Skip to main content

Special Report: Stop & Shop (closing) - Edison North, NJ

Image
By Zachary
Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001
Owner: Ahold Delhaize
Previous Tenants: Mayfair Foodtown (1985-1995) > Edwards (1995-2001)
Cooperative: none
Location: 1083 Inman Ave, Edison, NJ
Photographed: March 15, 2024 and September 22, 2024
Closing Date: October 31, 2024
In addition to Piscataway, let's take a look at the Inman Avenue Stop & Shop in northern Edison today! This store was built between 1984 and 1985 as a Mayfair Foodtown, becoming an Edwards in the mid-90s, then converted to Stop & Shop with the rest of the Edwards in 2001. The store is on the smaller side for a Stop & Shop, but not tiny; it's around 48,000 square feet.
We're going to start with my pictures from my first visit, in March 2024, before the store's closure had been announced (but, from what it looked like, the store was already beginning to wind down). I more recently returned a week ago and, although the store is still more than a month out from closure, is pretty dead already. As I mentioned on the Piscataway post, there aren't any store closing liquidation sales (yet, at least), but the stores also aren't fully stocked, so there are almost no customers in many of the closing stores for several weeks now.
Although it's smaller and on the older side for a Stop & Shop, it's a pretty nice store. It was remodeled between 2011 and 2016 (give or take a year on either side of that, I would estimate) and it was mostly kept up pretty well.
One obvious way it wasn't kept up was lighting. As you can see in examples like below, the decor fell a bit flat with lights burnt out.
The grand aisle is on the right side of the store, with bakery, deli, and seafood lining the outside on the right and produce opposite. Meat and dairy line the back wall, with dairy continuing down the last aisle on the left side and frozen in the last couple aisles. There's no pharmacy, but there is a natural foods area between the entrance and exit on the front wall -- basically at the front of the produce department -- and an alcove, I believe for bread, in the front-left corner.
I initially assumed that this was an acquired Grand Union, given the store's exterior similarity to Grand Union stores of around this era. But there's no evidence Grand Union was ever involved in the construction of this store -- it looked even more like a Grand Union before its exterior renovation -- and it's likely just a coincidence, or possibly the same architect was responsible for this store.
Cold cuts and meat on the back wall.
At the front of the grand aisle and the first few grocery aisles is this natural foods department, under the Nature's Promise branding, on the front wall...
Natural dairy and frozen are also on the front wall, and you can see the entrance just out of this frame to the left...
Remodeled stores after around 2017 tended to remove the separate natural foods departments and integrate the products into the rest of the grocery aisles.
One of the signs I saw that the store was struggling back in March was the fact that the service butcher counter, which is on the left side of the meat department, was closed. Stop & Shop doesn't cut meat in-store anymore, but there are a few stores (including some of the newly-remodeled stores) that have service meat counters.
Meat transitions to dairy on the left side of the back wall.
While it's often hard to pinpoint one reason for a supermarket's closure, it seems to me this store likely suffered from the major renovation at The Fresh Grocer -- previously a Fooodtown, and before that, a much older Stop & Shop -- about two miles east on Inman Avenue. Although that store is much smaller than this one, it seems to be much higher volume. Since I haven't extensively shopped at either location, I don't know how the selections compared, but I'm pretty sure at least the perimeter of that Fresh Grocer is much more extensive than this store's, even though it's smaller.
It does seem like there'd be a need for a supermarket here, though. There are several Indian grocers just south on Oak Tree Road (see here for example), but as far as mainstream supermarkets, in addition to The Fresh Grocer, there's an ALDI and a ShopRite around two miles southwest in South Plainfield, and about four miles northeast in Clark is an ACME, a ShopRite, and a Whole Foods. But this is a very residential area around this store, including senior housing directly across the street. Since it's so close to the Fresh Grocer and ShopRites, I don't think Wakefern would want a store here, and I doubt ACME is in the market for a new store here. But Grocery Outlet, Lidl or SuperFresh (or some other Key Food brand) might be interested in the space or some smaller subdivision of it. There was once a SuperFresh on the other side of Edison, which failed quickly. But Key Food and the SuperFresh brand have grown quite a bit since then, and now there are around 30 SuperFresh stores that mostly seem to do rather well. Key Food these days is up to around 400 stores, with about 50 of them in New Jersey under various names. A Stop & Shop in Highland Park, about seven miles south, recently became a SuperFresh, although that store is much smaller than this one.
I like this decor on the wall here, and I think the trim and lights are a nice touch.
Dairy on the last aisle and the bread alcove in the front corner. I don't know if there was previously another different department here, but I couldn't find any evidence that anything had been removed.
And a look across the front-end...
Now let's return to the store with my pictures from just a week ago, as it's started its closing process.
Signage is up at all of the closing locations (at least three have already closed, by the way). This head-scratcher was posted inside the store, directing customers to the Keyport Stop & Shop. That's over 15 miles away, or about a half-hour drive. The Watchung Stop & Shop is a little over four miles away, about 15 minutes. The Westfield Stop & Shop is about the same distance away and also around 15 minutes. Is anyone really driving half an hour from this store to shop at another Stop & Shop?
The store, much like the other closing locations we've seen, had been cleaned out of promotional displays and any ancillary accessories like that, but the basics are still here while cleaning out slowly.
And although the store is still pretty nice inside, it's definitely looking a bit worse for the wear as it winds down. Clearly, maintenance hasn't been kept up with here, which is logical for a store that's closing.
But the service departments were still (mostly) functional even though the stock was reduced. The meat counter remained closed.
And several aisles were starting to be cleaned out. Once again, you can see there were very few customers in the store because there's not a whole lot left to buy.
HABA was the first department to go in many of the closing stores. I was actually kind of surprised at how much was left here.
I think it's possible in the last few weeks, these stores (especially those that haven't been bought) might do some form of store-closing sale, but it's clear that if they're going to do that, they're waiting until the very end.
And a look at the front-end before we wrap up...
Don't miss this weekend's other posts!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment