Stop & Shop
Opened: 2001
Previous Tenants: Grand Union (1972-2001)
Location: 130 Skyline Drive, Ringwood, NJ
Photographed: July 2020
Heading across the street from yesterday's
former A&P to today's former Grand Union! Built in 1972, the store is 29,000 square feet and to this day retains its Grand Union essence.
Even down to the exterior! It's almost identical to the Ballston Spa, NY Grand Union location, which you can see
here (now an Ocean State Job Lot). You can enter at either end of the front, with produce, natural foods, and deli in the grand aisle to the left. Meats run along the back wall with bakery in the front right corner.
The Grand Union wood paneling remains on the wall! The
Grand Union decor has been retrofitted with simple, 2-D versions of the newer Stop & Shop decor probably installed around 2016-18.
Nature's Promise-branded natural foods section in the back half of the produce aisle.
Deli at the back of the grand aisle. Sorry, but that department sign just doesn't work. That should've been consolidated into one sign. Plus, there's actually just one counter under the signs.
Meats line the rest of the back wall. The decor and cases are all original to Grand Union!
Frozen foods run right down the middle of the store.
Household and non-foods in the next aisle. This decor was installed in 2001 by Stop & Shop and has not been updated since (notice the outdated Stop & Shop lettering). I believe all of the fixtures in this store are left from Grand Union. Stop & Shop can't be going on for much longer with this location, can they? Although as we'll see, Stop & Shop does have some much smaller and older locations across New Jersey.
Dairy is in aisle 10, the last full-length aisle in the store. Aisles 11, 12, and 13 are shortened due to the bakery department in the front, with the last filled with frozen foods.
You can see how the aisles are shorter due to the bakery on the right.
Seafood is tucked away in the back corner of the store. I suspect it hasn't been a service counter since Grand Union was here; Stop & Shop has it only self-service.
And frozen foods line the outside of the corner (we actually see some newly installed cases here)...
Now for a look at the front-end from the produce side, with the
Clean, Fresh, & Good light fixture long gone, unfortunately.
That's all for this store! I'm glad I got to photograph it because how much longer can a store look like this? I'd assume Stop & Shop is looking to replace this store in the near future. Anyway, our next store is to the east in Mahwah right at the New York border tomorrow, right here on The Market Report!
Pretty awesome to see so much original Grand Union stuff remain unchanged at this location! Even the outdated Stop & Shop décor in the household aisle is a neat find. But yeah, all of that taken together doesn't quite exude longevity for this store...
ReplyDeleteYes, some great relics! But the store probably won't stick around for much longer.
DeleteI have several things to say, so bear with it:
ReplyDelete- Regarding this building style, another store that comes to mind is the Sparta, NJ location that also acquired a similarly-styled early 1970s Grand Union building. S&S moved out in 2011 and that store became an Ocean State Job Lot around 2014. Knowing that, it's quite easy to see the fate of this store.
- I'm interested in why they replaced the suspended lighting with LED troffer grids. Perhaps they're only doing minor refreshes to keep corporate at bay before they replace the store?
- Interesting mix of carts, which appears to consist of those that Stop & Shop got when they opened (chrome-framed ones with red handles), some similar refurbished (possibly ex-Walmart) ones, and semi-current carts. I remember last seeing that kind of combination at the Arlington store in Poughkeepsie.
That's a good point about Sparta, I kind of forgot that store existed. I think there is a difference, though, between Ringwood here and the new or replacement stores Stop & Shop has invested in around small-town northern NJ (Sparta, Wanaque right to the south of Ringwood, Kinnelon/Butler, and so on), that those new expensive built or remodeled stores are all located on or immediately off a major highway (Sparta is right off 15, Wanaque is at the 287 exit, Kinnelon is on 23). There's really no major highway access to Ringwood at all, making me wonder how much Stop & Shop is willing to invest in this area.
DeleteGood question about the lighting. I don't know for sure, but what you said sounds logical there. And yes, that's spot-on about the shopping carts.
Oooh, I love this store. I try to visit it sometimes just because it's so charmingly dated. A real piece of the 70s that still going strong in the 20s.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I will say... I don't know what S&S will do with this store, if anything. They can't expand it, because the shopping center's too small. They can't demolish it and rebuild it, because I doubt there would be enough parking if that were to happen. They can't just close it and abandon ship, because that would leave Ringwood without a supermarket, forcing shoppers to go out to Wanaque or Oakland, which... isn't exactly convenient. If I were S&S, I'd leave it alone, not just because it's such a great GU time capsule, but because it's probably the most practical option.
All of that is definitely true. I think we might actually be returning, though, to a time that a 30,000-ish square foot store could be a solid choice for Stop & Shop. I'm thinking of the newly-built Stop & Shop in Newton, MA that's just over 20,000 square feet and a very good store.
Deletehttps://progressivegrocer.com/stop-shop-debuts-smaller-format-store-ma
https://village14.com/2018/12/14/stop-shop-opens-on-needham-street/#axzz6iSLm8lRv
If Stop & Shop is actually willing to invest in this store, and if this store's sales warrant it, they might be interested in this type of smaller-format location. Other than that, I think you're on the money with the "leave-it-alone" approach. As we see, even the minor renovation around 2015 was very simple and low-cost, so that's pretty much what they're doing here!
The old Clifton GU that eventually became my Stop & Shop had this same wood decor for a lotta years. I was sad when it got taken out, and especially considering they got rid of that big sign that spanned end to end and had aisle displays and ads on it around the same time.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I've always loved that wide sign. The only store I've ever seen with it still intact is the Food Star in Miami, FL, which is now a Key Food affiliate... any others you know of?
Delete