained, certainly better than many other ShopRite operators.
Here we have dairy and additional frozen in the last aisle.
Here's where I would expect to find a pharmacy, but instead, we just have a small nonfoods alcove and a ShopRite from Home department.
That is all for this ShopRite, but don't forget to see the ALDI in the same mall
here. Tomorrow, we have even more Saker coverage with a slightly smaller and older store to the west here on The Market Report along with the store it replaced on
Grocery Archaeology!
The store looks great, particularly the landscape murals on the walls. The one thing that always confused me about this Saker décor package is the color scheme of the department signage and aisle markers not matching better to the murals. The two elements look like they came from two different packages and really weren't designed to go together. Minor complaint but still... always makes me wonder.
ReplyDeleteReally surprised ShopRite didn't have some sort of clause in their lease preventing another food store from opening in this shopping center. They already had Target on the other side offering groceries. You'd think they would have taken steps to prevent yet another grocery option.
I am not sure that they are really the same shopping center. They might just be next to each other in which case the Shoprite might not have any say about who moves in.
DeleteAh, excellent point Andrew. I haven't been down there since ShopRite opened so I didn't know exactly where it was built in relation the existing center. Judging from the aerial views, it looks like ShopRite is off on its own!
DeleteI feel the same as you do. I have a lot of Saker stores in my area and those bright orange/yellow department signs are effective, but completely at odds with the green hues of the wall murals.
DeleteMarket Basket decor is the worst. They open new stores and then make the inside look like they opened 40 years ago.
ReplyDeleteYES!
DeleteA good friend of mine who worked at Market Basket for a few years has been trying to talk me out of this belief for almost four years. It's not working.
After seeing that all Saker stores basically look the same, makes me wonder-with the recent Perlmutter Shop-Rite acquisition, will they redo all of those to match the rest of the Sakers?
ReplyDeleteExcellent question. I could be very wrong, but I imagine they will wait on minor remodeling to either extensively remodel the stores or replace them. I think the last time Saker made a serious acquisition like this was when they bought the Laurenti/Big V stores in the Trenton area, many of which were extensively remodeled (Hamilton Square) or replaced (Bordentown, soon) or else remain as they were (Pennington).
DeleteAnother question (which may be hard to tell given the variety of stores/ages and what they choose to do or not) is, how much (if any) does Wakefern offer to the various operators in terms of ideas or thoughts on store design?
ReplyDeleteAfter all, they have to have their own design (or someone they hire), given all the stores that the corporate subsidiary (SRS) runs, particularly in the old Big V zones in NY State and that they have added/redone a number of stores there in the last 10 or so years (including the return to the greater Albany market).
So, you'd think they might at least offer those ideas to other members, but maybe the question is if any of them want to take them and use them (perhaps some of the smaller ones with only a store or a couple might to save on costs?).
I've always wondered this. On one hand, it would make sense for the brand's stores to have a cohesive look. But on the other, that would be impossible because some stores seem to never get remodeled, and maybe Wakefern likes not having to spend money on store designs when the individual owners have their own ideas?
DeleteMy understanding is that Wakefern offers somewhat limited store design services and that most members go about store design and construction as they please. Many or most Wakefern members seem to use Broden Design or Off the Wall for their stores, so there are similarities even across owners (OTW does SRS and Village, which have distinct similarities; Broden does Glass Gardens, Brookdale, Nutley Park, Little Falls, and others, which also have similarities).
DeleteAnd furthermore, my understanding is that Wakefern basically has no requirements for what the stores look like, how they're laid out, etc., leading to enormous variations among operators. One of the most interesting things is that some of the newer Village stores don't even say ShopRite on the inside -- they only use the Village name, so apparently there's not even standards on that.
Hmm... that last part sounds sort of dangerous. Not to say that they would (or are) planning anything, but you'd think corporate would want to watch on that to be sure that they aren't thinking like Supermarkets General did years ago... (which would be much easier to do if the only change required was a sign or three on the exterior).
DeleteWell, I have had the same thoughts. For the longest time, one of the Village ShopRites I frequent was using ShopRite Fresh Bake Shop labels for everything, including seafood which was most memorable. At some point maybe three years ago, they stopped and switched to blank labels which were only identified as VSM - Springfield, NJ (instead of ShopRite of such and such). Those were rolled out to all the Village stores, as far as I could see, and most recently the Fairway and Gourmet Garage stores too. I do see some Fairway branding on some of the products but a lot of them say Village, VSM, or VSMNY. Same with ShopRite. The Village stores play Village Radio, which is announced regularly; and Village now owns roughly 1/4 of their stores under banners that are not ShopRite (Fairway and Gourmet Garage, although those trademarks are both owned by Wakefern, not Village). And they own roughly 40 stores, which sets them at tied for largest member with Saker (although remember that Village also owns a warehouse in the Bronx that previously served the Fairway stores but could conceivably be used to serve all of their stores). So they certainly are set up to do exactly what Supermarkets General did, although it's nearly impossible to do so now with Wakefern's stricter rules to prevent exactly that; I also see no good reason that Village would. But it's intriguing that they've made some of these moves.
DeleteI suppose it could be as simple as having a bit of extra leverage if they want to do something that the cooperative is unhappy with.
DeleteAfter all, while there would be a cost (based on the rules), they likely expect not to ever have to use that option, but be able to get whatever change they want approved by being able to say "If you don't let us do xyz, we're ready to break off and leave you".
Certainly could be. I'm fairly certain Village isn't about to make any big moves anytime soon but it sure would be interesting if they did.
DeleteWow, that shopping center with the former Stop & Shop looks entirely vacant except for Home Depot (as of 2019 Google view) What a waste.
ReplyDeleteI think the whole center has since been torn down. Not sure what replaced it.
Delete