Stop & Shop – Sparta, NJ

REMODEL DONE RIGHT!

Location: 5 Towne Centre, Sparta, NJ

The Stop & Shop in Sparta underwent a significant remodel in early 2025, holding their grand reopening in May of that year. The store previously had the purple and yellow fruit bowl... disaster. But fast forward to the present, the store is sporting what I consider S&S's best décor package. The company is finally back to its classic stoplight logo and incorporating it into the interior, creating a brand that FINALLY makes sense! Unfortunately, the nameless fruitbowl private label products do remain on shelves. 

BEFORE >>>

Photo above shows the previous décor package, or lack there of. Extremely bland compared to how the store looks now. You can tour the store with its previous look by jumping over to The Market Report. 

The department signs are lit and appear very bright in person. Not so much in these photos. 

The flooring was not replaced during the remodel but since this is a new store, its not looking too rough compared to many S&S's out there.  

One big change here which has not gone over well is the removal of the healthier foods department which used to be in the first two aisles. 

Such a big improvement here. Previously, the wall was yellow with a ton of small fruit bowl logos pasted to the wall like a collage. 

BEFORE >>>

Courtesy of The Market Report

Stop & Shop's previous Pharmacy signage kinda drove me nuts. It looks temporary, like "hey, we just opened a pharmacy in here, so we threw this sign up". 

Just a masive improvement overall. Certainly not the most gorgeous décor ever, but it is very successful in giving Stop & Shop an identity which has been missing from their stores for a very long time now. 

Nice stoplight theme at the checkouts. 

The customer service desk used to be located where the floral displays are. It is now located along the front wall, as seen above. 

So nice seeing Stop & Shop with some actual personality and branding that all makes sense! 

There is relatively new competition in Sparta with the ShopRite opening in October 2019, however, it's so far on the outskirts of town, it doesn't seem to be affecting business here at all. In fact, on this particular visit which was just a random weekday evening, the store was the busiest I have ever seen it. You can check out the ShopRite by clicking here.

What a logo! While I am not Stop & Shop's biggest fan, not even close, I do find it thrilling that they came to their senses and returned to their roots with a really fantastic refreshed logo. I have to wonder if people within the company havet thought, "what the hell was up with the fruit bowl thingie we used to be stuck with?" In my opinion, it was one of the biggest disasters in supermarket branding of all-time. But we're finally back to stop and SHOP, the way it was meant to be. 

FORMER GRAND UNION

Location: 60 Sparta Ave, Sparta, NJ

A look at the store after being converted to Stop & Shop, donning an impossibly small sign. 

Sparta was a fascinating situation. Back in the 70's and 80's it was home to three major supermarket chains, all located relatively close to each other. A lot of shopping options for a relatively small town. Grand Union arrived in the late 70's... with a thud, despite being much larger than the two other stores. After teetering on the verge of bankruptcy several times, Grand Union bounced back and launched a mind-boggling remodel of this store in the mid-80's becomming a runaway success. A&P was the first to shutter in the early 90's. ACME survived until 2001. Funny thing is, Grand Union went under not long after. I do believe the ACME closed prior to Stop & Shop taking over the Grand Union location.  

Unfortunately, there is not a thing to see inside that's at all reminiscent of Grand Union other than what you see in the shot above. Here you can see the addition made to the front of the store in the 80's and this area still feels very Grand Union-like,. The rest of the store not so much. The place was completely gutted from floor to ceiling when Odd Job snagged the lease.  

This ramp has always been a cool feature. Not a part of the store originally. It was added during the 80's remodel when an entrance and exit was added to this side of the store. Produce would have been located in this corner at the time. 

FORMER A&P 

Location: 2 Main Street, Sparta, NJ

I have done a bit of coverage of the old A&P in Sparta but on this latest visit I discovered scares from the magic carpets on the far side of the store. Always love finding evidence like this! The other side was reconfigured when the post office took over the space, having been previously located at the other end of the strip. 

A&P's delivery bays looking like they were set up for a much larger store! Now coming in handy for the post office. The A&P clocked in at about 15,000 square feet. The Grand Union, just up the road, more than twice that size. 

FORMER ACME

11 Center Street, Sparta, NJ

Front windows paneled over during the late 70's remodel. A fire had damaged the store in the late 70's, sparking the remodel. 

A quick look around back which I did not include in previous coverage. This would have been the dairy receiving door, with many scars left behind of ACME's doors and windows. You can jump to the previouse covergage of the Sparta stores by clicking here. 

Flashback Fun!

THE ORIGINAL ROXBURY MALL!

Photo courtesy of Things That Aren't There Anymore

 
The original ACME at the Roxbury Mall. Opened on May 14, 1968 and was leveled by a massive fire that destroyed the whole mall in the 70's. ACME, along with the other stores, would rebuild further back on the property. In the photo above, you can see the ShopRite is under construction. 

Photo courtesy of Roxbury NJ... Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Location: 10 Roxbury Mall, Succasunna, NJ

The former Succasunna ACME seen here, closed in 1998 when the ShopRite, located at the opposite end of the strip expanded. To check out more coverage of the former ACME, click here. 

ACME – Ocean City, Maryland

NEW ACME ON THE WAY!

Location: 9507 Coastal Highway, Ocean City, MD

Rendering above of the new ACME off in the distance. The new store will be 48,000 square feet with an additional 11,000 square feet of retail space. A small mall extending from the ACME, along with a Ross, were torn down to make way for the new construction.  

 

The current ACME seen here, which was a former Super Fresh. The store is 32,000 square feet and hasn't been updated since ACME took over. You can view additional coverage of this location by clicking here.

ACME Welcome Video!

Really great find on YouTube! A welcome video for new team members joining ACME. The video was made in the late 80's/very early 90's. Three stores were used for the video shoot and are listed in the final credits. They include Turnersville, Flourtown and Westtown. One of the stores has a very unusual décor package, which we'll just be able to see hints of down below.

The video starts off at Westtown with the red-oval logo on the storefront. Looking MUCH better than the block letter logo which would be swapped in a few years later. We also see the window signage which says "take a new look". This tagline was rolled out in the late 80's after that decade's remodels were mostly complete. This was also back in the day with ACME's extremely popular "percent off" sales. 

ACME's very distinct yellow carts seen here. 

Our first good interior view kicks off at Turnersville, I believe. This store was built with the 80's décor and has some variations from the remodeled stores. You can see here the whole produce wall is green, not just a stripe behind the department sign. 

As we continue, it gets a little harder to tell which store is in the video. Here we see the classic 80's front-end and registers. Notice NO checkout lights. ACME, for whatever reason, would not introduce those until the 90's Red/White/Blue package. 

A few shots of from the deil department with the distinct 80's stripes on the walls.

Checkout all the deil meat ready to be sliced! You don't see that often these days. Deli cases are now more display cases than functional delis. And to ACME's credit, one of the few chains to still offer custom-packaged deli salads! Even Wegmans gave up on that. 

Here we go! Some very odd décor seen here. Orange? Brown? We can also see some backlit photos just behind the employee's head down below. The floor does not appear to be the usual color either, although hard to tell with the limited view. 

Check out that back wall! Guessing it says "Wall of Savings" or maybe "Values". It is for sure the 80's font but black? Notice no checkerboard pattern in the aisle. Leads me to believe the 3 views above are from the Turnersville store. The photos from that store's post do indicate the checkerboard pattern did not go up and down the aisles. 

And two more views from the Turnersville store for sure. Again, a slight variation in the produce décor and salad bar sign. 

Fantastic view here! The likes we've never seen before. The 80's customer service setup, however, this is not how the CSR stand looked in most stores. It would have been completely separate from the photo and gifts counter. We DO see the safes, which for some bizarre reason, were moved out the office and into full view on the sales floor during the 80's remodel. The employee is wearing the red CSR vest, an indication to customers that this was the best person to go to for assistance. 

As the credits roll, we see the three stores that were used in the video. Both "Cross Keys" and Westtown are long closed now. 

"Cross Keys Shopping Center", Turnersville, NJ

Flourtown, PA

Westtown, PA

To watch the full video on YouTube, please click here. Thomspon TJ has a second ACME video on the channel which is certainly entertaining but does not include as good of interior views as this video does .