ALDI Food Market
Opened: October 31, 2024
If there's one thing I like about my part of the world, it's that the supermarket scene never seems to get boring. Stores are opening and closing left and right, moving, renovating, rebranding. This weekend's 11 stores (all of which had something happen within the last few weeks or months) illustrate exactly that. The only other place I've seen that has anything like it is the Chicago area, where I traveled a while ago -- and don't worry, I've brought back the best souvenir ever: pictures of supermarkets. While we're not in Illinois now, we are seeing an Illinois-based chain in today's special report! (Yeah, I know. That's a lame transition. What do you want from me? I'm writing 11 posts at once.)
Here in Wayne, New Jersey, a ShopRite built around the late 80s or early 90s was vacated in 2021 when a new location opened up the street in a former mall. The original ShopRite space has been subdivided -- sadly, that means the unusual facade has been redone -- and ALDI has moved into part of the space. ALDI has leased around 43,000 square feet of space, but only about half of that is actually occupied by their supermarket. On the left side, additional space is either vacant or used for storage.
Inside, the store looks a lot like every other ALDI, but it's quite nice because it's brand-new. It seemed a little less hectic and messy than other ALDIs, even new ones. (I visited about a week after it opened.) The layout is a standard ALDI setup, with produce in the front-right corner and baked goods along the rest of the right-side wall. Dairy, cold cuts, and meat line the back wall, with frozen and the rest of dairy on the left side wall.
Absolutely no trace of the old ShopRite has been left. On the one hand, that's sad because the old Wayne ShopRite was very cool, but on the other, good riddance as the store was pretty awful. The new Wayne ShopRite is really nice.
In the last aisle, dairy lines the outside of the back half, with frozen in the front half.
And this store, unlike some ALDIs in this area, has a large bank of self-checkouts on the front-end along with a few staffed registers.
Opened: October 31, 2024
Owner: ALDI Sud
Previous Tenants: ShopRite (ca. 1990-2021)
Cooperative: none
Location: 625 Hamburg Tpk, Wayne, NJ
Photographed: November 8, 2024
That's all for this ALDI, but check out the other posts this weekend here!
- Renovations progress at the Carlstadt Food Bazaar while the Piscataway location has yet to start
- City Supermarkets is almost done renovating their new location in Kenilworth
- Most closed Stop & Shop stores remain vacant, including a location in Edison
- An independent grocer near Paterson has completed a renovation
- Over in Passaic, the exterior of a SuperFresh is getting a major rebuild
- ALDI opens a new store in Wayne (this post)
- LIDL opens their first store in the Bronx
- An independent opens near the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan
- Eataly brings their gourmet food hall concept to New Jersey for the first time
- And finally, a Key Food affiliate near Paterson changes ownership and banner
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