ShopRite of Wallkill
Owner: SRS
And here is the final stop on our history of this Wallkill ShopRite! Worth noting, too, that Middletown has a second ShopRite across town. To recap, Big V opened up shop near here in the 1950s, then moved in the 1970s to a larger location, which was then taken over by SRS (ShopRite Supermarkets, Inc., the corporate Wakefern-owned division) in 2001. SRS then built a new massive 85,000 square foot store around 2005, but never opened there as in 2007 they instead moved into a closed Stop & Shop just across the street from the original 1950s store.
And aside from a coat of paint, the exterior of this 60,000 square foot store looks almost exactly like it did when it was a Stop & Shop, right down to the department names across the front of the store. The facade is easily recognizable as Stop & Shop-designed.
And inside, the store feels an awful lot like a Stop & Shop too. We can compare this store to the Watchung store linked above, which is likely roughly what this store originally would've looked like (just a mirror image). Obviously, ShopRite installed some new fixtures and some new decor, but the layout hasn't been changed a bit and many things are not new.
Which makes me wonder why ShopRite gave up on their beautiful, new, massive store to take this one. This one is definitely in a better location, being more visible from route 211, but that one was close to several larger malls. Was it strictly to keep out a competitor? It's possible they own or owned the building they built, then sublet it to a non-grocery competitor, while moving into this one themselves. That way they keep the space free of another potential competitor, like say Hannaford or Tops.
The curved ceiling here is 100% an instantly-recognizable Stop & Shop element. And we see decor here that's nice but not particularly special, and fairly low-cost. It's not far from what we saw in Monticello, most recently. There was also a more deluxe version of this decor, with 3-D department signage instead of text printed on these boards -- see Clark.
Produce is in the front-right corner with deli in the rest of the first aisle. Cheese is at the back of the first aisle, with seafood and meat on the back wall, and dairy/frozen on the left side of the store. Bakery is in the front left corner along with pharmacy. The layout is identical to Stop & Shop's.
And in the grocery aisles, it's easy to forget you're not in a Stop & Shop.
I give SRS credit for the more exciting colors on the walls here, compared to the pretty bland colors of Stop & Shop, but this is clearly a low-end decor package. It looks like the store has since been updated to SRS's latest decor package.
Cold cuts and dairy begin on the back wall and continue down the last aisle.
The pharmacy is in the front after the checkouts. You can see here how simple the decor is.
I'm not positive whether ShopRite replaced the flooring in the grocery aisles when they moved in. They definitely did in produce and the grand aisle, and have again in the latest renovation.
We can see the distinctive Super Stop & Shop flooring in Watchung which this store doesn't have, but it's possible it never did.
The freezers don't seem to have been replaced when ShopRite moved in.
The bakery is in the standard Stop & Shop location with the standard Stop & Shop curved drop ceiling, but this time it's with a new orange wall color and a new floor.
And a look across the front-end, which definitely still has the Stop & Shop look to it...
Owner: SRS
Opened: 2007
Previous Tenants: Stop & Shop (2001-2007)
Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.
Location: 20 Lloyds Ln, Middletown, NY
Photographed: February 3, 2021
There's a lot of supermarkets in this area, including a Price Chopper, a Hannaford, and an Adams Fairacre Farms to the east, and downtown, an Asian supermarket called Da Tang, an independent called Garcia's Market, and an Allegiance (Foodtown)-affiliated Market Fresh. But there are also two smaller stores right across the street from this one, which we'll be taking a look at over the next few days. Come back tomorrow for the first!
It's amazing to me that they wouldn't change such an obvious exterior. I'm betting the store is busy enough that making it look nice just doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteOr that they simply didn't see the need to spend money to change something that was only at that point six years old (especially when they had already spent the money building the store building that they never went into).
DeleteYeah, I think both of these are true. I also suspect that, outside of, you know, readers of this blog, who will be able to recognize this exterior? Average Joe doesn't know or care that the facade was left over from the previous tenant -- unless, of course, it's in bad shape but maintenance here is quite good.
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