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TOUR: ShopRite - Brodheadsville, PA

ShopRite of Brodheadsville
Owner: Robert Kinsley
Opened: 2012
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp.
Location: 107 Kinsley Dr, Brodheadsville, PA
Photographed: December 22, 2018
Folks, welcome to the World's Largest ShopRite!
The 95,000 square foot ShopRite of Brodheadsville was constructed in 2012 to replace an older, 50,000 square foot store around the corner. These days, it's still Kinsley's Family Market, and the Kinsley name is all around the store. It's quite the experience, but I must say... I'm not sure I find it truly an exceptional store. It's a really good store, but I feel like it would be just as good if it were 70,000 square feet instead of 95,000. In fact, it felt like the slightly smaller ShopRite of Stroudsburg had a lot more to offer.
That said, it's worth visiting just for fun, but I'm not sure I could shop here on a regular basis. We begin with the grand aisle on the left side of the store, with deli, prepared foods, and bakery departments around the perimeter and produce facing.
In the front is Doris's Cafe, with seating on the second level. More on that soon.
We begin with a prepared foods department in the front corner. Again, the ShopRite of Stroudsburg had a lot more to offer in the prepared foods department, but it's a large selection here too.
Deli is up next. This decor is similar to Hatfield and other PA ShopRites. It's not unattractive, but hasn't been updated since the store opened. It was in excellent shape at the time of my visit, but that was several years ago now.
As we see, the store doesn't look enormous from this angle because there's a lot in our sightlines. I wouldn't say the store is too cluttered, but it's certainly got a lot going on visually.
Large bakery in the back corner.
Even when we look across the grand aisle like this, it's still not a wide expanse. I wonder if that was done intentionally to reduce the size the store feels like.
As we see, though, the service departments are mostly normal-sized, despite the massive size of the store. I think center store is where most of the size comes from.
We have a dedicated natural department in the first few aisles, including refrigerated and frozen foods as we can see here. I like this flooring.
As we get out of the grand aisle, the flooring changes over from wood-texture to something more like terrazzo. As much as we are reminded we're in Kinsley's Family Market, there's still a lot of ShopRite around the store...
...included inlaid in the floor. The one part of the store where the service departments are definitely more extravagant than others is the in-store Smokehouse, for smoked meats. Pretty cool!
Meats on the back wall. Again, the decor is quite attractive, if a bit cluttered.
The grocery aisles look pretty standard, but are quite attractive.
There's space for a lot of promotional and seasonal merchandise here, not to mention special displays...
Including an entire truck. Or would you say this is more of a van?
The store is large enough that there's perimeter space for special features like this one, with wall space dedicated to just sale items.
Looking back over towards the grand aisle on the back wall.
Frozen foods are towards the end of the store, with dairy in the same area, but they're not in the last aisles as we'll see.
Here's the last few grocery aisles, with dairy and frozen in this area.
As we go around the corner from dairy/frozen, we find the large HABA department in the last three aisles or so. A slightly unusual place to put them, but the pharmacy is here too, so it works well enough.
As we can see, this is a very large selection of HABA.
And the pharmacy is at the front of the last aisles. As we frequently see, the decor gets less extravagant after we leave the grand aisle and perishables departments.
And a look across the massive front-end.
Heading back over to the grand aisle area, we find the floral department between the entrance and the registers.
Now let's head upstairs to Doris's Cafe...
Here we can get a great overview of the store, looking across the front-end. The entrance is right below us in the above picture.
And overviewing the grand aisle. We can see produce to the right and the service departments on the perimeter to the left. Doris's Cafe itself is quite attractive...
...lots of seating for people who bought prepared foods, coffee, or anything like that.
Here's a look at the service departments on the perimeter with islands for prepared foods, cheese, and things like that in front of them.
This is a feature we've seen in quite a few stores, including several Wegmans and Henning's not too long ago.
Lining the perimeter of the cafe is displays of various Kinsley's memorabilia. Some selections...
Uniforms, a painting of an old Kinsley's store...
...an aerial photograph of a Kinsley's Market, though sadly I don't know where this was...
...and a painting of the former location just around the corner we saw last week.
Before we finish up, we're going to check out the front-end a little closer...
Like Wegmans and other stores, there's a toy train running on a track above the registers. Kinsley's, though, goes a bit further with train-themed checkout lane markers.
The railroad crossing signs that are lit up are open registers, and the number of tracks is the register number. As a railroad lover myself, I love this!
And before we leave for good, I had to get a piece of memorabilia for myself...
Just for fun! There's another supermarket in Broadheadsville, though, which we're going to check out tomorrow here on The Market Report!

Comments

  1. There are some fun things here, but ultimately I feel like the store is trying just a bit too hard to capitalize on that "world's largest" moniker... for instance, the inlaid logo and the truck display feel like a bit much. So do the lane lights and the train track, even though I agree, those are both neat to see! But with all the visual clutter (as you mention), it just all feels like a lot, and that the store is trying more to be a destination than an actual store. I think I like the cafe area the best (and I'm not just saying that because of the memorabilia up there, although that does help, haha!)

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    1. I agree. It feels like it's unnecessarily large. The world's second-largest ShopRite, in Brooklyn, feels much more size-appropriate, even though it's only a difference of 2,000 square feet. https://www.marketreportblog.com/2020/04/tour-shoprite-east-new-york-brooklyn-ny.html It feels large, but not overly so, and every part of the space is used well.

      I also agree about the cafe area! It's very well-done.

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  2. Thanks very much for your superb profile of this ShopRite. Below are some of my thoughts:

    *This seems like a really cool supermarket, even though I agree with Retail Retell that the store is trying a bit too hard to capitalize on being the "World's Largest ShopRite." Though I would not want to do my weekly grocery shopping in such a large store, this I am sure this ShopRite is a fun place to visit.

    *I think that this store would benefit from a drop ceiling, and that such a ceiling would work nicely with this ShopRite's decor package.

    *I actually like the over-the-top features, including the truck display. The lane lights and train track are pretty awesome.

    *I agree with the previously expressed sentiments about Doris's Cafe being a highlight of the store. Those paintings are beautiful, especially the painting of Kinsley's most recent former supermarket (i.e., the building that looks like a barn).

    *Speaking about Kinsley's most recent former location, that has to be the most unique looking exterior of any ShopRite, past or present. I am glad that structure looks pretty much the same today (apart from a paint job).

    *Elsewhere on The Market Report, you mentioned that the second largest ShopRite is the Glass Gardens-owned ShopRite of Gateway Center (in Brooklyn, NY). Is the third largest ShopRite the ShopRite of Stroudsburg? If so, I would find it quite interesting that ShopRite's three largest stores are not in New Jersey despite the fact that ShopRite is the state's dominant supermarket chain. (And as far as I know, ShopRite is not all that common in Northeastern Pennsylvania, so it would be all the more fascinating if two of its three largest stores were located there.)

    *If you are able to answer this question without doing much additional work, I would love to see a list of the largest and smallest ShopRites currently in operation. (The list of the largest ShopRites and the list of the smallest ShopRites can be as short or as long as you wish.) Any lists you can make would be greatly appreciated.

    *We have previously discussed the limitations of the measure distance tool on Google Maps. For instance, the Chatham ShopRite "feels" like a bigger store (to me) than Netcong--in terms of the shopping space that customers can access--because the former has a basement (where groceries can be stored) while the latter does not. In your opinion, which ShopRite--the ShopRite of Brodheadsville or the ShopRite of Stroudsburg--"feels" like the bigger store? (I realize that you said that the ShopRite of Stroudsburg felt like it had a lot more to offer. My inference--based upon what you wrote--was that the ShopRite of Stroudsburg seemed like it had a bigger grand aisle while the ShopRite of Brodheadsville had the bigger selection of groceries. However, I was unable to infer which of the two stores you felt was bigger overall.)

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    1. Thanks for all your thoughts on this store! A few responses:

      - I could see a drop ceiling working in this store, but it would definitely make the place feel smaller. Of course, my preference is always open ceilings, but I could see either way being fine here.

      - I agree! The paintings are awesome.

      - Here's a quick snapshot of some of the large and small ShopRites, although this of course isn't an exhaustive list and I might be missing a few:

      Largest
      1. Brodheadsville (95,000 sf)
      2. Gateway (93,000 sf)
      3. Middletown, NJ (91,000 sf)
      4. Stroudsburg (88,000 sf)
      5. Sparta (82,000 sf)
      6. Oakland (81,000 sf)
      7. Wayne (80,000 sf)

      Smallest
      1. Chatham (25,000 sf)
      2. Netcong (28,000 sf)
      3. Millburn (31,000 sf)
      4. Watchung (34,000 sf)
      5. Bruckner Boulevard (35,000 sf)
      6. Springfield (38,000 sf)
      7. Old Bridge (38,000 sf)

      Note that Netcong is soon to be expanded, Watchung is moving one space over in the mall, and Old Bridge is soon to be replaced. Bruckner Boulevard, meanwhile, is quite new but located in the Bronx where there is just less space. Also note that six of these seven are owned by Village. Millburn confuses me, as they've been trying to move it for years but it's currently undergoing a renovation that is not significantly changing the space. I don't know what the game plan is there, and to be honest I'm not convinced Village does have a long-term plan.

      - I would say the Stroudsburg ShopRite definitely does feel like its grand aisle is larger, but the store is noticeably smaller than this one overall. The fact that the store is roughly square rather than rectangular also adds to that feeling, given that you can really sense a store's large size from one long end.

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    2. Sorry for this very belated response. This list of biggest and smallest ShopRites (based on data I presume you got from the Google Measure Distance tool) is very fascinating.

      It is notable that despite its very large size, the owners of the Broadheadsville ShopRite operate no other supermarkets. And until the recent sale of the ShopRite of Oakland to SRS, that supermarket was also the sole location operated by its (now former) proprietor.

      I am not surprised that Village operates quite a few of the smallest ShopRite supermarkets, since I consider them to be one of the more old-fashioned ShopRite operators (in spite of having some very large stores). As I have stated previously, I believe that the ShopRite of Chatham has more shoppable space than the Google Measure Distance tool might indicate. since (I believe) there is a lower level which is used to store groceries. Although it still is on the small side, that supermarket is maintained very nicely (and has a good selection of groceries). I was unaware that Village has been trying to relocate its Millburn store. Based on the photos you uploaded, I was quite pleased with how the recent renovation turned out. I hate to have vintage supermarkets close, so hopefully the Millburn ShopRite will stay in its current location for many years to come.

      One exception to the sentiment of not wanting vintage stores to close pertains to the ShopRite of Old Bridge. In that specific case, it seems to be for the best that a replacement store will soon open. (According to a Google search, the new Old Bridge ShopRite is scheduled to open this upcoming spring.) I do not know when the new ShopRite of Watchung will open, nor do I know how the redevelopment of the Blue Star Shopping Center is progressing. I does not appear that any recent progress has been made on the expansion of the Netcong ShopRite, although I did see a few construction vehicles behind the store's parking lot within the last few weeks. It will be unfortunate when that supermarket is finally replaced, since I consider Netcong to be the most vintage ShopRite still in existence.

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    3. There was a potentially confusing typo (pertaining to punctuation) in the third paragraph of my above post when I wrote the following: "As I have stated previously, I believe that the ShopRite of Chatham has more shoppable space than the Google Measure Distance tool might indicate. since (I believe) there is a lower level which is used to store groceries." Obviously, I meant to type a comma--instead of a period--between the words "indicate" and "since." I apologize for any confusion.

      Regarding the ShopRite of Springfield (which was not discussed in my above post), I sincerely hope that there are no plans to replace that very unique supermarket. Springfield's age and size obviously put it in danger of replacement. But if Village is looking to replace Millburn, one has to wonder if the company intends to build a large store that would also serve as a replacement for Springfield, given how close both ShopRites are to each other.

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    4. Agreed on all counts! Thanks for all your thoughts here. I've also thought it's possible that Village would want to combine Springfield and Millburn into one larger new store. There are fewer and fewer of those single-store operators in Wakefern lately -- consider for instance Nutley Park Markets, which until around 2012 owned only the Nutley ShopRite, then opened Belleville, and then earlier this year acquired Kearny from a single-store operator. Brookdale was a single-store operator until about 2015, when they opened their second in Newark. But I think the trend is consolidation.

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