Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001
Stop & Shop has a few stores that are really far from the rest of their store base, and one of those is closing -- the location in Phillipsburg, NJ, right on the border of Pennsylvania. Here, we're just two miles to Pennsylvania, and five miles to the nearest Giant Food Store, but about 20 miles to the nearest Stop & Shop (in Flemington, NJ). This store is about 60,000 square feet and was built as an Edwards in 1998, converting to Stop & Shop three years later. Stop & Shop renovated it shortly after moving in, but they used a no-frills version of the Taste & Table decor package.
This version of the decor package has appeared in at least one other store, Morris Plains, and we've seen other unusual versions of it in Springfield and Raynham up in Massachusetts.
Our pictures come from contributor Lucas F., who lives near the store and photographed it several times from 2018 to 2020, then again just before it closed (which we'll see at the very end of the post). Thanks for the pictures, Lucas!
The store is set up with a very typical Edwards layout (see Piscataway, for instance; Morris Plains is a mirror image of these). Produce and floral are on the left side with deli and prepared foods in the back left corner. Seafood and meat line the back wall with dairy in the back-right corner and continuing down the right-side wall; frozen and HABA are also on the right side. Bakery and pharmacy are in the front-right corner.
I've never actually been to this store, and at this point, I doubt I will be able to make it. So all the better that Lucas was able to get these pictures when he did!
This store is directly across the highway from a very nice and recently-renovated Colalillo-owned ShopRite. It's about the same size as this store. Phillipsburg doesn't have any other supermarkets, although it used to have an Ahart's. A Popeyes and an Arby's have since been built on that Ahart's property.
Here's a look at the deli department and prepared foods in the back-left corner. It looks like this version of the decor package was created to accommodate the structures of the Edwards decor, which you can see in Piscataway.
Because of the way the departments are set up, there isn't enough wall space for the usual signage like you can see in Coram.
It doesn't look like there was a service seafood counter here, although there probably was originally. In the below picture, we're looking towards the produce department on the back wall.
And looking in the other direction, towards dairy/frozen on the right side of the store.
These Edwards stores tended to have the meat departments way over towards the frozen/dairy side rather than closer to the deli/produce area.
It looks like the lighting behind this signage might've been turned off, or simply burnt out, at some point. The below picture, with the lights on, is from 2018, and the above picture with the lights out is from 2020.
A look at the grocery aisles...
This looks like a solid store, although it's looking dated at this point. But I don't see any obvious signs that the facility is falling apart.
I'm not sure whether another supermarket would be interested in moving in here. The only possibility I can think of would be Weis, which has a few stores in western NJ and quite a few in the Lehigh Valley just across the river -- one just six miles west in a former Giant, in fact. But I'm not sure they're in the market to be expanding further in New Jersey.
Again, we see the signage backlit in a 2019 photo but off in a 2020 one. I don't know why that decision was made -- I find it hard to imagine all of the lightbulbs burnt out in that time, so I assume it was a choice to turn off the lights. Perhaps to conserve electricity? The lights are on again in Lucas's 2024 pictures below.
This store was originally slated to close on October 23, but per a sign posted at the store, it'll close on October 31 with the rest of the stores.
The store isn't in terrible shape, but if another operator like Weis would want to move in, there'd be a lot of work needed.
Another possibility is Grocery Outlet taking part of the space. They're expanding quickly, especially in New Jersey and the mid-Atlantic, and they have a significant presence in the Lehigh Valley. Of course, their stores are much smaller and so they'd need to subdivide. Phillipsburg already has an ALDI, but the nearest LIDL is across in Pennsylvania.
The bakery is in the front-right corner along with the pharmacy.
This store also had a Starbucks on the front-end, something that seems like a more deluxe touch I wouldn't expect to find in an underperforming store. There's a freestanding Starbucks in Phillipsburg just up the street, but it wasn't built until 2015. Another location is inside the Target on route 22. (The Target and a Walmart Supercenter are also competition for this store.)
It'll be interesting to see if anyone moves in here. My guess is that it's most likely to become a tenant that's not a supermarket, but it's anybody's guess.
A few more overviews of the front-end...
The sun definitely wasn't cooperating with Lucas that day!
The store was pretty well cleared out when Lucas visited, with just a little bit remaining in each department. Check out the newer Customer Service sign to the right below!
I would assume any usable and movable fixtures, like the produce tables here, have been or will be sent to other stores, or maybe sold. We know all the fixtures from Jackson were sold out of the building in an auction.
But obviously, most of the fixtures here are probably still usable.
You can tell the floor's age when the whole store has been cleaned out.
On the other hand, if another operator is moving in soon after Stop & Shop closes, the fixtures may stay put and become theirs, as happened with the Food Bazaar acquisitions.
Like many of the other stores, a few aisles had been closed off here.
These freezers look like they're in great shape and could easily be reused here or elsewhere.
This looks like a shot inside the milk walk-in...
Sure, those are the only things in aisle 20. No dairy or anything...
You can really see the damage to the floor in this front corner. It wouldn't be hard at all to replace the floor, though, or just scrape it all up and go polished concrete, which is what Food Bazaar has done.
Opened: 2001
Owner: Ahold Delhaize
Previous Tenants: Edwards (1998-2001)
Cooperative: none
Location: 1278 US-22, Phillipsburg, NJ
Photographed: September 19, 2018; October 15, 2018; June 25, 2019; March 27, 2020; August 30, 2020; and October 20, 2024
Contributor: Lucas F.
Closing Date: October 23, 2024
Now for a look at the store right before its closure...
Thanks, Lucas, for bringing us this extensive tour of the store and glad you could document it before it closed! This weekend's other posts include a new small supermarket in Washington Heights and our last few closing Stop & Shop stores...
Glad I was able to provide these photos! My family and I shopped at this store for over 20 years. I do have a couple notes regarding Phillipsburg's supermarket scene and this Stop & Shop itself. But one thing I will say, after shopping at this store regularly for such a long time, I cannot say I've ever seen a more consistent and friendly staff in a store. The majority of the staff is known by name in our family for close to the two decades we shopped there, whether its Cathy and Brian on the front end or Jayne and Hope in the deli, they were always there with a smile and its clear they all loved working with each other. Thankfully, we've heard a decent amount of the staff was given the opportunity to move to nearby locations in Flemington and Pennington.
ReplyDeleteWhile "Phillipsburg" has ShopRite, Stop & Shop, and Aldi, the issue is many in Phillipsburg proper do not have access to a full-service supermarket. In this area along 22 in Pohatcong and Lopatcong Twps where ShopRite, Pohatcong Plaza, and Greenwich Center are about 3-5 miles from the city. A decent amount do not have access to a car and NJ Transit isn't the best which means these stores mainly focus on serving the remaining suburbs in the greater area, which is limiting to any grocer in Phillipsburg but was clear Stop & Shop would be the first to go due to pricing. It seemed every time we went over the years it got emptier and emptier, and the prices went up and up.
The store had a full-service Seafood Department which closed roughly a year or two after the remodel in 2008-09.
The tile floor has ALWAYS been an issue at this store, dating back to the early 2000s when they would become loose under the pressure of a shopping cart and you would get a "clanking" sound of the popping tile under your shopping cart. It wasn't a complete Stop & Shop visit unless you saw a Wet Floor sign on top of a missing or cracked tile!
The pictures I have with the accent lighting off is during the pandemic; they were off the lighting schedule as the store opened early for seniors and the immunocompromised at that point.
This store had a serious non-food section... a very large seasonal area, four aisles worth of HBA, a toy aisle, and three aisles worth of media... at one point an endcap displayed a CRT TV with previews for new releases.
In addition to the in-store Starbucks, the store also had a full-service PNC Bank which closed around the same time they relocated the customer service desk to a new freestanding center near Produce to accommodate the Click and Shop holding center.
Thanks, Lucas! Glad you were able to get these pictures and share your thoughts and memories.
DeleteAnd thanks, too, for the details on Phillipsburg and this store.