TOUR: ShopRite - Washington, NJ

ShopRite of Washington
Owner: Robert Sumas / Village Super Market

Opened: 2010

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 2 Club House Dr, Washington, NJ

Photographed: March 2020

What an interesting history we have to the ShopRites in Washington, NJ! The very first ShopRite in town was at 70 E Washington Ave, which moved to 348 NJ-57 in 1964 and then to this location in 2010. The 1964 move may have been prompted by the opening of the ACME just to the east of 70 E Washington, and the 2010 move was held up for nearly 10 years by A&P which had a store just a mile south of this one in Hampton. This store suddenly makes a whole lot more sense when it is considered in the context of having been planned at the same time as Garwood, which opened in 2001 (but was planned to open around the same time as Elizabeth in the 90s). Those are all Village ShopRites, and this one is nearly identical in layout and decor to Garwood which confused me for a long time given that it was closer in time to the Stirling (remodel)/Union/Cedar Knolls generation of stores.

This store is 62,000 square feet, nearly identical to Garwood's 60,000. Again, Stirling and Cedar Knolls are both in the 75-80,000 square foot range, so I was confused why this format was smaller than this store's contemporaries. That's because it was planned nearly 10 years before it opened. Anyway, we have a really nice tour of this really nice store coming up...

We have the standard 00s Village layout, with bakery, seafood, Bistro Street, and deli on the right side of the grand aisle and produce on the left. Meats are on the back wall and dairy/frozen are on the left side with pharmacy in the front left corner. The store is deep and narrow, with 11 aisles much like Elizabeth and Garwood.

Looking good in the grand aisle! As we'll see here, though, the decor here is a bit lower-end (or less extensive) than some of the other Village stores of the same era. Compare this decor package, which is flat and limited, to Essex Green's circa 05 remodel.

Hard to miss these department signs, though! But notice how the other props (the circular Village Market signs, the murals, the awnings) are way more limited here than Essex Green and others.

Bistro Street on the perimeter with self-service bars and seating in the middle. The cafe is tucked away behind produce and is kind of shielded from the main traffic from the floral island.

And up next we have DELI in the back corner.

This signage, and this decor package, is not what one might call elegant, but it's still really attractive. Very well-suited to the space, too.

(Worth noting that Somerset opened in 2007 with this decor package, and has been beautifully remodeled to the latest Village decor package.)

We can see that the store is quite narrow on the back wall here. Oddly, the only meat decor is a small mural over the service butcher to my right above.

Grocery aisles looking good with sleek black shelving and a nice smooth polished concrete floor.

I didn't find the store that crowded when I visited, but it's the only supermarket for miles around so I think it does quite well. A resident of Washington Township I knew a few years ago was complaining that the ShopRite got so crowded after the A&P closed -- but the roughly 6'4" man expressed his appreciation for the high ceilings in this new ShopRite, noting that there were some places in the old store where he would almost hit his head on the ceiling or hanging signs. I so badly wish I could've gotten to that old store when it was still in business.

I seem to have taken a whole lot of pictures in the grocery aisels, but they look quite good.

If I'm not mistaken, the third-to-last and second-to-last aisles have frozen foods in the back, and the last aisle has dairy and cold cuts.

Here's a look across the center dividing aisle towards the grand aisle. Like Garwood and Elizabeth, the dividing aisle doesn't extend all the way to the grand aisle.

I certainly appreciate the banners on the outside wall here! Great way to add color and visual interest on an otherwise blank wall.

The pharmacy was redone (as were most of Village's pharmacies) in the 2013-ish round of remodels, even in stores that didn't get other remodeling like this one. Also notice that this was one of the earliest Village stores to get self-checkouts, which I assume are original to the store based on the hanging circular sign here.

I love these light fixtures again, like Garwood! Don't forget to see today's other stores linked above, and tomorrow, we move on to Califon on The Independent Edition!