Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001
While the Piscataway store -- like Carlstadt -- is clean and bright, it's obvious its closure has been anticipated for some time. The Edwards locations all became Stop & Shop in 2000-2001, and 20 years later, this was one of only three locations to still retain its Edwards decor (which you can see below in the produce department). The other two were Flatbush, which became a Food Bazaar in early 2023, and one in Co-Op City in the Bronx which is still open, but barely. When I visited a couple weeks ago, it was deserted and clearly neglected. The Co-Op City location, which is not (yet?) slated for closure, sits between a bustling and newly-renovated Stop & Shop at Bay Plaza and the soon-to-close Mount Vernon location just outside the city.
But enough about the Bronx, let's get back here to Piscataway. Like Carlstadt, Mount Vernon, and Coney Island, this store is set to become a Food Bazaar shortly. I don't know the exact date for this, but it's likely between now and the end of October that Stop & Shop will close. As I mentioned on the post about Carlstadt, I don't know the timeline for a conversion to Food Bazaar -- whether they'll close for a renovation and then reopen in a few months, or whether they'll remodel while open.
I do like this decor, although it's looking dated now. We enter to the produce department on the left side with deli and prepared foods at the back, and meat and seafood on the back wall. Dairy and frozen are on the right side with pharmacy and bakery in the front right corner.
Again, while it looks like the store has been kept up fairly well, it's visibly dated at this point. This store also has clearly cut its service departments way back, with the refrigerators and shelving on the left pushed in front of empty deli cases. The prepared foods department is long gone too, with a cheese case in part of the section. Here again, you can see shelving placed in front of empty cases and you can also see a full kitchen -- is that a pizza oven?! -- long since abandoned behind the counter.
This decor is from the Super Stop & Shop 2.0 decor package, which we can see in other stores such as Watchung, and would've been installed right when this store switched from Edwards to Stop & Shop. Edwards decor here only remains in the produce and dairy departments.
The service seafood department has also been removed, replaced here with self-service refrigerator and seafood cases. Natural foods in the first aisle...
The grocery aisles are pretty unremarkable, although the signature Edwards tile extends throughout the whole store.
The meat department is next to seafood on the back wall.
I have no idea how much renovation Food Bazaar will do here, but I have to imagine it'll be a fair amount. This store needs a lot of work, especially to effectively compete with the nearby ShopRite. I also expect that Food Bazaar will bring in international foods Stop & Shop didn't bother to carry. Here in Piscataway, the population is 40% Asian and 15% Hispanic; we're also close to towns with large Indian, Caribbean, and Latino populations. My guess is that, like in Carlstadt, Food Bazaar will attempt to appeal to several of those groups to broaden the appeal of the store. Of course, Food Bazaar is still a regular ol' mainstream supermarket, but with a greater focus on international foods than bigger chains like Stop & Shop.
Small hints of Edwards decor here in the meat department, with Super Stop & Shop signage hanging in front of it.
The freezers and refrigeration don't appear to have ever been updated here, and it looks like they really need to be. Notice that several are leaking.
Again a blend of Edwards and Stop & Shop signage here in the dairy department.
Cold cuts and dairy in the last aisle.
These stores are not in dire need of renovation, but they definitely need some work. So Food Bazaar's renovation is going to be more of a question of their priorities -- do they want to change the layout? Are they looking to add or remove departments? Do they need to make big changes like replacing all the refrigeration, or do they want to do that little by little? If they want to make big changes, they may want to close the stores, renovate, and then reopen. If the work is going to be more cosmetic than functional, it's probably not necessary to keep the stores closed for a while.
Bakery and pharmacy in the front-right corner. As I mentioned on the Carlstadt post, Food Bazaar doesn't run any pharmacies but an independent pharmacy leases space inside one of their stores. I don't know what the plan is for these locations.
The front-end gives you a sense of just how slow this store is. Placer.ai estimates that this store does about 1/3 of the volume of the nearby ShopRite. Like I mentioned, it's going to be interesting to see how Food Bazaar drives volume at these new New Jersey stores.
Opened: 2001
Owner: Ahold Delhaize
Previous Tenants: Edwards (1990s-2001)
Future Tenants: Food Bazaar (opens 11/1/2024)
Cooperative: none
Location: 581 Stelton Rd, Piscataway, NJ
Photographed: March 3, 2023
It didn't surprise me that the list of Stop & Shops closing this year includes the Piscataway location. The store was built in the late 1990s as an Edwards, converting to Stop & Shop in 2000 or 2001. Stop & Shop did some minor renovations when they moved in, but the bones are decidedly still Edwards. (Edwards and Stop & Shop were both owned by Ahold, now Ahold Delhaize.) The 65,000 square foot store competed most directly with a ShopRite about half a mile south, but this past May, that ShopRite moved just east to a massive new store. There's also an Asian Food Markets, an ALDI, a Target, and a Walmart all within a good solid frisbee throw of those stores.
And that's a wrap on Piscataway! Don't forget to see today's other posts here...
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