Stop & Shop
Opened: 2003
Opened: 2003
Previous Tenants: none
Location: 1511 US-22, Watchung, NJ
Photographed: July 2020
It's time for the final store tour of the Plainfield group! It feels like this group has gone on forever but it's been only like two weeks, so it's probably just that it's taken me a very long time to write these stores. Plus, there are a lot of them -- there were a lot of days with two posts!
The assortment of stores at the gigantic Watchung Square Mall is just so absurd that I had to get a picture of the monument sign. A Target and a Walmart, a Home Depot, a Stop & Shop, appliances, home goods, clothing, enough shoe stores to put shoes on everyone's feet in Somerset County. (Oh, by the way, we are in Somerset County here. Plainfield is Union but everything surrounding it except Scotch Plains and Fanwood to the northeast is Somerset County.)
We enter to find the average Super Stop & Shop layout with the grand aisle on the left. Produce is at the right side of the grand aisle with natural foods and deli on the left side. A cheese island is behind produce, with meat and seafood on the back wall. Frozen foods and dairy are on the right side, with bakery in the front right corner. There's no pharmacy here. By the way, we're just up route 22 from the Watchung ShopRite.
Natural foods in the front corner. Like many Stop & Shops, the selection of natural refrigerated goods here is dwindling, but everything else seems to be fully stocked. In some stores, this corner has been converted into a sale department or an expansion of produce.
And of course, the Super Stop & Shop decor the store opened with back in 2003 is still going strong on the walls. That's not looking too bad, but that floor? Oh boy.
Super-deluxe Watchung Cheese Shop at the back of the grand aisle. This store must do a very good business, despite its age -- and I assume that the only reason that it hasn't been remodeled is that the nearby ShopRite is stuck in 1976.
Another indication that this is a pretty high volume store is the fact that there's actually an open, full-service, and fully-stocked seafood counter! Certainly a rarity in a Stop & Shop. Meats continue along the back wall.
As we can see, the store still looks pretty good but it's really showing its age.
Can't say I've ever seen that International Foods sign before. Is it original to this decor package?
The store comes in at 67,000 square feet, so it is quite large. But it feels even larger because of the inexplicably huge junk aisle section general merchandise department. I have to wonder why there's so much general merchandise here when it's got a Target 700 feet east and a Walmart 550 feet south. The ShopRite of South Plainfield, for comparison, is 78,000 square feet and doesn't feel an inch too large.
HABA towards the end of the store, but there's no pharmacy (and I don't believe there ever was one).
Frozen foods, and it looks like the cases have been updated since the store opened (although the signage has not). The way the store is set up, it's so wide that most of the dairy is on the back wall leaving nothing but frozen and bread (plus a small extension of dairy) in the last aisle.
Bakery in the front corner.
And a look at the front end from the bakery/frozen side of the store. I don't believe there ever was a pharmacy behind those shelves of beverages, but if there ever was one in the store, it would've been here.
One more look across the front-end from the produce/deli side of things. Would you look at that, the first few registers are covered up with soda and sale items, exactly what I described at Fig Tree. Anyhow, that's all for the Plainfield area, and now we're heading north of 22 for our next group!
Not sure if this link is accurate or not, but it seems to indicate that there may have been a pharmacy in the store at one point.
ReplyDeleteSeems it wouldn't be surprising if they did have one (not being sure if the Target and Walmart both existed there when they opened in 2003 or not) and that it may not have done well (simply with those two other options so close by, or after they became options if they weren't there originally).
https://businessfinder.nj.com/stop-shop-pharmacy-reported-closed-watchung-nj.html
It is an unusual thing to see Target and Walmart in the same plaza, though possibly an even more odd combination was (years back, of course) when we had one with Walmart and Ames side by side in one plaza (just the two stores - I believe one side started as a supermarket and not certain what other store the Ames may have been, given the way they took over so many things).
After Ames demise, they made the Walmart take the entire space (as it wasn't a super store originally).
(Queensbury, NY by the way, for those who may know the area).
That makes sense, thanks for the link! Very interesting to hear about that situation. Very unusual.
DeleteThe Target opened on October 14, 2001, while the Walmart opened on January 28, 2004. It was very likely that the pharmacy might’ve closed a while after Walmart opened, with Walmart, of course, being the most populated store in this shopping center. I wouldn’t think the pharmacy would close before Walmart’s opening, despite Target having its own pharmacy.
DeleteSo this wasn't a former Edwards? I didn't know Stop&Shop was building new stores in NJ all the way back then. Perhaps it was being built as an Edwards when the switch happened?
ReplyDeleteI have been to the shopping center a few times but have never been in this store. Would have guessed it was more updated that it is. I've never been a fan of this décor package. It's a little too basic. Plus, I hated to see Edwards décor replaced with it back in the day. Always kinda of thought of it more of a temporary thing until they got around to more significant remodels but here we are 20 years later and it's still hanging on in a lot of stores.
Yes, surprised to see the seafood counter.still open! Certainly a sign of being higher volume which makes the lack of a more recent remodel a mystery.
And wow, the place has a ton of registers! Do they ever have more than half open??
The outside design looks familiar to stores I've seen before (more in the MA/CT section of Stop & Shop), though with both being co-owned before they switched I suppose they might have used a similar design even if it was built (or being built) under Edwards at first.
DeleteNo idea on how many checkouts they open there, but that number total (I think it goes to 19 on those self checks in the 2nd photo?) sounds like what I've seen in other similar sized/designed stores as well. Unlike many stores, the ones I've seen use the full length self checkouts (with belts), so they basically upgraded the existing register lanes with those vs. replacing several with the 4 or 6 facing self checks that many other stores use, so the current number is likely unchanged from the original configuration.
You're right about the exterior design although it can be found on a few other stores in New Jersey.
DeletePretty sure this store was an Edwards, or was planned to be one. The floor has the 3-tile pattern all in green which was common for Edwards stores.
I don't believe this store ever was an Edwards, or planned to be one.
DeleteFrom my understanding, the Edwards/S&S conversions were all done by 2001, so this would've opened two years after that. And yes, the store model is identical to the New England Stop & Shop stores from the mid-90s and beyond.
And as for the flooring... I wouldn't be too sure that that was exclusive to Edwards. On a spot check, I see the same thing in late 90s/early 00s store models from New England Stop & Shops. Check out Blue Hill Ave in Boston or Lincoln St in Worcester. Certainly those were never Edwards and they have the same green tile design. To my knowledge, those stores were also built with this same decor package, so it seems that this was in fact an early new-build Stop & Shop location in NJ.
And as for the checkouts, I have to assume they're never all opened especially since we see many of them being blocked by merchandise.
There were some Long Island Stop & Shops that were planned as Stop and Shops, opened as Edwards, then switched to Stop & Shop when Edwards was switched over. I believe it was East Islip, Holbrook, Farmingville (and South Setauket was planned before S&S got bought by Ahold but opened as Stop & Shop post-Edwards switchover)
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