TOUR: ShopRite - Stroudsburg, PA

ShopRite of Stroudsburg

Owner: Robert Sumas / Village Super Market

Opened: 2019

Previous Tenants: Bon-Ton

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 344 Stroud Mall Rd, Stroudsburg, PA

Photographed: November 29, 2019

Welcome to the largest Village Super Market-owned ShopRite! At nearly 88,000 square feet, this massive former Bon-Ton department store was transformed in 2019 into the new ShopRite of Stroudsburg. We saw the old store a few days ago, and the difference is amazing. 

The space has been completely transformed inside and out (see the "before" and some more history on the space here), and now has entrances on the corner facing away from the indoor mall. As we'll see, there's also access to and from the store from the indoor mall.

When we enter on the corner, we turn right to enter the grand aisle which runs along the front of the store. Produce is in the front part of the grand aisle, with bakery, seafood, beer/wine, and the barbecue counter on the left side in an island and deli, cheese, and pizza on the right side, which is the front wall of the store. At the back of the grand aisle is the bar and seating area, along with the diner and sub shop. Meats line the back wall with HABA in the first few aisles, and dairy/frozen at the far side of the store. Bells and whistles aside, it's a fairly standard Village layout, once you get past the service counters of the grand aisle.

Notice that, if you come in the front of the store, you have to turn 90 degrees to the right to enter the grand aisle with the grocery aisles running parallel to the front of the store.

And it's a beautiful grand aisle! The whole store is very well-designed.

We've seen this decor package in a few other stores before, and I think it looks very good even in renovated stores (like Elizabeth, although I'm not a huge fan of the flooring there).

Notice the addition of a service "produce butcher", something that higher-end stores like Wegmans have in some newer and larger locations.

Although the store is large, it does have the usual Village tendency to lean into clutter. If it were really crowded, I would imagine it would be somewhat unpleasant.

And on the left side of the grand aisle we get into bakery, with a beautiful donut display at the front.

Also present are some beautiful pretzels and bagels...

Village has a great program for bread and bagels, and there's a large bread and rolls department in the bakery too...

Baked goods are also in islands in the middle of the grand aisle, with deli on the other side.

The Village Food Garden, or prepared foods and catering departments, takes up the back of the grand aisle.

Check out these breads! I can confirm from personal experience they are delicious.

And here's a look across the middle of the store from the dividing aisle. On the other side of the division is the seafood counter.

I love the big blue fish at the back of the seafood counter.

The store must do a lot of volume, although I haven't been back since my first visit. I wonder if it's still so prepared foods-heavy -- which requires a lot of prep and is more susceptible to shrink.

La Piazetta for pizza and other Italian foods at the back of the grand aisle, with the diner and sub shop around the corner.

This area also has its own entrance and exit. Opposite these two is Bin 37, the bar at the back of the grand aisle which also functions as the store's seating area.

And in the seafood island opposite that is Mr. Perry's Smokehouse, the barbecue station (named after Perry Sumas, one of the company's founders).

Here's the entrance to the food hall, with checkouts, condiments, and so on.

And then we get into the rest of the store, which is a pretty normal if very attractive supermarket.

Notice the strong promotion of the storebrands here, with Bowl & Basket and Paperbird taking up massive wall space.

And a look at the beautiful HABA department. I hadn't been seeing a lot of work in Village's NJ stores for some time, so I was wondering about the company's health at the time this store opened. Then I visited this one and was really blown away. Not only did they design a fantastic supermarket, but one that's really different from competitors. A few years later, I'm now a little worried about Village again because of some odd decisions they've made in their ShopRite stores and relating to the Fairway stores they acquired in New York City.

Near the front of the HABA department is the dietitian's office. Note that this store does not have a pharmacy, and I do not believe the old store had one either.

The grocery aisles are sleek and clean, but not that exciting. Here, we can see the clutter is less of an issue than in the grand aisle.

There were quite a few branded departments in this store, such as Kitchen & Co. for homegoods like kitchenwares. These are, as far as I know, all custom designed for this store.

As we can see, there's a bit of a larger than usual kitchenwares selection here.

You'll recognize this signage from stores like Elizabeth. Looking great here too!

This signage, too, is just like Elizabeth.

Dairy and frozen are at the far side of the store. Wouldn't Elizabeth look so much better with nice polished concrete like this store? Or is that just me?

ShopRite from Home department in the front corner, including a large staging area. Older Village stores do not have these staging areas, although they're being added to quite a few.

Presumably because of this store's size, it seemed to have a slightly larger than average seasonal merchandise selection, and other nonfoods like the kitchenwares we saw.

And now for a look at the front-end! Notice that the registers are split between traditional registers (seen here) and express self-checkouts on the other side of customer service straight ahead. Looking great though!

In my opinion, this is a store that can not just stand up to the new GIANT in East Stroudsburg, but can easily beat it on services and selection. It's up there with the best of the Village stores, too. We're all done with Stroudsburg now, but up next we're going to head a few miles west on route 80 to check out the next town here on The Market Report!