Welcome to Blairstown. A&P opened its Super Food Market here in 1996, replacing a Centennial model down the road. Since this location was built a bit earlier than other 90s Centennials (most were built from 1998 to 2002). A&P had a lock on the area here. The only other supermarkets in this area are ShopRite in Newton, a variety of supermarkets in Hackettstown and Mount Olive, and Weis in Bangor-- which are all somewhat far away from Blairstown. We saw A&P's other two stores in this region previously. Belvidere and Mt. Olive.
This location, despite its age, has a pharmacy department.
For those who don't know the conversion history on this store, A&P was in the middle of a renovation while the company went under. The walls were stripped of decor, and the walls were cleansed of their 90's Foodmarket decor. Was A&P going to release a new decor package at this store? The world may never know. Conveniently for ACME, they put up their "Premium Fresh & Healthy" decor, circa 2012- needing no painting at all.
A&P's plaid tile somehow made its way all the way into meat and seafood, a rarity for stores like these. The design was mainly used in the produce department. Maybe it was cut down an aisle?
A&P's archaic lighting works well with ACME's decor. All of the refrigeration cases have been updated by A&P as well.
This pharmacy just screams A&P. Not only is it in its usual spot near Produce, but check out that Prescriptions sign!
Definitely a remnant of the previous decor package.
The flooring looked pretty good for its age! I was shocked to find that there were barely any chips, scrapes, or stains.
CSR's previous spot in the store. It has since moved to the former bank space near Dairy, which we'll see in a moment.
Update 09/21/2019
Also I thought the bank would've been next to the pharmacy-- the Belvidere store always had the CSR area to the right of the checkouts. I remember the Mt. Olive store's in-store bank being North Forks before it closed (it remained North Forks for some time after Capital One acquired them and rebranded them).
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A&P's classic diamond flooring can be seen off to the left here.
I can't believe this store has a full-service seafood department! Not even large Stop & Shop and ShopRite stores have them sometimes. I guess ACME and A&P must do very well in Blairstown!
Since this store is an early rendition of the 90's Centennial, there has to be some odd thing that makes it unique. In this case, its the bakery. Why isn't it where the Deli department is?
A&P's wood slat cases quickly turned into plastic slats here! Still very unique.
The bakery appears to be an afterthought in this store's original plan. The way the department is oddly small and on a steep angle makes me think it was added at some later point in the store's run.
Fresh Dairy with a surprise...
That's A&P's decal, alright!
When I visited this store back in April, I thought to myself "Who put in that molding?" It seems oddly ACME-ish to do so, but something about it just seems to have A&P written all over it.
A&P's classic Killion checkouts along the front end here, along with the usual anti-theft entrance-exit strategy.
A&P of Blairstown
152 NJ-94
Blairstown, NJ 07825
A&P > ACME Markets
Blairstown, NJ 07825
I know someone who shops at this store, and as you mentioned, it's because there aren't a lot of alternatives out there. It's a very sparsely populated area and people aren't willing to drive too far. That said, this store does look to be in fantastic condition and the updates done by ACME are very nice.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to think of a ShopRite that doesn't have a seafood department -- the only one that's coming to me right now is Netcong, although I'm sure there are others out there. I've been shocked to see how many enormous, modern, and very busy Stop & Shops there are with no seafood, only packaged fish. Look at Union -- enormous store, super high-volume, pretty new, but no seafood. Always seems like a strange choice to me!
The Phillipsburg ShopRite got rid of seafood for a few years around 2010, about when Stop & Shop removed theirs (odd choice, considering that it could've made them the choice in town). It was added back in around 2012.
DeleteEven the remodeled Giants are removing their seafood departments. Hellertown got rid of theirs, and Easton (25th/Palmer) followed suit.
I've visited this store a couple times-- the first time was before the PF&H decor was put in, second time after, third time a month or two back. I recall the meat cases were replaced-- the old ones had these backlit photos of products in the top bits, which were very faded.
ReplyDeleteAlso I thought the bank would've been next to the pharmacy-- the Belvidere store always had the CSR area to the right of the checkouts. I remember the Mt. Olive store's in-store bank being North Forks before it closed (it remained North Forks for some time after Capital One acquired them and rebranded them).
The Belvidere store also had the Bakery in that right corner-- it's the same exact layout except for the pharmacy's absence. Perhaps this was an alternate layout they used sometimes?