Location: 80 New Bridge Rd, Bergenfield, NJ
Some history of the Bergenfield Pathmark courtesy of Stephen... The Newbridge Road Pathmark was a replacement for a smaller store that was located in the central business district. The current store was built on the site of the former headquarters of Parents Magazine. A Centennial A&P was just across the street with a Grand Union very close by.
Pathmark reopened as an Acme on October 14, 2015. The beige and gray paint on the facade is among the very few changes Acme has made to this store since it opened. Acme hasn't even sprung for new register lights which are desperately needed.
Some history of the Bergenfield Pathmark courtesy of Stephen... The Newbridge Road Pathmark was a replacement for a smaller store that was located in the central business district. The current store was built on the site of the former headquarters of Parents Magazine. A Centennial A&P was just across the street with a Grand Union very close by.
Pathmark reopened as an Acme on October 14, 2015. The beige and gray paint on the facade is among the very few changes Acme has made to this store since it opened. Acme hasn't even sprung for new register lights which are desperately needed.
This particular road trip I took found one completely dead Acme after the next. I was encouraged by the amount of cars in the parking lot at this store but there was hardly a soul in the place.
Floral is to the left of the entrance. "Pathmark" has been removed from the signage. This store does not have a café which would be in this spot.
Pharmacy is over to the right under the second floor offices.
The beautifully stocked Produce Department is straight ahead with Seafood to the rear. Not a shopper to be seen on a Saturday afternoon. The Bakery is in the front corner at the other end of the store which is not a spot I ever recall seeing for it in any other Pathmark.
The removal of "Pathmark" left a big empty space on this sign.
Very clean and well stocked store.
The Seafood employee was so bored he was standing out front waiting to greet customers.
Health foods down this aisle which wrap around into the refrigerated section of Produce.
We got a shopper!
Thought there was a good crowd at the Deli but on closer look I realized it was mostly employees.
Kosher aisle.
Maybe I was here at a weird time. The store was loaded with freshly prepared foods so it must get busy at some point.
Acme's standard front-end with 3 registers open. Unfortunately I walked out of this store just like I did in Elmwood. The express line wasn't long but the cashier was far more interested in chatting with a coworker than ringing anyone up. I have ZERO patience for that kind of crap. Fortunately the Acmes that I shop at regularly have relatively well run front-ends otherwise I would shop at Acme at all.
Customer Service counter in the center of the front end.
Hand-me-down register light from a 90's A&P. Acme installed new registers in the area where the self-checkouts used to be. Not sure if Acme brought this sign in from another store or if Pathmark had already done so. The other registers have numbers printed on paper taped up to the register lights. Time for an upgrade.
AERIAL VIEWS
A look at the former A&P and Grand Union in the immediate area.
Location: 91 New Bridge Road, Bergenfield, NJ
There is a farmers market in this shopping center which probably hurts the Acme.
Location: 433 S Washington Ave, Bergenfield, NJ
1987
The Pathmark was built sometime between 1987 and 1995. Parents Magazine headquarters is still standing in the historic areal above.
Tell me how a store like that stays in business? How do you buy "fresh" meat and produce if it just sits there with no turnover.
ReplyDeleteThis is typical of Acme in Patterson, Mahopac and Mohegan Lake as well as Hopewell Jct. They are all huge stores that are absolutely dead on the busiest shopping day of the week.
Their large Kosher selection indicates that their customer base includes a larger than normal proportion of observant Jews who wouldn’t be shopping on a Saturday. But that wouldn’t explain how completely dead it is.
ReplyDeleteThere is a very large Jewish population just down the road in nearby Teaneck
DeleteThe reason this store was so dead on a Saturday is because Bergenfield and Teaneck have huge Orthodox Jewish communities, and it is forbidden for them to shop on the Sabbath until the evening. While many A&P-turned-Acme stores in North Jersey are failing, this store actually does OK. (Just don't look at Yelp for this store---yikes!) Normally, it does a decent business. If you go after sundown on Saturday, the store is really hopping with Jewish families shopping. It's even a 24-hour store!
ReplyDeleteDon't look at yelp for any North Jersey stores! The reviews are devastating for nearly every single one of them.
Deletemy mom shops there and she is from New Milford.The Shop Rite in New Milford competes with the Acme and New Milford has a large Jewish Community also
ReplyDeleteIs it possible the reason some stores are getting the barest of fix-ups (whatever's really needed at the minimum) is Acme wants to see if the store is doing well enough before pouring money into it?
ReplyDeleteReplacing the horrible register lights in this store couldn't possibly be considered pouring money into the store.
DeleteHAHA! You think that's bad? They haven't replaced the toilet paper holder in the (public) men's room at my store. For about a month now it's been a roll of paper on top of a milk crate!!
DeleteWhy aquire stores if you're just going to let them fail? Albertsons had zero knowledge of the uber competitive N/E market place. ShopRite is by far the low price, high volume leader. Stop&Shop gets that and competes with ShopRite. Albertsons came in, put up new signage and actually wound up raising prices. I've heard people say Acme is worse than A&P! Once a chain gets a rep as being high priced they never recover.... look at Grand Union as an example. Beautiful, empty, high priced stores. Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteAdd absolutely horrible front end mgmt to this.....and you get the idea! Wake up Albertsons, you suck!
ShopRite's prices aren't what they seem anymore. In fact, I'm noticing in a lot of areas S&S is lower.
DeleteI'm biased a bit but I live near the former and work for the latter. Hard not to notice.
I don't think ShopRite has ever really had the lowest 'everyday' pricing, but their pretty amazing sales and loss leaders really draw people in...I know it works for me. I walk out with many items free or nearly free (combining sales with coupons) every week, and I don't mind picking up a couple other things since I'm already there.
DeleteI have always found ShopRite to be the lowest on everyday prices, but the gap has certainly narrowed between Stop & Shop and ShopRite over the last 5 years, as Ahold has invested heavily in lowering prices.
DeleteA self-distributing cooperative like Wakefern has a much lower price-structure than a company like Stop & Shop, which pays C&S to do its distribution. When companies like Stop & Shop and Acme outsource their distribution to 3rd parties like Supervalu or C&S, profits have to be made at both the store-level AND the distribution level.
The Wakefern cooperative does not make a profit on its warehousing and distribution for its members--it just needs to break even. This lower warehousing and distribution overhead means that member ShopRite stores have a much lower cost structure than other markets, especially ones which rely on 3rd parties to distribute.
You also have to remember that Wakefern has a subsidiary (SRS - ShopRite Stores) that runs quite a group of stores (mostly in NY outside the city area, but there are a small number in NJ as well).
DeleteSo they can make some money from those stores (what would normally go to the member in a member owned store), plus it also allows them to (if they need or want to) have a place to send stuff they need to get rid of quickly.
C&S was known to do this for a time when they owned the remainder of Grand Union after the bankruptcy - you'd often see a section (particularly in the perishable categories) with several store brand labels that they distributed for, with great deals on stuff with short dates.
There is a huge misconception that ShopRite is the lowest price around. Stop and Shop has closed the Gap very much so in my area. Most of the shoprites in my area are zoos because people still think they have the lowest prices when you compare things on a item-by-item basis it pretty much evens out.
ReplyDeleteIn all reality, you aren't going to go to Shop Rite and save 50% versus ACME on your grocery order. What are we talking here, $5 or $10 on an entire order?? I was in the Shop Rite in Norristown last week and their regular prices aren't good at all. Actually, Redner's probably has the lowest regular prices of any chain and they get most of their stock from SuperValu. However, Redner's sucks so bad, that I'd gladly pay more somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, currently, ACMES in this area, prices are quite high compared to SR, S&S, and even Foodtown in some cases.
DeleteI dunno, but ShopRite has many items that I buy on a consistent basis as much as 2.50 less than Acme. ShopRite has the best everyday prices and sales, Stop&Shop is full of gimmicks! Items on sale at SR 2 for 4 dollars are always 2 for 5 at S&S. The volume of these stores speak for themselves imo. Price is what draws customers in, second is location. Acme is not even close in the price or sales dept. Empty stores are proof of that in Putnam and Dutchess Counties anyway.
ReplyDeleteI want Acme to succeed! Heck I wanted A&P to succeed! I just wish the higher ups at ACME would listen to the everyday consumer!
ReplyDelete