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SuperFresh - Linden, NJ

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By Zachary
SuperFresh
Opened: May 2019
Owner: Charles In Park
Previous Tenants: Pathmark
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 651 N Stiles St, Linden, NJ
Photographed: June 29, 2025
Time to return to the Linden SuperFresh! It's the largest Key Food store, and was opened in 2019 under the ownership of Food World. This spring, it was sold to the owners of the SuperFresh in Baldwin, NY (on Long Island). They began some renovations inside, condensing the grocery selection by removing a large international department to make way for a beauty supply store. I recently returned to find the work almost completely done (by now, it's finished).
All new signage outside, including a new SuperFresh sign for some reason. It's a very busy storefront, and I liked the simpler older look. Luckily, the interior is looking great these days. When I was here recently, it was also the most crowded I've ever seen the store. Looking at data on Placer.ai, it does seem that traffic has picked up a bit in the last few months, always a good sign.
The section previously housing international aisles has been walled off for a new Feel Beauty store, which the SuperFresh owners also own. (This store opened on July 3rd.) Pharmacy, floral, and a UPS store are on the front wall in front of this, and greeting cards have been moved out of the grocery aisles to this area. HABA has also been moved out of the grocery aisles to the front wall. So despite the fact that a few aisles were removed, the selection actually is larger throughout the store because they've managed to sneak in extra selections wherever they can, including making the shelves taller, closing a middle-aisle pass-through, and remerchandising some endcaps.
THE FRESH PRODUCE is also new, as the newly walled-off international section (here's a previous photo of this area) offers a new decor spot, too. I probably would've been okay without the "the" (what's wrong with just fresh produce?) but I do love the big, bold sign. It's actually lit up, too, which is fun.
Here's what I mean about selection increasing. The new owners have added produce refrigerators to the left side of the department, bordering the beauty supply store, along with one refrigerator at the back. They've reset the whole department to spread it all out more but also to add a lot more options, including related products like juices and salad dressings.
The fixtures in the middle are mostly the same, just shuffled around a little.
The produce department is even bigger now, and much larger than the average supermarket's.
A counter for cut produce has been replaced with an upright case for meat, which borders the produce department. They've added meat cases here because they displaced part of the meat department for a new service butcher counter, which this store didn't previously have.
New aisle markers, too. Although I'm not sold on the red, the uniformity across the store looks very sharp.
It looks like they simply shuffled the meat cases down a bit to cut a window out of this wall, so that there's now a service counter in the meat department.
The grocery aisles have been reset, too, with lots here.
And over in the international department -- which still spans more than three aisles, a very large selection -- new category markers have gone in to call out specific regions and types of food. Matching category markers have now also gone into the freezer aisles.
Up in the deli corner, there have been a few changes. For one, the sushi vendor has changed (it's now Sushi Maru; it was previously an independent sushi vendor called Sushi Chef John, as I recall). But next to the deli counter, the original owners originally had a small cafe, which they removed during the coronavirus. The new owners have added the seating back, along with a new ramen bar...
...so you choose your ramen packet and then the machines you can see below the ramen stacks will make your ramen for you. This is a fun idea (and I've seen it in Food Bazaar, but I don't believe I've seen it in any other stores). In fact, I saw two other shoppers taking a selfie in front of the ramen wall because they thought it was cool. (In case you're wondering whether normal people notice when a store resets: I eavesdropped on those two for a little while and they said they hadn't been to this store for a while and were impressed with a lot of new items. So yes.)
And that's all for the Linden SuperFresh! I'm really glad to see this store looking better than ever -- and, from what I saw, busy, too. Check out this weekend's other posts here:
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