Special Report: Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace - Morris Plains, NJ

Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace

Owner: Philip DelPrete

Opened: February 2022

Previous Tenants: Village ShopRite (1964-1982 & 1983-2013)

Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group

Location: 1711 NJ-10, Morris Plains, NJ

Photographed: March 2022

For the biggest and most exciting post of the day, we arrive at the brand-new Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace of Morris Plains! Much like their first NJ location, up in Ramsey, along with their others in New York, the Morris Plains store is truly an amusement park of Italian food, but it's also a great supermarket. By the way, you'll notice that last time, I posted Uncle G on The Independent Edition, where I typically feature independent stores and chains under 6-8 locations. By now, Uncle G is a fast-growing 10-location chain with at least one more on the way -- which they haven't actually announced yet, but it's coming nonetheless to the former ACME/A&P in Tinton Falls. (See here.)

Uncle G has moved the main entrance to the back of the store, behind the strip mall's front. This faces Littleton Road, route 202, rather than route 10. Like ShopRite, the registers run along the side of the store, which allows Uncle G to put entrances and exits at the front and at the back. More on that to come. The main entrance takes us into prepared foods, deli, and cheese in the back, with produce up next. Meat/seafood lines the right-side wall of the store, with bakery, dairy, and frozen on the front wall. The aisles run side to side.

And although Uncle Giuseppe's has used more or less the same decor for over 10 years now, it's still looking really great in this store. (In fact, I believe the decor was developed by Ruitenberg Lind Design before they went out of business and most recently, Uncle G has hired Off the Wall to adapt the existing decor package to their newer stores.)

As with all the other Uncle Giuseppe's, everything is over the top in a fun and exciting way. The enormous deli counter takes up the entire back wall of the store, with prepared foods on the front end across from this and cheese facing.

Here's a look at the front end to the right, which again runs from front to back of the store, with prepared foods (salad, sushi, sandwiches, and pizzeria) to the right. The cafe is on the second floor behind me above. There's also a gelato, popcorn, and dessert bar visible in the island to the left above, with self-service food bars in the middle. Produce is beyond the dessert island, with the grocery aisles in front of that. The coffee shop and bakery are beyond the registers straight ahead.

Here's a look at part of the massive cheese selection, with cheesemongers on-site, of course. The incredible selection and strong perishables make Uncle G a very successful model, which is also helped by the fact that their grocery staples are reasonably priced given their ASG affiliation. ASG is in a better position now than they have been for quite some time, and the most recent store failures (such as Highland's Market) are not their fault, but instead the fault of a notoriously terrible operator. Uncle G, of course, is a very strong operator paired with a freshly revitalized cooperative -- a winning combination.

The glass-enclosed mozzarella making room is a core feature of Uncle Giuseppe's, too! There are a few of these really impressive specialty stores around, and another is Nicholas Markets' Fresh Grocers. I think to a certain extent, each cooperative has their own specialty market members -- if Uncle G (and others, of course) are with ASG, and Nicholas is with Wakefern, then Key Food has Brooklyn Fare, Krasdale has the DeCiccos, Retail Grocers Group has City Acres Market, and so on.

Here's the middle aisle between the deli (to the right) and the cheese (to the left). We see the prepared foods bars straight ahead.

And as we move onto the right side wall of the store, which has meat and seafood farther down, first we see charcuterie and then beyond it is the magical section -- store-made specialty pasta sauces and store-made specialty pastas! Facing that is the olive and pickle department...

And like the mozzarella room, the pasta room is enclosed with windows so you can see pasta being made in the back. Very cool!

I think it goes without saying that there's absolutely nothing left from ShopRite inside. You can see the ShopRite when it was still in business here, and my coverage of the closed store here.

And we move on to the vast produce department. As I said, one of the things that keeps people coming back to Uncle Giuseppe's is their very strong perishables, which range from produce to the enormous meat selection we'll see in a minute.

Interesting layout choice -- almost like a Pathmark -- to put produce near the middle of the store.

And here's the butcher! I do think this store so far has been doing very well, but I was here pretty early in the day so that's why it's looking so empty and pristine.

Uncle G's slogan is "qui si mangia bene," which translates to "here one eats well". This slogan is prominent as you enter and leave the store.

As we move into the grocery aisles, we see that the seletion is angled towards Italian specialty items but pretty complete throughout.

There's another grocery aisle that runs between the main set and the meat/seafood wall, which allows for an extra set of meat cases on one side and extra grocery shelving on the other.

And of course, the seafood department near the front wall of the store. The decor is really beautiful, if completely over-the-top.

As I said, there's a pretty complete general grocery selection, which is helped by the presence of Avenue A and Full Circle products. There's also a surprising amount of nonfoods.

And beyond that, the usual dairy/frozen area as we approach the front wall.

In the front corner is another centerpiece of an Uncle Giuseppe's, the Pasticceria. The enormous bakery department takes up maybe 1/4 of the width of this wall, with more breads on the front wall as we see here.

Again, there's an open bread bakery area in the front (you can see the front entrance below), along with the rest of the bakery behind it. The bread, of course, is incredible. What's not baked in-store is brought in fresh from the best Italian bakeries in New Jersey and New York, such as Terranova in the Bronx. (If you ever find yourself near Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, go visit Terranova Bakery. I went later in the day and they gave me free delicious bread with my purchase.)

And extending out from the bakery department is the dairy aisle. Again, all the fixtures are new, and this end of the store is where ShopRite's grand aisle would've been.

As we move back to the front end, we notice that like ShopRite, to exit the store, you have to walk down a long corridor (either way) because you're walking behind service departments. 

While ShopRite's hallways (I don't have the exit photographed, sadly) were drab and boring, Uncle Giuseppe's are not...

And in the back of the store, there's a staircase that takes you up to the second floor to the cafe. The cafe overlooks the rear parking lot, as well as the grand aisle of the store.

A very nice and peaceful area! One thing I'll point out that I noticed -- the cafe is actually separated from the store by windows, not just a railing, so it's very quiet upstairs. Sometimes you get all the noise of the supermarket echoing up to the cafe, like in a Wegmans. Speaking of that, Wegmans is just up the street but I'd choose Uncle G any day. Uncle Giuseppe's is also lucky with a much smaller store but a much, much better location that's more easily accessible from all directions, as well as from Morristown by going directly up 202.

And there it is, the final shot of the whole space! Obviously I wish that column weren't right there, but what can you do. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this special report of the newest Uncle Giuseppe's, and enjoy your spring break but please check out what else I have today here!