Today we're having a look at the Manahawkin Super Fresh with its last round of décor. styertowne took these photos in November 2015 as the store was winding down operation. Acme would take over just days later.
As we saw in last Friday's post, the signage and décor had gone missing at some point. I actually wasn't sure which chain was responsible for stripping the walls. I was leaning toward A&P since Acme left this exact décor intact at the Warren store. Seeing these photos with the walls in pretty good shape has me wondering why Acme took everything down. Perhaps it was done to facilitate a quick repaint which Acme may have deemed more important then retaining the décor. Just a guess...
The décor here is A&P's 90's package. I believe this look was rolled out once the Sav A Center consent was retired and A&P began their Food Market concept, building new, larger stores to replace many of their painful outdated models. styertowne reports this store opened on October 30, 1973.
Funny how low the register lights are! I noticed their lack of height in the photos posted last Friday, but from this vantage point they're laughable low! The Quality Built lights will be undoubtedly taller.
Thanks to styertowne for the great pictures of the Manahawkin Super Fresh!
This decor package was the one and only
ReplyDeleteFOOD MARKET package! Ma all time favorite! It was rolled out when A&P began building and rebuilding many stores in the early 1990's and had a commercial claiming so.......The Great store just next door...A&P
There was a second round of décor for the Food Market stores. I believe it was only used in remodels. The A&P in North Bergen was remodeled with it in the early 2000's. I don't have good pictures of it on the blog and cannot find any pictures online. The font used for much of the signage looked like something out of a house of horrors! You can see the remnants of the décor package in the abandoned Bristol Super Fresh...
Deletehttp://acmestyleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/abandoned-super-fresh-superstore-in.html
Small block letters spelling out the department names were also mounted to the walls. Smaller signs directly above the service counters were even more bizarre looking!
The North Brunswick store had the décor I'm referring to! Dan Asnis has a bunch of pictures of the store on flickr...
Deletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/31660989@N05/22550126918/in/album-72157658793239614/
North Brunswick was built from the ground up, so it's not a remodel-only package. I believe South Plainfield also originally had this before getting the Fresh mashup package. I like to think of this as the "Super A&P" package.
DeleteAh, interesting. I always thought that was a remodel package. I only ever saw it in a couple of A&Ps. I think the Little Falls store was remodeled with it too but was short lived with the fresh model not far behind.
DeleteAnd I'm seeing now that the floor indicates is an indication if the store was built with it or remodeled with it... black and white flooring = remodel... colored tiles = built with it.
DeleteWaldbaum's stores in Riverhead and Commack were both built with that decor. Greenlawn, Center Moriches, Deer Park, and Great Neck were remodeled with it as well.
DeleteAlthough those checkout lights look painfully low, they're actually at their right height. A&P most likely did a swap on the checkout lights, but not the posts. A smaller checkout light from an 80's decor may have been in place prior to the renovation. These 90's flagship stores would either be called "Food Market" or "Super Food Market" if the store was newly built, or expanded. This decor branched out to stores as big as A&P's new flagship model, and as small as a Centennial.
ReplyDeleteBrick was a Super Food Market and had this decor from its opening in 92 or so until its dying day. No remodel, no refresh, nothing changed at all.
Delete@Mike: Did Brick ever have the "Super A&P" signage on the outside? It was an exact replica of many stores that had "Super A&P" on the outside, but did it ever have "Super" signage on the building?
DeleteI thought it did early on, but a quick Google search would seem to indicate otherwise. I'm honestly not sure. If it didn't, it certainly should have. That store was enormous, especially for the period in which it opened.
Delete@Mike: Brick opened 8-Nov, 1995, and that may have been a little earlier than A&P was using the "Super A&P" terminology; and after that, they never bothered to update it. Unfortunately, consistency was never their strong point.
DeleteI didn't realize it opened in 95, I thought it was at least a year or two earlier.
DeletePatterson NY was a Super A&P so was
ReplyDeleteBrewster (new store)
Mohegan Lake
Danbury (originally Super foodmart)
all of the above were built from the ground up in the early nineties. All of them had this decor with “Food Emporium” font over bakery, meat, deli and seafood!
Sav-a-center stores were remodeled into this “Super A&P” decor scheme! There were some modifications such as Block Capital Letters where the ceiling was too low to do the “Food Emporium” font signage. Black and White floors, colorful check out lights and aisle markers!!! I loved this package. My all time favorite and it made its way to every A&P in Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester Counties In NYS.
The Great “NEW” store just next door...A&P”
I remember that the A&P in Clifton was one of the first switchovers from a Sav-A-Center to a Food Market but for the life of me I can't remember if this decor package actually got installed there. The store closed not too long after that. I'm guessing A&P didn't want to compete with the Edwards that was slated to open much later.
ReplyDeleteThe Paterson store I know got this package. Passaic stayed a Sav-A-Center to the bitter end.
Far as New Jersey stores that I remember being Super A&Ps:
ReplyDelete-Montclair
-Saddle Brook
-Randolph
-Hoboken
-Washington Township
-Ortley Beach
-Lodi (old Acme; the original Centennial store on Essex never got it)
I don't remember if Pompton Lakes got the Super branding or not. It got a Fresh remodel before they gave up on the store.
There was also Mt. Olive, and South Plainfield. I went to the former a lot, and it had most of the Food Market style decor with the Food Emporium-font "ribbon" signage, plus a giant mural over Produce in lieu of signage. It also had an Eight O'Clock Coffee Cafe. Acme didn't buy this one, likely because of competition from Hackettstown on one side, and the Sam's Club at ITC on the other (although they've since closed that Sam's); it's still sitting there, vacant.
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