SuperFresh - Woodland Park, NJ

SuperFresh
Opened: September 12, 2025

Owner: Teofilo de Jesus

Previous Tenants: A&P (1960s-early 00s) > assorted non-grocery tenants > A-Mart (planned, never opened)

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 1750 US-46, Woodland Park, NJ

Photographed: September 12, 2025

Welcome to the latest SuperFresh! This store is in Woodland Park, New Jersey, just southwest of Paterson (in fact Woodland Park was previously called West Paterson). The store is between 20,000 and 25,000 square feet, occupying part of a former A&P that moved next door in the early 00s. I visited the store twice while it was under construction, and you can see my past posts here and here. You can also read more about the A&P and see a picture of the newer A&P building, which has since been subdivided, at the first link!

This store joins other SuperFresh locations in Clifton and Passaic under the same ownership, along with a Food Universe in Clifton which these owners bought shortly after it opened under different ownership. In addition, it looks like this store is connected to a SuperFresh and a Food Universe in the Bronx. After A&P vacated this Woodland Park spot about 25 years ago, the right half of the former supermarket became a golf store, then a clothing store. It was then slated to become an Asian supermarket called A-Mart, but they pulled out of the project before opening. SuperFresh extensively renovated the space inside and out, and it looks fantastic throughout. I visited on Friday morning, just hours after the doors opened for the first time and shortly before the official ribbon cutting. They were getting ready...

Let's step inside and check out the store itself! It certainly packs a punch at its small size, but faces some tough competition. An extremely popular ShopRite is just across route 46, and an Amazon Fresh (also see here) that has newly lowered its prices but seems to remain very low-traffic is practically next door. ALDI is also close by, with LIDL working on a new store in the same area, too.

You enter and turn right to pass Dulce's Kitchen, the prepared foods and catering department, bakery, and juice bar in the front-right corner with the deli on the right side wall. Produce is on the right side of the store, with meat and cold cuts on the back wall. Service butcher and seafood counters are in the back-left corner, with dairy and frozen on the left side. That's a lot of offerings in a small space; the Amazon Fresh down the street is more than double this size but doesn't have service butcher or seafood counters. Still, the store is constrained by its size, so the selection (especially in center-store) isn't nearly as broad as the neighboring competitors. Another very clear difference to me was price -- understandable for being an independent grocer, but this store struck me as quite a bit higher-priced than the other nearby options.

Here's an overview of the front corner, where the first grocery aisles are shorter to accommodate the deli-bakery counters in the front-right corner.

One key advantage that SuperFresh has is a selection of international foods, particularly Latin American foods, that the others don't. Dulce's Kitchen and Dulce's Bakery, which you can see above, focus on Latin American items, and the selection is mixed in throughout the store. Given that a third of Woodland Park's population is Hispanic, that's a smart choice (and a need that's not being addressed quite as directly by the other stores in the area).

The produce department runs along the rest of the right-side wall. It's interesting to see the space allocation here, because even though it's a small place, a large space was dedicated to produce.

SuperFresh is a brand of Key Food Stores Cooperative, which is based in central Jersey and has about 450 stores from Florida to Massachusetts, including about 50 in New Jersey. But from the 1980s through 2016, the brand was owned by A&P and used in the mid-Atlantic region, from about Virginia up to south Jersey. There are about 40 SuperFresh stores under Key Food now -- more than there were when A&P went bankrupt in 2015, but not more than there were at the chain's peak under A&P.

This store was definitely ready for opening when it comes to stocking. Check out those produce cases!

I doubt it'll stay looking this pristine, though this owner's other stores do tend to be kept in very nice shape.

The decor is pleasant here, too. The renovation was extensive -- obviously this looks nothing like the clothing store that used to occupy the space, but you wouldn't know it was a ca. 1960s A&P before that, either.

The center store grocery aisles is what seemed the most expensive to me, even more so than some other SuperFresh stores in New Jersey. Here, price is an important consideration when you have a high-volume ShopRite across the highway and a nearby Amazon Fresh with new lower prices -- not to mention nearby ALDI and LIDL stores.

Still, Key Food is currently in the process of changing their distributor, from UNFI to C&S. I've heard rumors that one of the reasons motivating the switch is pricing, but I certainly don't know that for sure and couldn't predict what effect on price the switch will have.

This store's key advantage, as I said, is international foods. The main focus is Latin American foods, but there's other options too, such as the Grace items from the Caribbean here next to the Krakus products from Poland.

The large service butcher is in the back-left corner, along with a seafood counter.

Another possible advantage to this store is that it's accessible from the cross street, McBride Avenue, without getting on the highway. But both the ShopRite and Amazon Fresh are accessible from Browertown Road, another cross street.

Frozen foods are in the last two aisles, with dairy on the outside of the last aisle.

The decor bears some similarity to other Key Food stores, including other SuperFresh stores that are under different ownership. Key Food, like most cooperatives, doesn't mandate a certain decor or design to be used inside the stores -- that's different from franchised stores, like Save-A-Lot or Grocery Outlet, which have standard decor but independent ownership. Key Food has been growing rapidly, going from a little over 100 stores 10 years ago to three or four times that now. 10 years ago, they had two or three stores in New Jersey. Many more stores are to come, including SuperFresh -- in Brooklyn, an independent at 3461 Fulton Street becomes a SuperFresh on September 16, according to Key Food, and just down the street another SuperFresh opens at 3260 Fulton on September 24th.

As you can see in these pictures, though, they're doing their best to get a lot of selection in the store despite its small size.

A somewhat odd corner up at the front brings us customer service, a cheese island, and health and beauty/personal care items. I suppose the cheese is intended to be close to dairy, but to me it seems like this might have made more sense to group with deli, across the store.

And a look across the front-end, with four staffed registers and four self-checkouts.

This is an attractive, well-appointed store with a lot to offer, but it also definitely has its quirks -- including the pricing. Still, it's harder than ever for independent supermarkets, and it always makes me happy to see beautiful new independent supermarkets open up when the world is so tough for small businesses.

Not to mention that I love visiting brand-new supermarkets on their first day! If you didn't get to see this weekend's other posts, here's a look...

• Food Bazaar renovates an acquired Stop & Shop
• A new supermarket opens just next door to where a longtime one closed in Queens
• ASG celebrates more store openings in Ozone Park and South Jamaica
• Plus, check out the latest SuperFresh in New Jersey! (this post)