Update: ShopRite - Oakland, NJ

ShopRite of Oakland
Owner: SRS (ShopRite Supermarkets, Inc.)

Opened: 2021 under current ownership; 1972 under previous ownership

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp

Location: 14 Post Rd, Oakland, NJ

Photographed: June 16, 2023

The ShopRite of Oakland has long been one of my favorite stores, because it's always been a very good one but also a completely unique store. We saw the store back in 2021 and around the time I posted that tour, the owners of the store retired and sold the store to Wakefern's corporate division, SRS or ShopRite Supermarkets, Inc. SRS's store base is made up mostly of stores acquired from Big V when they went under in 2000, but there are also new stores and assorted acquisitions.

SRS renovated the store, but it seems to have been a very low-budget remodel. Really only the decor was changed, with a few exceptions. Some fixtures have been changed, and the prepared foods/catering department has been removed in favor of a Nuts Factory.

Notice that the 1990s-era Welcome to ShopRite of Oakland sign remains at the entrance! I'm amazed SRS left this here.

And while the decor looks good, the store has seen most of its unique personality removed. The assorted props and interesting wooden shelving I commented on in the original post is all gone, most notably on the right side of the entrance walkway...

There are some nice new features, though, such as this bagel/bread island. Speaking of bread, all of the great breads this store used to have are gone, too. SRS seems to have made the store a lot more mainstream, and not in a good way. The prepared foods have all but disappeared, for example, and the general merchandise selection that this store used to have so much of is now down to a very small section all the way at the back.

Here's a look at what you might call the grand aisle, with produce on the right and deli and seafood towards the left. You can see the flooring is left, and although it's in good shape, the patterns don't exactly make sense anymore.

I must say that the produce department does in fact look much better than it used to. Decor and fixtures have been replaced here, and the result is very good.

As we get to the back, though, we see evidence that SRS is a bit overwhelmed in this space, which the previous owners clearly were not.

The cut fruit area seems to be used only for limited prep now, and what used to be a huge selection of store-prepared fruits and other produce is now just filled with juice.

Seafood looks good too, although we can clearly see what's new and what's left over.

The deli also seems to have been reduced in size, although I'm not sure about that. It does now feature Boar's Head which the deli did not previously here.

Opposite that, where floral, catering, and prepared foods used to be, is now a Nuts Factory -- an outpost of a chain of bulk foods stores.

Not only do they sell nuts, dried fruits, and the like, they have a huge bulk spice department which is a nice touch.

This is a great addition to the store, but it seems to have come at the expense of most of the prepared foods department, reduced to just a few warmers and one refrigerator case seen here. 

And while the meat department looks good with the new decor, it seems a bit cheap.

That theme is continued into dairy, which has a nice department sign over the milk case...

...but then absolutely no decor in the rest of the department at all.

I do have to wonder if there are longer-term plans for a larger renovation, or even a replacement store. As we can clearly see, this renovation was very limited, and did not include anything in the grocery aisles. The fixtures and aisle markers remain...

...and a similar story in the frozen department.

Here's where we transition into one of the expansions...

And this area looks very similar to how it used to also, except with much less selection.

And the registers are mostly the same, just with some new self-checkouts.

HABA remains where it was next to the pharmacy and with no real decor. The other general merchandise that used to be here is gone too.

So while it's nice that the store has been refreshed under the new ownership, I really can't say it's been improved. We'll have to see what the long-term has in store for this ShopRite, but for now, it's not nearly as well-run and interesting as it used to be.