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TOUR: Whole Foods Market - Madison, NJ

Whole Foods Market
Opened: ca. 2000
Previous Tenants: A&P (1960s-1998)
Location: 222 Main St, Madison, NJ
Photographed: December 2020
It's time for our second Rose City tour! See the Stop & Shop near downtown here. This store is about half a mile outside of downtown. Originally built as a centennial A&P in the 1960s (see the facade? It's been changed but the bones are still there...) it was extensively expanded and renovated to its current 28,000 square feet in the 1970s. At the same time, the store was likely rearranged with the front-end relocated from the wall facing Main Street (seen here) to the left-side wall of the store, which faces the main parking lot. It's also possible that was a change made by Whole Foods upon moving in, it's hard to tell. But anyway, the 62,000 square foot Edwards, later Stop & Shop, up the street was too much for this much smaller and older A&P, which closed in 1998. Whole Foods moved in shortly thereafter, and they completely remodeled the entire space.
This originally was A&P's front wall, though it's now the side of the store. There's a small row of parking along this side, with most of the parking being around the corner to the left.
It's been quite a while since we last toured a Whole Foods, so it's nice to see one again. The entrance and exit are here in this built-out section (which looks a lot like what A&P was putting on new stores in the 70s, so I assume it was added by A&P and not Whole Foods).
Upon entering the store, the first thing we encounter is a coffee and juice bar. Produce lines the back wall of the building (relative to Main Street), with the front end running along the left side wall of the store and cheese, seafood, and meat running along the right side wall. The deli/bakery/prepared foods aisle is the front wall of the store (shown in the first few pictures), and from the front right corner of the store, there's a doorway into the HABA department in a separate room which was previously a separate storefront.
I must say that I think the design of this store is quite attractive. The decor is well done, but the building has also gotten a beautiful treatment. We'll see that clearly in a little bit.
Many of the centennial stores were built with arched or barrel roofs, and this one was no exception. The roof has been exposed inside for a wonderful effect, plus skylights on the back wall.
Beautiful! If you like this, don't worry -- this isn't the last centennial A&P-turned-Whole Foods that we'll see. Remember that A&P's aisles originally would've run perpendicular to the aisles now, front to back instead of side to side.
Beautiful cheese counter in the back right corner of the store, with seafood taking up the next section of the right-side wall...
The grocery aisles in the middle of the store line up beautifully with the high exposed ceiling.
The aisles are divided in half, so there's one walkway running from front to back. I do wonder why that choice was made in a store that's already so small, but I suppose that the middle walkway isn't that wide so not too much selection is lost.
Here looking towards the back wall, we can clearly see the slope of the ceiling. Nice floor here too, it looks like polished concrete but it's actually tile.
Dairy and frozen in the front of the store, with butcher in the front right corner...
Notice the blue sign in the corner there? That's directing people to the HABA room, which is up a small ramp because it was previously a separate storefront. Today, you have to go through the supermarket to get there.
I do love the fact that they left the front windows intact which, as you can see, let in a lot of light to this separate room!
Great merchandising as well. Let's head back into the main supermarket...
The Kitchen (deli/prepared foods) lines the front wall of the store, and again, I love the windows left on the front wall where A&P's front end would've originally been.
The sun glare makes photography a bit difficult here though! Oh, one very strange thing that's only coming back to me now, seeing that shopping cart. About half of the carts in this store were red metal carts from Trader Joe's with the Trader Joe's logo prominently visible on the handle. Why? I've never seen secondhand carts of  any kind at any Whole Foods before.
Here's a look at the front end from the bakery side, and another Trader Joe's cart. There's a small cafe in the corner to the left here, I believe.
And the front end from the produce side. This is a really nice looking store, and it seems to do a very good business despite the Stop & Shop nearby (although the Stop & Shop was not all that impressive, and if you haven't yet, you can tour it here). Tomorrow is our final Great Swamp area day, and we're headed to our final two stores in Chatham -- one store here on The Market Report and a former supermarket nearby on Grocery Archaeology!

Comments

  1. Looking at the 2019 street view, I have to wonder if those ex-Trader Joe's units are cheap replacements for the older, chrome-framed Tote Carts this store used to have. Seeing situations like that makes me question if that's a one-off or if they are doing this in other locations.

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    1. It's a good question. I haven't seen the Trader Joe's carts in any other locations but I also don't really frequent Whole Foods all that much.

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  2. Despite A&P being only 98 years old at the time, Centennial stores opened as early as 1957. (I am not aware of any Centennials opening in 1956.) The Madison A&P was Morris County's first Centennial store, opening on November 19, 1957. This bit of information was gleaned from Page 5 of the November 14, 1957 edition of The Madison (NJ) Eagle (courtesy of Newspapers.com). A picture of the brand new Madison A&P appears in an advertisement, along with an acknowledgment that the new store is a replacement for A&P's soon-to-close location at 35 Main Street.

    I believe that the 222 Main Street location was expanded more than once. According to an article on Page 2 of the September 14, 1972 edition of The Madison-Florham Park Eagle, the town approved an 8,600 square foot expansion of the store. And based on what I read in the Daily Record, A&P expanded (again) in late-1989 or early-1990; that time, A&P was able to expand only by forcing an adjacent paint & hardware store, along with a pharmacy and a laundromat, to exit the shopping center. Based on this info, along with what I see on HistoricAerials.com, it appears the following occurred:

    *A small shopping center adjacent to the A&P was completed in 1957 or shortly thereafter. On the Historic Aerials website, this shopping center appears to the right of the supermarket. (It's hard to see this in the 1957 view, but you can clearly see this in the 1963 view.)

    *This A&P's first expansion, completed circa 1973, was built to the left of the original store (as seen from the aerial views provided). It doesn't appear that the Centennial facade of the original building was significantly altered as a result of this expansion, as I can still see the signature triangular peak.

    *As indicated previously, A&P expanded (a second time) circa 1990 by taking over the space in the (former) shopping center that was to the right of the original supermarket. It is unclear whether the 1989-90 expansion materially altered the appearance of the original store, as the 1991 and 1995 aerial views provided were of very poor quality.

    *The official closing date of the Madison A&P was June 6, 1998, per Page A4 of that day's edition of the Daily Record. (That paper, however, incorrectly stated that the Madison A&P had been in operation for only 25 years.) I must say that I was surprised upon first learning this store closed in 1998, as I thought it closed quite a bit earlier.

    Very interestingly, Whole Foods was not the first tenant to take over the closed A&P building, as Wild Oats Community Market opened on September 23, 1999. I could not ascertain a specific closing date, but it appears that Wild Oats closed by the end of 2001. According to Page D1 of the October 27, 2002 edition of the Daily Record, the Madison Whole Foods opened on October 17 of that year. That Daily Record article mentioned that Wild Oats remodeled the A&P, though Whole Foods very likely made significant renovations of its own. And based on the aerial views available, the material exterior alterations (such as the removal of the Centennial roof's triangular peak) occurred by 2002.

    Regarding my opinion of the Madison Whole Foods as it is today, while it's a nice store, it just doesn't have the charm of the Morristown A&P-turned-Whole Foods. The inside of the Madison Whole Foods feels much more "warehouse" like than the Morristown store (though I concede that the interiors of most Whole Foods locations have that warehouse feel), which I don't care for. And I'm also not a fan of the painted bricks and altered roof of the Madison location.

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