TOUR: Kings Food Markets - Summit, NJ

Kings Food Markets
Opened: by 1964

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 784 Springfield Ave, Summit, NJ

Photographed: January 2019, November 2020, and January 2021

Our first Union County store is here in the northwestern corner of the city of Summit! The 10,600 square foot store is an expansion of an original 5700 square foot, barrel-roof building -- which interestingly enough is now surrounded on all sides by expansions, and the original building is now at an approximately 20 degree angle to the walls built later. Does that make sense? Here's the aerial view. I believe, although I'm not sure, that Kings built this store from the ground up, replacing the very first Kings at the other end of town. We'll be seeing that, which is still a grocery store, up next! Today, this small but very upscale store is the only full supermarket in this small but very upscale city. The first picture above was taken back in January of 2019, but in November 2020 -- in Kings' last weeks in business prior to the ACME acquisition -- I got out to as many Kings that I hadn't yet visited as I could to document the stores that were still open before being bought or closed. This store, along with 18 others, was sold to ACME. So all the pictures we're seeing are pre-ACME takeover.

It's interesting to me that ACME chose to take this store, given that it's so small (it feels tiny inside), and that it's only a mile from the ACME in New Providence. We enter to a tiny deli in the front left corner, with produce lining both sides of aisle 7 along the left side wall. Dairy lines the back wall, with frozen in aisle 6. Aisle 1, at the far right side, has liquor, bakery, and meat. Given the store's tiny size, deli is the only service department and it's hard to tell whether they bake in-store.

Inside, we find the Kings decor nicely scaled down to the small store. Next to the deli is a tiny cheese display compared to what most Kings have, although honestly the selection is probably similar because most Kings stores use single-tiered cheese islands instead of these upright cases.

And the rest of the first aisle is produce. I actually find Kings' model to be much more conducive to these small locations because the selection is limited and curated rather than trying to be a little of everything. There's a very nice selection of produce for a small store, in other words, but the same selection doesn't quite fill the larger stores.

The interior offers no clues as to what the store would've originally looked like or how it would've been oriented.

Dairy lines the back wall of the store in very nicely upgraded cases. Frozen foods are in aisle 6, which is really the second aisle. A bit strange but it works enough.

The layout seems to be reversed from what I'm used to at least, with nonfoods up next in aisle 5.

Why does that 3 look a little wonky to me? Anyway, these aisle markers (which I've just spent the past 10+ minutes researching) seem to be the first of two variations that were paired with this decor package, but not originating from the decor package before this one. Got it? Let's move on.

A very tiny liquor department takes up the back corner of the store. I'd bet this accounts for a large amount of the store's sales. My assumption, although I haven't been back to this store, is that ACME is no longer operating this liquor section -- same as the A&P locations -- because they already have two liquor stores in the state, the maximum allowed in New Jersey.

A tiny bakery selection and meat take up the rest of the last aisle.

Notice that this, which really is the last aisle, is labeled aisle 1.

A wonderful tiny customer service counter is tucked away in the front corner of the store, just to the left of the Kings logo on the front wall in the above picture.

Four registers make up the rest of the front end...

Pretty solid for a tiny supermarket! But it's not the smallest Kings out there, or at least it wasn't at the time. We'll be seeing an even smaller Kings which has since closed in a little bit! I stopped by two days before ACME officially took over at the end of January 2021, with no noticeable changes except that the store was welcoming shoppers from the Gillette location, about six miles to the west. To get from that Kings, which closed in December 2020, to this location, you'd have to drive by a Stop & Shop and an ACME. The lettering was also beginning to peel a bit on the storefront here, all repairs I'd assume the bankrupt former owners didn't feel a need to invest in but that ACME will fix up over time.

For now, we'll be taking a look at the independent grocer that opened up shop in the building that previously housed the original Kings in downtown Summit over on The Independent Edition tomorrow.