Update: ShopRite - Rochelle Park, NJ

ShopRite of Rochelle Park
Owner: Irv Glass/Glass Gardens

Opened: 1955

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: Wakefern Food Corp

Location: 220 W Passaic St, Rochelle Park, NJ

Photographed: June 16, 2023

We're back at the ShopRite of Rochelle Park! I visited in 2016 and basically found it so unpleasant that I never returned until I happened to be driving by a few weeks ago and noticed major construction going on. I knew I had to see what was happening!

Although the store is a whopping 76,000 square feet, it doesn't feel like it because it's so cramped. The building was not constructed as what we see today, but instead appears to have been built around a 20,000 square foot or so 1950s building, expanded many times and currently undergoing its latest expansion. It looks like the latest expansion will bring the store close to 90,000 square feet, and that includes a liquor store.

Here's a look at what the new supermarket will look like once it's done. As we see, there's no construction expected to be done on the rest of the building, since it's relatively new.

And this is what I assume will be the new entrance, and I have to imagine the grand aisle will be relocated here. As we'll see, there's no grand aisle currently.

We enter to produce in the entrance hallway, with produce behind it and prepared foods at the back of the first aisle. Deli, seafood, and meat line the back wall, with pharmacy and customer service on the front wall. Dairy and frozen are on the far left side of the store, with a ridiculously tiny bakery in the front left corner.

The store was remodeled since I visited in 2016, but that appears to have been a strictly cosmetic remodel. It's interesting they'd have done a remodel right before doing this major expansion, which obviously will not just be cosmetic.

The store is attractive enough, but so cramped and poorly laid-out that it is incredibly unpleasant to navigate.

Here's the right side of the produce department, where the wall will soon be expanded out to the right. As we see, many of these fixtures seem to be fairly new, so I would guess they may be saved and relocated.

Prepared foods are in the back of the first aisle, with a hot food bar, Chinese food, soups, and sandwiches. Sushi is in an island opposite these.

Pharmacy is on the front wall. I must say that I am not a fan of this decor package. I think it looks cheap and like it was designed by a middle-schooler -- or perhaps for a middle school.

We can see that the store is nice enough looking, but the aisles are narrow and the ceiling is low. In the store, you certainly don't get any inkling that it's as large as it is.

Prepared foods and cheeses on the diagonal back-right wall. I mean, if I were Glass Gardens, who owns this store, I would seriously look into just relocating the store rather than just adding on and adding on over and over again. The issue is you'd have to move it away from the ShopRite of Paramus, also owned by Glass Gardens, under a mile and a half east.

Deli and seafood are on the back wall.

You can see indications that this is an old building, like the water stains on the ceiling and the many random columns suggesting where walls used to be.

I don't believe there's a service butcher, but the meat department is on the back wall on the left side.

Evidence of a reset is obvious in the grocery aisles, and it looks like they may actually be widening a few of the aisles. Woohoo!

Frozen foods in what look like brand-new cases at the end of the store.

A look at the dairy department in the last aisle. I don't like this decor at all. I assume it's supposed to look retro, but I think it just looks bad.

Notice that most of the baked goods are on tables in this aisle. We'll see why shortly.

There's an alcove in the front-left corner of the store that holds things like soda and chips, along with a little more of the frozen foods, and the tiny bakery.

Frozen foods are on the front wall of the store.

And there you go. There's no service bakery here, although there is an in-store bakery. It's just a doorway behind these bread cases.

If you didn't already know the bakery were back in this corner of the store, you would never find it.

And for a look at the massive front-end, the one place there's a suggestion of how large the store is...

That's all, but this isn't the only ongoing ShopRite remodel happening in this area! Come back tomorrow to check out another one!