Location: 1425 Kennedy Blvd, North Bergen, NJ
One of just two remaining Food Basics is on it's way out. I popped in to check out the remaining selection of America's Choice products. Not too much left but probably more than in most of the A&P and Pathmarks that are still open. Photos of some of the products are included after our tour of the store.
This store was a fairly nice A&P up until the early 2000's when it was converted to Food Basics. The North Bergen ShopRite replacement store opened around that time. At first A&P tried to compete by doing a light remodel. Not long after, the store was closed and converted to A&P's low-price concept. The company had huge hopes for this new banner. It was an easy way for them to dump unionized employees in all of the service departments. All products in Food Basic stores were prepackaged. The format failed to live up to A&P's expectations and many of these stores have been closing in recent years. The North Bergen location seemed to be very successful. They tampered with the format here many times, never seeming to figure out what these stores needed to be. The last revamp actually included a reduction in sales floor space. That far wall was installed reducing the store by a 2 or 3 aisles. Rather costly move as they had to relocate the frozen food aisle. I would stop in here every once in a while to see what kind of deals they had. It was never worth the hassle. The store was always a mess and the lines at the registers were ridiculously long.
Ummm... the savings are, in fact, about to stop.
After the last revamp, they added a "Dollar Store" to this area. Didn't last long.
Center aisle. It was strange being here for the closing sale. I remember vividly shopping here when the A&P was in it's final days.
Last look at some of the America's Choice products
Food Bazaar will be taking over this location.
A few months ago I went to a Waldbaum's in New York. Picked up some America's Choice products. A tape dispenser and batteries. R.I.P A&P
ReplyDeleteRemove the "sics" and install "zaar" and the signage is fixed!
ReplyDeleteSounds like they should be related to Food Town (Lion) - that was one reason for using that name when they switched so they only had to buy 2 new letters :)
DeleteThe A&P in North Brunswick closes today after being in business in that location for 20 years. It's bittersweet, in that I never really went there, I shopped at either the NB Shoprite or the Milltown Acme, but my dad worked at the North Brunswick store's old location on Route 1 before they moved to Milltown Road.
ReplyDeleteIt sucks to see the AC brand go. Honestly, it wasn't a bad store brand. Compared to Pathmark's, with very few exceptions, it was so much better.
ReplyDeleteWonder if Albertsons would try to license the name for Acme like they did with the President's Choice brand from Loblaws years ago.
The last thing Albertsons needs is another private label!
DeleteLoblaws? Never heard of them. Where are they from?
DeleteLoblaws is a Canadian supermarket. President’s Choice got a lot of press for being a very high quality private brand that was as good or better than name brands.
DeleteI read in a news article about Key Food/The Food Emporium that Key Food has acquired the 'America's Choice' trademark, although I can't find any other sources on this.
Deletehttp://thevillager.com/2015/11/19/food-emporium-sold-as-ap-heads-to-final-checkout/
Interestingly enough, Loblaw's once had stores in the US, including parts of NY
Delete(upstate anyhow).
In fact, there was one in Johnstown/Gloversville that was just demolished a couple months back to allow for a Stewarts (convenience store, also an upstate chain) to be built - this after a 30 year abandonment, making it NY State's answer to the more famous Dixie Square!
A couple links with more info - the first a local paper, the second the Stewart's chain's site with info about it:
http://www.leaderherald.com/page/content.detail/id/589067/Demolition-to-begin-Wednesday--officials.html?nav=5011
http://www.stewartsshops.com/tag/gloversville/
Loblaws is from Ontario, Canada.
ReplyDeleteSave-A-Lot has acquired the America's Choice private label and will soon begin phasing out their multiple value labels in favor of one private label, America's Choice.
ReplyDelete