Friday, September 29, 2023

Walmart Supercenter | Mays Landing, NJ

 

4620 Black Horse Pike

Welcome to the Mays Landing Walmart!

It's our third time in a Walmart here on The Retail Connection, and this one is by far the best! Not only is it a Supercenter with a full grocery section, it's also been remodeled with Walmart's latest decor, known as Airport. This store first opened back on October 22, 1994 as one of the earlier Walmarts in New Jersey, and reopened as an expanded Supercenter on October 26, 2012, just over 18 years later. Let's take a look!


Heading in through the grocery entrance. The grocery department is on the right side of the store, which is where the expansion took place. This area was formerly additional parking.


Mama DeLuca's Pizza and Subway are located next to this entrance.



The first grocery departments we see are produce and meals to go. Airport is probably my favorite Walmart decor to date, and it's looking really good in this store.


The deli is in the front right corner and stocked with Prima Della meats.


The bakery is on the right wall next to the deli, located under an overhang. The right side has two aisles of bread and snack cakes, while the pre-packaged cakes and service counter are on the left side of the alcove.


Frozen foods are in the aisles across from the bakery.


And a look at the dry grocery aisles. All the aisles in this store are both lettered and numbered.


Packaged meat and seafood are located next to the bakery. That's some weird kerning on the "pork" sign.




Breakfast meats and dairy occupy the remaining space in the grocery area.


Side note, I really like these lit endcaps. I've been seeing them for different brands of soda a lot recently, mostly at ShopRite.


One final look down the aisles towards the front of the store. Now, let's move along to the general merchandise...


A look down the split of the aisles. The faint pictograms on the category signs are a nice touch.


Electronics are on the back wall, as per usual for Walmarts.



The home office section was all stocked for back to school at the time of my visit.



The crafts section and service counter are right in the middle of the main store.


Pharmacy and HABA are along the front wall. The garden center is on the left side of the store just past this area.



The vision center, customer service, and checkouts are in the front. This store only has four manned checkouts left, with the rest being replaced with Scan & Go and self-checkout.


This entrance has a Philly Pretzel Factory. I'm guessing this is where McDonald's was prior to the expansion.


Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2023


Due to the hidden location of this store, there unfortunately aren't many good Street View images.

Nearby competition

0.4 miles away: Acme of Mays Landing


The Mays Landing Acme opened in 1990 as the main anchor of the Festival at Hamilton shopping center. Despite the white signage which would indicate Premium Fresh & Healthy, this store went straight from Industrial Circus to, of course, Quality Built.

3.2 miles away: ShopRite of English Creek


We saw this store in the Egg Harbor Township Lidl post. This store is owned by Village Super Markets and is still pretty much all 80's on the inside.

That's all for this post! This was my first time in a Walmart Supercenter in a while, and also my first time experiencing the Airport decor in person. It's definitely a step up from the Project Impact and Cyanominimalist packages, and I hope to see it spread to more stores. Anyway, thank you for reading! See you next Friday when we're back in PA! The Retail Connection: Save money. Live better.











Friday, September 22, 2023

ShopRite | Drexel Hill, PA

 

5000 State Road

Welcome to the Drexeline ShopRite!

It's our second time at a brand new ShopRite this year! The completely rebuilt ShopRite of Drexeline opened back on September 1 as the first tenant of the reinvented Drexeline Town Center. The store is operated by the Burns family, who have been in this center since 1980 when they took over a former 50's Acme and reopened it as IGA. It later became one of the earliest The Fresh Grocer stores, and was renamed ShopRite in 2014. The previous store closed in May and was demolished to make way for more parking and apartments. The new store is amazing inside and out, so let's see it!


Interesting side note: this is the first purpose-built ShopRite to open in Delaware County since 1967! The Folsom store opened that year, but it became one of the first Pathmarks in 1968. With this post, the only currently-operating Delco ShopRite that we haven't made it to yet is Glenolden.


Prepared foods are located just past the entrance. There's a second-floor cafe area you can eat your food in, and we'll be seeing that at the end of the tour.


Floral is located underneath the cafe.


A beautifully-stocked and beautifully-decorated produce department takes up the left side of the grand aisle.


The bakery is the first service department we see, located next to the fresh made section. I really like this decor, but as nwretail pointed out, the signage itself looks more 2000's than 2020's. I have to agree. Brookhaven had a somewhat more modern decor, though I do think I like this version better.


Deli is in the corner on the right side of the store. This is the opposite of Woolwich, which has the deli in the bakery's spot and the bakery here.


The seafood market is up next. I like the detail on this sign.


Beer and wine are in the first aisle. This is the first ShopRite I've seen that has alcohol, although I believe the old store had it as well.



The fresh and packaged meat departments are past seafood.


Here, we're looking at ten of the store's eighteen aisles. Having the security cameras underneath the aisle markers is a smart idea.


Dairy is in the back left corner. The sign being attached to the milk jugs is a cool touch.



Frozen foods line the left wall. I've never liked how ShopRite has their frozen foods area set up. It feels like a maze, and an especially hard-to-navigate one on busy days.



Eleven checkout lanes and a lot of self-checkouts make for a very active front end. Also, this is a strange thing to notice (though an equally strange thing to change), but the renderings of the store online showed the front end saying "The Burns family thanks you for shopping with us!", while the actual sign says "Our family thanks you for shopping with us!" Anyway... let's head upstairs!


There's a nice amount of seating for customers and employees enjoying some fresh made food. Now for some of the best pictures we've ever seen on the blog...



You can see practically the entire store from up here! This tour really only needed to be two pictures.



Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2015


The old store had a good run selling groceries, but it was definitely time for a change.

Nearby competition

1.7 miles away: GIANT of Sproul Road


The older of two GIANTs in Springfield. This store opened in 2009 on the site of a demolished Value City Department Store. Inside, it has the backlit decor.

2 miles away: Walmart Supercenter of Springfield


One of very few Walmart Supercenters in this area, this store opened in 2011 in what was originally an S. Klein but had more recently been subdivided between several stores. I went past this store on the way to ShopRite and noticed that the signage was taken down, so I'm guessing the store is being remodeled.

2.3 miles away: GIANT of Springfield Square


The other GIANT in Springfield, which we toured back in May. This store opened in 2012 in a former Genuardi's. It has the same decor as the Sproul Road location.

3.1 miles away: Acme of Clifton Heights


This store opened in 1995 on the site of the former Bazaar of All Nations flea market/mall. It has Quality Built inside, although it previously had Premium Fresh & Healthy 3.0, Santa Fe, and originally Red White & Blue.

Well, that was a pretty long tour, but such a nice store is definitely deserving of one! The Burns family knocked it out of the park with this store, and I wish them the best of luck. I saw a meme a few days ago about how this is the nicest thing to be built in Delaware County in the past 10 years, and that very well could be true. I hope you enjoyed this tour, and I hope to see you again next week! The Retail Connection: Check out happy.











Memorabilia | Focal VHS Tape

  For our next piece of memorabilia, we're going to be looking at something that, at first glance, has nothing to do with retail. But an...