Save A Lot
Opened: 2019
Welcome to the Hillside Save A Lot! This is one of only three in North Jersey, with the other two in nearby Newark and Orange. Well actually, it's about to be down to two in North Jersey. This Hillside location is in the process of switching to SuperFresh.
This building has been a supermarket for a long time, being constructed around the late 1950s as a ShopRite, then becoming a Pathmark in 1968. After Pathmark closed, it became the Hillside IGA until around the 90s, then a Drug Fair and a Walgreens. Walgreens moved to a newly built location nearby, and a few years later, Save A Lot opened in 2019. I believe it was originally a corporately-owned Save A Lot, and when they sold all their stores in 2020-2021, this store and Orange went to the same owner. Newark appears to be under different ownership. Hillside and Orange were sold again around 2023, and underwent full resets, making the selection much more like a full supermarket and less like a discount store. I'm not sure whether Hillside and Orange are currently under the same owners or different owners.
At the end of last week, this store joined Key Food and began the process of converting to SuperFresh. I don't know if it was sold again, or if the store is simply changing its name. But the reset to switch it to Key Food was well underway when I visited earlier this week. More on that shortly.
For now, all the pictures we're seeing are from spring 2024 -- after the Save A Lot had undergone a reset to make it more of a general supermarket, but before it had begun the process of converting to SuperFresh. You can see that the store has the standard Save A Lot decor and signage, but far from the typical Save A Lot selections.
You enter on the right side to produce in the front-right corner, with frozen meats and nonfoods in the back-right corner. The rest of meats, dairy, and cold cuts are on the back wall with frozen foods on the left side.
The shelving was replaced when ownership changed in 2023, replacing the lower, discount store-type shelving with these shelves that look like any other supermarket. You can also see that the aisles were realigned slightly, because the aisle markers no longer actually hang over the aisles. There aren't many pictures of this store's interior before the change online, but you can get an idea here or by looking at the older pictures of Orange.
This store still seems to be very low-volume -- I've been in a few times and I'm usually the only customer in the place -- but it's possible a switch to SuperFresh could drum up some interest. There's another SuperFresh in Irvington, just north of here, but it's much larger. This Save A Lot is only about 18,000 square feet.
Dairy and frozen on the left side of the store...
You can see here some examples of how they've narrowed the aisles. It looks like the shelving on the right might be older, probably original to this store.
Frozen and dairy on the left side of the store. If they wanted to make a bigger investment, they could switch one of these rows of coffin coolers to an upright freezer and add another aisle.
But all the fixtures are relatively new, since the store only opened in 2019 as a Save A Lot.
Soda -- this area has since been reset to be dried fruit and nuts -- in the front-left corner.
And a look at the front-end.
This Save A Lot (and Orange but not Newark) had been running these rather unusual circulars -- more like what independent supermarkets in this area run, and nothing like the standard Save A Lot circular. Now, I assume they'll transition to a SuperFresh circular.
Speaking of, let's check out the store as the transition is happening! I returned on Tuesday to see what was going on. Save A Lot signage was still up outside, but inside, things are looking a bit different.
Produce has been reset again, with the rows of bins (which might just be crates with a cloth over them?) now running side to side instead of front to back. There's clearly an effort to bring in more produce selection here. You can also see the Key Food price signs, which are the yellow papers. More on price signage soon.
The grocery aisles were being reshuffled just a little, but mostly the layout seems to be staying pretty much the same. I saw a few people in Key Food jackets taking inventory and working on the reset. And in a few places, you can see the Save A Lot and Key Food price tags side by side, such as below, with Save A Lot on the left and Key Food on the right.
More Key Food sale signage here on the bags of rice...
And, interestingly enough, I spotted a couple pages of Key Food tags about to go onto the shelves here in frozen. The smaller tag in the bottom left corner is a Key Food tag, the rest out are Save A Lot.
Signage advertising Urban Meadow, the Key Food storebrand, was also about to go up. I assume most of this transition is probably done now since it doesn't take more than a couple days.
And even though the sign still said Save A Lot when I visited on Tuesday, it was definitely running as a SuperFresh. The registers all had SuperFresh logos on the screens, and the receipts print with the SuperFresh logo.
Opened: 2019
Owner: unknown
Previous Tenants: ShopRite > Pathmark > Hillside IGA > Drug Fair > Walgreens
Later Tenants: SuperFresh (May 2025- )
Cooperative: none
Location: 1303 N Broad St, Hillside, NJ
Photographed: March 1, 2024 and May 27, 2025
I'll be back soon to check out the store once it switches over fully! And this isn't actually the first SuperFresh in a former Save A Lot. Up north, SuperFresh stores have moved into Save A Lots in Holyoke, MA and Providence, RI, and to the south in Tampa, FL. While we're on the subject of SuperFresh, a SuperFresh is preparing to move into a space at 1750 US-46 in Woodland Park, NJ -- actually part of a former centennial A&P -- and it appears that it'll be under the same ownership as the Passaic and Clifton stores. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, a SuperFresh operator appears to have signed a lease for a former Walgreens at 1559 Flatbush Ave, just about a mile southeast of the newly-expanded Flatbush SuperFresh. Plus, lots more this weekend...
Yesterday: A New Jersey ShopRite operator makes some really unusual changes to their in-store branding.
Sunday: Welcome to Boston!
Are there other stores (grocery) nearby?
ReplyDeleteOnly wondering given the setup of this being an IGA, then going to Drug Fair to Walgreens, as that sounds (more or less) like the store that used to be in Boonton (visible off I-287), which was a grocery (and I think IGA as well).
That one closed up shortly after A&P opened next door (they are more or less back-to-back buildings, facing more to the side than to the street) and also was Drug Fair until the Walgreens buyout, which it remains today (of course the A&P became Acme at the very last second when A&P was closing).