McCaffrey's | Blue Bell, PA

 

1301 W. Skippack Pike

Welcome to the Blue Bell McCaffrey's!

Welcome back! Our grand finale for this group of stores is the Blue Bell McCaffrey's. The enclosed Clover Mall opened here in 1978 along with Clover and Clemens Markets. In 1990, Clemens relocated into the former mall space. The store was one of six Clemens to be sold to SuperFresh in 2006, and closed during the A&P bankruptcy in 2015 (one of only two acquired Clemens to make it to the end of SuperFresh, the other being New Hope). It became the fifth location of McCaffrey's, a small family-owned upscale supermarket chain, on July 22, 2016. Let's take a look around this beautiful store.

We enter down a hallway into floral, complete with a really cool water feature.

Up next is Java Jim's coffee and cafe, a staple of McCaffrey's.

The first fresh department shoppers see is the stunning bakery. All of the McCaffrey's stores have different decor, and this one is far and away my favorite.

The small service seafood counter is up next. In the Clemens days, this was the bakery and the current bakery was the deli. McCaffrey's doesn't have much of a deli.

Exceptional is a good word to describe the produce department, located across from bakery and seafood. Dairy is in the aisle behind this, and uses the back of the fake window signage.

The cheese and butcher shops are located in the back left corner as a segue into the rest of the store. The butcher counter is one of the few things in this store that is mostly unchanged from Clemens, though the decor is obviously new.

Aisle 5 has paper products and general merchandise. As The Market Report said in their tour of this store, while the aisles are clean and streamlined, the focus is obviously on the fresh departments.

Packaged meats and lots of prepared foods are in the back of the store.

Beer and wine are in the back right corner, with their own registers and exit out to the side of the store.

There's also a seating area, which is enclosed but has windows looking out to the frozen department.

The frozen department in question, located in aisle 10. McCaffrey's must love ice cream, because they have a lot of it!

Ten checkouts and a small customer service island round out the interior of the store.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2017

If you didn't already notice, one of the stores in the strip is still called Clemens Cleaners!

2011

Thankfully, McCaffrey's got rid of that unsightly cart corral. By the way, you can click here to see PlazaACME's photos of the store both while it was SuperFresh and during the transition to McCaffrey's.

Nearby competition

1.8 miles away: GIANT of Blue Bell

We've now toured all the nearby competition. The Blue Bell GIANT opened in 1995 and has the chain's latest decor inside. You can tour the store here.

2.5 miles away: Weis of East Norriton

The East Norriton Weis opened on June 16, 2012 in a former Genuardi's store which operated from 1998 until Safeway sold off most of the chain in 2012.

3.1 miles away: Acme of East Norriton

We began this journey almost a month ago with the East Norriton Acme, which opened on October 20 in a former ShopRite store.

Well, what did you think? I loved McCaffrey's, and I think if there was one near me I would shop there at least somewhat regularly. We're done with the Norristown area for now, but I'd love to come back sometime in the future and check out even more stores. Next week, we're headed back to a place that is very familiar to the blog: South Jersey! See you then, and have a great Thanksgiving! The Retail Connection: Exceptional. Every Day.

GIANT | Blue Bell, PA

 

1760 Dekalb Pike

Welcome to the Blue Bell GIANT!

It's The Retail Connection's 40th post of 2023! We'll be celebrating with the second half of our Norristown trip, which is taking place in the affluent and beautiful town of Blue Bell. There are three main grocery stores in town, and we'll be touring two of them, beginning with the GIANT. This store opened in 1995 anchoring The Shops at Blue Bell, and was the average 90's GIANT store with the trapezoid glass facade (like Burnham), but was remodeled to this nondescript design in the mid-2000's. Let's take a look!

This store has GIANT's newest decor, and while I do like it a lot, I don't think it really fits here very well. This store previously had the Fun House decor.

GIANT Direct and produce line the right wall of the store. The GIANT Direct area was originally the home of the Marketplace Cafe and Savor Coffee Shoppe.

The deli and kitchen are in the back corner on this side of the store. The hot bar area here is much more appealing than Aldan's salad bar.

Beer and wine are in the first two aisles, where Nature's Promise was originally located.

Meat and seafood line most of the back wall. The photo of the Carlisle Meat Market, the original GIANT, is a nice touch.

Health and beauty aids are in the aisles across from meat. These aisles end at the pharmacy, which we'll be seeing shortly.

Pet food is in aisle 17. This decor package finally eliminated the previous aisle marker design which had been used since 2010.

This GIANT has a total of 21 aisles, with dairy in the last one.

The bakery is in the front left corner.

Connected to the bakery is the small pharmacy counter. Hey, shouldn't those pretzels be with the rest of the baked goods?

Along the front end we see checkout lanes, customer service, and the Citizens Bank branch.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2018

Still a GIANT Food & Drugstore at this point.

Nearby competition

0.8 miles away: Acme of East Norriton

This brand new Acme opened in a former ShopRite on October 20. We toured this store earlier, and you can see it here.

1.1 miles away: Weis of East Norriton

This building was previously owned by Norristown institution Genuardi's from 1999 to 2012, when Safeway sold it and two others to Weis. Click here to tour it.

1.8 miles away: McCaffrey's of Blue Bell

The Blue Bell McCaffrey's opened in 2016 in a former SuperFresh, which was a former Clemens, which was a former... mall. We'll be learning more about this store when we tour it next week.

That's all for this GIANT! While probably the least interesting of the four stores during our Norristown trip, it still seems like a nice supermarket. Next week, we'll be headed up the road to the beautiful McCaffrey's in town. See you then! The Retail Connection: For today's table.