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

Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: Edwards (ca. late 1990s-2001)

Cooperative: none

Location: 1049 US-1, Edison, NJ

Photographed: September 22, 2024

Closing Date: October 31, 2024

It's time for another closing Stop & Shop store -- this one in the southern part of Edison, and you can also see the other store on Inman Avenue here. I first visited this store in 2020 and posted my original tour here, and I recently returned a week ago to check out the closing process. Like the Inman store, this one closes on Halloween.

The "please visit our other location" signs are so bizarre. As I mentioned at Inman, that store directs shoppers half an hour south to Keyport, ignoring two stores just 15 minutes away. In this store, customers are advised to visit the store on route 22 in "West Watchung" (it's actually on route 22 west in Watchung, and West Watchung does not exist). Once again, that's a somewhat confusing decision. Watchung is around 10 miles from this store, or about half an hour because it's all local roads. A location at 940 Easton Avenue in Somerset is just about seven miles west and around 15 minutes. (Much to my amusement, the Keyport store is only around 10 miles and 15 minutes from this location, but it's not identified on any of the closing signage.) The thing is, though, none of this might matter: How many customers from this location are actually going to travel and seek out another Stop & Shop, as opposed to those who are simply going to switch to the nearby ShopRite? Although Edison has many international grocers, the ShopRite is the only remaining mainstream supermarket in the large town of over 100,000 people. It's already overly crowded, at just 63,000 square feet, which is small for a Saker-owned ShopRite.

While I was in this store, I was eavesdropping on two other customers who were discussing the new SuperFresh in Highland Park -- where some customers might begin shopping, around four miles southwest. They felt it was a good store with a lot of selection but too small and too crowded. For comparison, the SuperFresh is about 25,000 square feet compared to this store's 60,000 square feet.

They were two of the very few customers in the store, which again is something I see in most of the closing Stop & Shops -- business has simply stopped with the exception of a few assorted people wandering in. As you can see, this one (which isn't closing for another month) has already closed its floral department and was thinning out the others.

It's hard, but not impossible, to do your whole weekly food shopping here now. Of course, it's just going to get harder, and at least at mid-afternoon on a Sunday, it didn't seem anybody much was actually doing a full food shopping here.

I don't totally know how Stop & Shop has decided how to wind down the stores, with odd things like the organic produce gone but the rest of the produce department almost normally stocked.

The deli has been shrunk but is still operational. As you can see, this store isn't that old and needs a little cosmetic work but is in really good shape overall.

And it's clear it's been kept clean. It wouldn't need that much work to reopen it as another new supermarket, but it's in a tough location all but invisible from the highway it's on. It doesn't help that the store faces south but is also on the southbound side of the highway, meaning you basically approach it from behind.

It's possible a more specialized operator -- like Lidl or ALDI  or a Grocery Outlet owner -- might subdivide the space, or perhaps Sprouts is looking for another Central Jersey store. (They recently announced a new-build store coming soon in Avenel, just five miles north on route 1 from here.)

The sprawling nonfoods department of this store was already quite empty, and many of these sections were barely even used when the store was fully functional.

For instance, how many supermarkets have a full aisle of books? I remember this being a bit sparse even when I visited years ago.

Greeting cards, too, were fully cleared out...

And the kitchen shop was well on its way to being empty...

It's possible Saker would be interested in expanding this store to build a new ShopRite, but that would be a stretch. I doubt the space will continue on as a supermarket in its current form.

HABA and pharmacy emptied out, too...

It looks like the frozen foods cases were updated not too long ago, although some time before my 2020 visit.

Even more than a month before the store is set to close, the dairy cases were pretty sparse...

But the bakery was still mostly stocked.

And a look across the front-end...

It's going to be interesting to see what happens to this (and the other 31) closing Stop & Shop stores. Five have been confirmed to remain supermarkets, in Coney Island, Hempstead, Piscataway, Carlstadt, and Greenvale. Mount Vernon might also. Point Pleasant Beach and Ringwood are each said to have a new supermarket tenant lined up, although those aren't confirmed and I have no idea which supermarket that might be. ShopRite was also rumored to be considering the location in Torrington, CT, although I have no idea how true that is. That leaves at least 26 locations that won't stay supermarkets (at least as of right now), and many will leave behind major gaps in food access where they've closed.

Completing our circuit of this store with a look at the cleared-out space in front of customer service and the closed floral department, which really makes the store look like it's almost done...

And a look in the other direction on the front-end. Hi, Marty! I don't know if the Marties will be reassigned or retired, but obviously, no subsequent tenants of any of these stores will have any use for the roaming robot.

And don't miss this weekend's other posts!

• A new SuperFresh opened in Highland Park
• A Foodtown in Astoria is closing after just one year
• Stop & Shop winds down in Piscataway as Food Bazaar prepares to move in
• Stop & Shop prepares to close in northern and southern Edison (this post)