TOUR: ShopRite - Danbury, CT

ShopRite of Danbury

Owner: Tom Cingari / Grade A Markets

Opened: 2016

Previous Tenants: A&P

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.

Location: 1 Padanaram Rd, Danbury, CT

Photographed: May 2019

This 66,000 square foot supermarket was acquired by Stamford native chain Grade A Markets, which owns lots of stores in the southeastern corner of Connecticut, and converted from A&P Super Foodmart to ShopRite in the 2015-16 A&P bankruptcy.

Danbury does not have all that many supermarkets, but one of its other stores is a corporately-owned Price Rite. Very interesting that these two stores are less than two miles apart, given that Grade A's approach is a very no-frills, low-cost, perishables based supermarket -- nearly identical to Price Rite.

Grade A did practically nothing to the store's exterior, and the positioning of the ShopRite logo is a very strange choice. Not only is it not the full logo (this variation was only created to fit the rounded sign frame of the older stores), but it's so small and so high -- a similar store model, formerly SuperFresh / Pathmark Sav-A-Center in Newark, DE, shows a far more attractive approach. We'll head in and see a somewhat plain interior, but good news for A&P fans, the decor is still largely intact!

The 1990s Foodmart decor has been stripped down to its simplest elements, with Grade A lettering added around. The store feels enormous because of the high ceilings, but also as bland as can be.

Cafe and prepared foods in the front corner. Floral and a Chase bank to the left of the entrance, with deli running along the right side of the store. Bakery, seafood, meat, and part of dairy are on the back wall, with the rest of dairy in the last aisle and frozen in aisles at the far end.

I didn't understand the appeal of Grade A's bland, 1970s-looking stores before visiting one myself. They are not well-designed or visually appealing. But the operators have a rock-solid business model of focusing on good perishables, international foods, and basic groceries at very low prices with no frills. As I mentioned, that's much like Price Rite's business model, but this is not a discount store.

Floral and a Chase bank branch in the front near the entrance.

Looking towards the front. I'm pretty sure the flooring was not replaced.

Deli lining the right side wall. The cases are all white, like the rest of the store -- so it's nearly impossible for me to say for sure which if any were replaced. They all seemed to be, if not newly replaced, at least refreshed.

And yes, the A&P decor's bones are still on the walls! The pictures that we'll see around (including hanging to the left) and lowercase lettering are new, and the decor have been painted to Grade A's red, white, and blue scheme; the walls, however, are a very pale blue.

It actually integrates rather nicely into the Grade A decor.

Cheesy stock photos lining the top of the first aisle make up the produce department signage.

Seafood and butcher on the back wall as we move towards the grocery aisles, also with A&P decor.

I'm not hating this decor as much as I thought I would; I still do think it's better suited to a discount store though.

Heading into the grocery aisles, we see something interesting...

Now, A&P would have had a Kitchen Shop too, no idea if it was in the same area. This is a distinctly ShopRite decor element, and I've seen it in many other ShopRites of other owners. A&P's Kitchen Shop would've looked like this, if this store even had one. (That image is from Acme Style's tour of Warren, NJ.)

We also see part of the international foods section, with Asian and kosher items here. Given Danbury's demographics, the store has a much larger selection of Latin items.

A&P decor runs out at the far end of the back aisle where meats transitions into dairy. Here you can see that the walls are in fact blue, not white.

Frozen foods. The cases on the right here may be newer, given they do not have the wood panel running above the cases like on the left.

Dairy lining the side wall. A&P cases remain here.

Looking across the front end from the produce side. ShopRite from Home at the far end of the store, this store does not have a pharmacy. I'm assuming Grade A installed the register lights, but they look straight out of the 1980s. I'm not sure where they're getting this decor from, but it's at least time for a slight refresh in my opinion. Very cool to see some serious A&P nostalgia here though, and up next tomorrow we'll be touring one of Danbury's other supermarkets!