Special Report: G Mart (future) - Hackensack, NJ

G Mart (coming soon)
Owner: Jeff Gee
Opening: TBA

Cooperative: none

Location: 375-417 NJ-17, Hackensack, NJ

Photographed: December 20, 2021 and February 24, 2024

The 58,000 square foot Pathmark on route 17 in Hackensack opened back in the 1970s and closed without a buyer in A&P's 2015 bankruptcy. Since then, Planet Fitness has opened up shop in part of the space, with around 40,000 square feet left over on the right side. Very recently, Asian supermarket G Mart has signed a lease for the space and has begun renovations.

I first visited the former Pathmark in late 2021, long before G Mart announced their intentions to move in. Planet Fitness was up and running, but plenty of Pathmark relics remain. The stripe is obvious on the storefront, and the pharmacy labelscar is very clear too. The Super Center signage remained...

The store is situated immediately behind a large and relatively recently renovated Stop & Shop. However, it doesn't seem to be a particularly high volume store, and it's not nearly as nice as you might expect mostly because the ceiling is extremely low. It appears to be an older store that was expanded, rather than replaced. (Stop & Shop has also seriously declined in the last few months, with significantly less staffing and stock, resulting in empty shelves everywhere. Maybe I'll post some of my pictures from some Stop & Shops I've seen lately.)

But back to G Mart! They appear to currently have two locations, one in Milford, CT, in a former ShopRite and a much smaller one in Queens. It looks like they're working on another in a former New York Marts, also in Queens.

The part of the store that G Mart is working on still had lots of Pathmark leftovers when I visited in 2021, but less so now.

We can look inside from the windows where Pathmark's front-end was...

We can clearly see where the registers and the aisles were! We can also see the dividing wall on the left side, and a bit of the decor on the back wall.

It's always amazing to me how divided supermarket spaces are just sliced right down the middle.

I assume Pathmark's frozen and dairy departments were on the far right, with meat on the back wall. Not sure what the layout was beyond that.

There's also a fire exit on the right side...

Now let's head back to the store just this month. G Mart has signed the lease and wasted no time in getting started on the work. I was here on a Saturday and there was actually work ongoing inside the building, but it still felt like a Pathmark...

Inside, I could hear several people working and a drill or something like that. Notice the building supplies all around.

It'll be exciting to see what the new G Mart looks like! The other former Pathmark in town was acquired by 99 Ranch Market and is across town around 3 miles away. And for the most exciting part of the store...

thmark! A painted Pathmark sign remains (mostly) on the back of the building. I may or may not have audibly exclaimed "thmark!" to myself in my car when I saw that. We'll have to see how G Mart does with their expansion to New Jersey. For now, there's more to see today here!