Location: 517 Route 72, Manahawkin, NJ
Making a couple of stops for some Bonus Store material as we leave Beach Haven behind for the summer. First stop is this abandoned Pathmark in Manahawkin, which is located just before the bridge to Long Beach Island. This stretch of Route 72 is packed with shopping centers including stores like Target, Walmart, Kohls, Home Depot and ShopRite. Vacationers do a lot of stocking up at these stores before crossing over to LBI which has very limited shopping options.
The Pathmark opened in the mid-90's, along with a Walmart to the rear of the shopping center, and closed in March 2012 along with 13 other locations. A relatively small SuperFresh is located about 2 miles East on East Bay Avenue.
A look inside the former Pharmacy.
Looks like the store was never remodeled since it opened. It had the Pepto-Bismol color scheme till the end. One of the worst worst decor packages ever seen in a grocery store. I thought it was a step backwards from what Pathmark was doing in the early 90's.
With the "Path to Savings" remodel skipping this location in the mid-2000's, the store must have been struggling for quiet some time. There are very few Pathmarks out there that didn't get that remodel.
Lots of replacement tiles which don't match the original flooring...
Wait! There's More!
Location: 297 Route 72 , Manahawkin, NJ
A quick look at the wacky decor in the Manahawkin ShopRite...
A very nice store which looks to have been remodeled in recent years.
Colorful characters on the walls, some of which borderline on creepy.
Seafood looks a little out of place with no wacky characters hanging around.
Portions of the store have had the drop ceiling removed. No idea if this was an original feature here but it does create a very cool effect.
I'm sure there are a lot of little kids out there that love shopping here!
Wonder if the ShopRite will notice much of an impact from the Acme. The new store is going to save a lot of people the trip over the bridge which can be a horrendous trip on the weekends.
Some ShopRite graphic designer got paid to create all of those wacky grocery cartoon characters. I especially like the group of hanging deli meat characters.
ReplyDeleteLew
+1 on the hanging deli meat characters. I always wondered if there was any sort of "common" ShopRite decor package. They are all so different between the owners. I love that for the sake of diversity but sometimes it is hard to get your bearings between ShopRite owners.
DeleteThere are even different looks among the ShopRite owners. In one of the Maryland stores, they spent a lot of money putting in wood flooring in the produce, bakery and deli a few years ago when they remodeled the store. A few months ago they ripped it out in the produce area and put in floor tiles which look close to the color of the tile used in the rest of the store, but they have flecks in them that make them stand out. Doesn't make any sense to me.
DeleteThe ShopRite in West Berlin, NJ also has a bunch of crazy character paintings on its walls. They were put in as part of a remodel several years ago. Before the remodel, the store was pretty dark and dreary with little decor.
ReplyDeleteI had that West Berlin store in mind before I went to comment on this post! I was in the same shopping center where that store is earlier today.
DeleteThe Pathmark in Manhawkin was located across the parking lot from a successful Walmart. It had high prices, and people just preferred to shop either at the Walmart or Shop-rite down the street. Everyone in town remarks that Pathmark had a very pungent and weird smell throughout the store, and the meats were poor quality. When it closed, no one cared. I am involved in local politics in Stafford Twp, and I can tell you that several businesses have come to the township government interested in a lease in the building. However, the owner hasn't acted upon the requests. There might be some lease issue. It is in fact a highly trafficked part of the highway.
ReplyDeleteThe Shop-rite in Manahawkin does very well, and it draws from a wide area. Barnegat, which is immediately to the north and is the fastest growing town in Ocean County, does not have a supermarket anymore, so residents of that town have to come here, or they go to the Shop-rite in Waretown. Additionally, residents from West Creek and even Tuckerton come to the Shop-rite in Manahawkin. Even with the new Acme on LBI, it will be fine.
This is par for the course for Pathmark. I think they all have an odd smell, look dirty, outdated and have high prices along with terrible meat and produce.
DeleteWasn't there an A&P on LBI that closed not too long ago? Anyone know where it was located and if the building is still standing
ReplyDeleteI don't remember an A&P, though a commenter on Flickr said there was an A&P store which was demolished in Beach Haven Crest when the Manahawkin A&P/SuperFresh was built. (It was demolished for a post office) As far as I can remember on the island, there was only ever Acme and a Foodtown, which was in Ship Bottom. We would always stop at the ShopRite on the way onto the island and do a huge shop, and then we would walk to the tiny Foodtown for fill-in trips. This ShopRite used to be on the old Route 72 with a Kmart (the shopping center is still there). In 1984 I remember we drove to the old ShopRite on our way into LBI and the store was closed...and then we drove out to the new highway and there was the new store and I fell in love. It was a "Super ShopRite" and the most enormous store I had ever been to--and as a kid, I was amazed. There was neon absolutely everywhere and scanners (which I had never seen) and all sorts of cool 80's stuff which put our local ShopRite (or "Slime-Rite", as we called it) to shame. It felt like I walked into a Debbie Gibson video. Plus there was a new Caldor and a giant suburban strip mall (which we also didn't have where I lived). I think this ShopRite started my love of supermarkets.
ReplyDeleteThe former Foodtown building on L.B.I. eventually became an IGA, than a Great Value (with the same owners though), but is now being converted into a Dollar General store. They also once had a business on Bay Ave in the same plaza where the old K-Mart was a long time ago, where Shop Rite also previously used to be beforehand.
DeleteThe A&P was located between 72nd and 75 streets in Beach Haven Crest. It closed in the late '70s when the Manahawkin A&P (now Super Fresh) was built. During the 80's and '90s the old A&P was the Chain Lane, consisting of various eateries such as Bonanza steakhouse, Roy Rogers, Dairy Queen, Orange Julius, a pizza place, and others. It sat empty for a few years before being torn down in 2000 or 2001 so the present day post office could be built.
ReplyDeleteThe "pizza place" in Chain Lane was actually called Pizza Hut, or something along the lines of that! Perhaps you may have heard of that certain "chain" before? ;) I know, because I used to go there all the time when I was a kid. The Pizza Hut moved to the plaza in Manahawkin, where the aforementioned Pathmark was, and where Wal-Mart is now. It's final, and only tenant was a Baskin Robbins in the summer of 1994, when the whole building closed down near the end of it, than sat vacant for a handful of years, before it was renovated into the post office it is now. The place was also previously a barbecue restaurant called Smokey Joe's, before it became Chain Lane, but after A&P.
DeleteThe Clifton Pathmark didn't even get the Pepto Bismol remodel until 2001 when they expanded. They hadn't had a remodel since the 1970s!
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing there were a lot of Pathmarks that were built like this or remodeled like that over a certain span. I can think of Botany Plaza, Elmwood Park, and the closed store in Hackensack as being identical to Manahawkin, just not with the red and blue moldings (the only other store I can remember having that was the since closed West Paterson store and every other Pathmark that I know of that underwent the remodel had the beige stucco look).
Due to prominent use of the Impact typeface in the mid to late 90s stores, I've always known the decor as "Impact." The colors they chose were very unfortunate because the place, even when clean, just had a dirty appearance. Seriously, if you neglect your house for a few weeks and let it get dirty, the colors that your walls and floor turn almost match the paint colors they were using. That's not a good thing to associate with food.
ReplyDelete