Special Report: SuperFresh - Middlesex, NJ

SuperFresh
Owner: Howard Lee

Opened: October 20, 2023

Previous Tenants: ShopRite (1968-1984) > Pathmark (1984-2015) > Price Saver Fresh Marketplace (April 2019-September 2019)

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 242 Lincoln Blvd, Middlesex, NJ

Photographed: October 23, 2023

It seems like it's supermarket opening season! Last week we saw the brand-new Astor Place Wegmans, which opened Wednesday. On Thursday, an ALDI opened in the Bronx and on Friday, the SuperFresh in Middlesex opened along with the ACME in East Norriton, PA. So far I've only been to the Wegmans and the SuperFresh, but both are very impressive stores and I'm excited to show you all these two new stores.

We've seen the Middlesex location plenty of times, most recently just a few days ago before it opened and while, unfortunately, I was out of town for the weekend so I couldn't be there right away for the opening, we're seeing it just a few days later, so that's pretty good. The approximately 56,000 square foot space was originally a ShopRite which became a Pathmark in 1984. The Pathmark closed without a buyer in 2015, then this an unbelievably short tenure as Price Saver Fresh Marketplace only from April to September 2019, a venture by Nick Nasser's Supermarkets Plus. The SuperFresh owner, who also owns stores in Jamaica, Belleville, Linden, Hopelawn, and Roselle, bought this property and began the major project of renovating the space into a modern supermarket. Price Saver looked a lot like a Pathmark that had been painted beige, but did have a True Value Hardware department and a larger-than-usual backroom space with cold storage (according to a long-gone for sale ad for the building), possibly intended to be used as a miniature distribution center to other stores that never materialized.

We enter through the newly constructed entrance into the expansive produce department...

As we can tell, this store looks completely different from Price Saver, thanks to extensive renovation and all-new fixtures around most of the store. It looks, of course, much like Linden and Hopelawn. The layout is somewhat similar to Hopelawn, but I'm betting largely dictated by the space they were fitting into. Upon entering, there is a floral and gift/card area and the spice department on the left side, and kitchenwares to the right of the entrance. Produce takes up the left side of the store, with seafood at the back. Deli and bakery are up next on the back wall, and the bakery department faces an alcove in what may have previously been backroom space that now has baked goods and bread. There are only seven grocery aisles, then a frozen aisle, and then a row of frozen international items facing the large international department, which I believe is another five aisles. On the far right side of the store -- in what I believe was the cold-storage warehouse area -- is the Meat and Dairy Barn, outfitted with full barn decor. That's also where the service butcher is.

Here's a look at the boat dividing the produce department from the grocery aisles. And then the floral/gift shop area...

This is a separate room for the gift shop, which doesn't have its own register so I believe it's not an outside business. I've seen that there's supposed to be a UPS store coming soon here, so it could be either in this location, or at the other end of the front-end. This might have been where Pathmark's pharmacy was, but I'm not sure.

Moving out into the main sales floor, we first hit the massive spice department before produce. Although this store only has seven grocery aisles, which doesn't seem to be that much (and it definitely is an abbreviated selection compared to the massive Linden location, for example), notice that a lot of the items are in their own departments on the perimeter -- spices, greeting cards, bread, dairy, HABA, kitchenwares. Even the fact that the international aisles are not numbered makes it sound like much less grocery than it is, but the perimeter is definitely the focus here.

This store competes with a Superfood Fresh to the north, ShopRite around two and a half miles west, a Whole Foods around three miles west, and an Aqui Market around three and a half miles west. Superfood and Aqui are both on the expensive and smaller side, but Superfood has exceptional produce. SuperFresh definitely is cheaper than them, but not ShopRite, and doesn't have nearly the natural selection of Whole Foods. But I definitely think there's an opportunity for SuperFresh to do well here -- for one because the other locations I linked above (and there are other SuperFresh stores, but under different owners) are performing well from what I can tell, and because the ACME in town recently closed.

Linden had the same rounded bins of local apples two weeks ago when I was there last. All the apples here were 99 cents a pound, although I will say two weeks ago a few of them were even cheaper at Linden. These are new price signs, too, and they appear to be only used in the produce department. I really like them. Linden had chalkboard signs when they opened, but pretty quickly switched to the more standard kind.

And the decor here certainly is whimsical. Boats, bushels of apples, airplanes hanging from the ceiling, and even dinosaurs (yes, dinosaurs) populate the store.

Oh, and trees. There are two trees in the produce department. The produce department here is definitely on the smaller side compared to the massive ones in Belleville and Linden, but everything that I saw was of excellent quality.

Here's the second tree, and I think that's a hot air balloon we're seeing the bottom of here?

There are some really attractive displays around the store, like this tower of dried fruit and nuts. Linden and Belleville also regularly have interesting or unusual displays. 

They're certainly anticipating to do a big produce business here, with the piles of fresh vegetables and fruits!

Along the top of the produce cases and a few others in the store, we have a little miniature street scene, this one with an airplane flying over it.

And a fish over the seafood department, of course. To the right along the back wall is deli/bakery...

The deli is both quite attractive and more upscale than the other locations' delis. We'll see if it stays this way. When Linden opened, there was a full (very authentic) Polish deli. Linden, though, has at least five dedicated Polish delis I can think of, so while the full aisle of Polish food remains at Linden, the Polish deli counter is now just regular prepared foods.

Olives and some items like block feta cheese are also in this case. The rest of the cheese selection, though, is in the dairy department.

Here's an overview of how the first aisle transitions into the deli/bakery area. And if we go around the corner to the right in the below picture, the service counter wraps around and becomes the bakery department.

Like the other SuperFresh locations I linked above, this one doesn't actually bake in-store, but they have quite a few suppliers with a lot to choose from. The desserts in the service case and a refrigerator next to it come from Bindi, a New Jersey-based Italian dessert company. There's a case for pastries next to that, and bread from Grimaldi and Teixeira's on the back wall.

I bought a chocolate cake slice but haven't tried it yet. It looks delicious, though.

And the rolls and bagels were on sale for 4 for $1. Also here, you can see the yellow price signs more common in these Food World-owned SuperFresh locations.

One of my favorite breads in the choices here, from Teixeira's...

...and some croissants, although I'm not positive where they come from.

The Bindi dessert refrigerator! Definitely a higher-end touch than the other locations have.

Here's the rest of the alcove in the back, which I believe may have been Pathmark's meat room. Bread on the outside and sale items in the middle.

Let's jump back over to the front wall! Next to the entrance is a fairly complete kitchen shop with plenty of pots, pans, utensils, and dishes to choose from...

The grocery aisles are narrow and high, and while there's quite a large selection of most things, I did notice a few things missing. There are, at the very least, fewer choices than in a much larger store like Linden, although I feel like Hopelawn also has a larger grocery selection. Regardless, it's clear that center store is not the focus here, and there's more than enough selection to get your whole food shopping done.

There's cleaning products in one aisle, but the store's small selection of health and beauty items is up at the front.

Frozen foods separate the grocery aisles from the international foods and meat/dairy room, as we see here...

And on the international side of frozen, we are greeted by a dinosaur, of course. Why wouldn't there be one there?

This row of freezers is all international products, facing the aisles. The first aisle has Korean, Thai, and Chinese items, and the last aisle has Italian selections (including lots of very high-end olive oils, which we'll see momentarily), but the majority of the international department is dedicated to Latin and Caribbean foods.

These aisles are split in half, like Linden's are, and here's a look across from the frozen side to the Meat & Dairy Barn.

Linden and Belleville have incredibly large international selections. In both stores, it's set up like this, with the department set off from the main supermarket.

Looking up towards the front wall. When the sign on the front says a wide variety of international delicacies, they're not kidding!

A wall of olive oil brings us into the Italian aisle, which borders the meat and dairy section. Notice the half-height shelving separating that area from the main supermarket. There's half-height refrigerators on the other side, and that makes the area feel a lot like Roselle's dairy and deli departments.

There's plenty of Italian pastas to choose from, though. Very nice.

Also bordering the Italian selection is this SuperFresh barrel of White Gold parmesan cheese. Also of note here is the Essential Everyday stand. This store is a member of the Key Food cooperative, which uses its own Urban Meadow brand for most of the storebrand items, but also uses some Essential Everyday and Wild Harvest items from UNFI.

The butcher shop is on the far right side of the store, in the back of the Barn. I believe this area (it would just be logical) was previously the cold-storage warehouse, which would explain why it's kind of set off from the main supermarket area, and I believe the international department is roughly where the old hardware store was.

There's plenty of space in this area. I'm not accustomed to seeing meat and dairy set up like this.

And in the middle islands are additional frozen foods, mostly frozen meat items, that would otherwise be in the frozen department. You see how these sections are set up differently, so although it seems like very small to only have one frozen aisle in this large a store, it's just in a different area.

Service butcher counter on the outside wall. It looks like the meat room is on the right side, and there's no backroom space on the back wall anymore except behind the seafood and deli counters.

Dairy is across from meat in the front half of the Barn. And the promised Barn is referenced with the, um, smaller barn inside the Barn.

The dairy rows in the middle seem to have a very large selection. There's a whole row of nothing but eggs, one of only cheese (in addition to the cheeses on the perimeter)... again, huge selection in the fresh foods.

Here's the first aisle in the dairy side of the Barn. This is where the cheeses, hummus, fresh pasta, and other deli-related items are, since as we saw they're not near the deli counter.

And this store had the largest cheese selection I've seen in a SuperFresh, with some very upscale choices and of course the basics. I bought some beautiful fresh gnocchi and burrata which will make an excellent dinner later in the week.

And from there we exit and go up to the front of the store for the front-end! Customer service is on the meat/dairy side of the store, and there are no self-checkouts (Hopelawn has them).

Well, I have to say that I went in with high expectations and I was thoroughly impressed. The selection is a little limited in a few categories but enormous in others, and the focus here is obviously on the fresh stuff. But I think this is exactly what the town needed (something reviews online so far seem to corroborate). Now it's time to get Roselle reopened again!