ShopRite | Egg Harbor Township, NJ

 

3003 Black Horse Pike

Welcome to the English Creek ShopRite!

It's December, the most wonderful time of the year, and it's time for our New Jersey Grand Finale for 2023! The English Creek ShopRite, located in Egg Harbor Township, opened on March 8, 1988 (thanks Zachary!) as a Village ShopRite, co-anchoring the center with a Jamesway. Strangely, the side of the building has the logo for Starn's ShopRite, despite Starn's having sold their stores to Village two years prior to this store's opening. One thing is certain, though: the decor in this store is undoubtedly from the 1980's!

This ShopRite Pharmacy sign by the main entrance sets the stage for the rest of the tour.

Of course I go on about how retro this store is and then show you something brand new. Confronting you when you walk in are the hot foods bars, including Blueprint Subs and Salads and Mura Sushi & Asian Fare.

The actually super retro produce department lines the right wall of the store. The top of the E in produce is gone, which is to be expected in a 35 year old decor, though this store has been maintained quite well.

The appy is in the corner on the produce side, with signage promoting both Boar's Head and ShopRite's competing brand Black Bear of the Black Forest.

Seafood and meats are located on the back wall. The seafood signage is really amazing.

Pet products are in aisle 12. The aisles are quite narrow in this store.

The bakery is in the back left corner. I'm assuming this signage was replaced after the store's opening, as, while not identical, it's quite similar to the Village decor from the 2000's as seen in Vineland.

Frozen foods and dairy are in the last few aisles on the left side of the store.

Bread is in the corner. The tree signage is an interesting choice, considering the department.

Twelve checkouts are located along the front end. The lane lights are obviously from a much more recent decor package, and are the same as the ones we saw in Vineland.

Lining the front wall are ShopRite from Home, the pharmacy, customer service, the tobacco shop, and greeting cards.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2017

Even if Street View went back to 1990, we'd probably see no difference from today other than the cars in the parking lot.

Nearby competition

2.8 miles away: Acme of Mays Landing

The Acme in Mays Landing opened in 1990 as the main anchor to the Festival at Hamilton shopping center. Despite having opened only three years later than ShopRite, it's decidedly much more modern, with a Quality Built renovation taking place in recent years.

3.1 miles away: Walmart Supercenter of Mays Landing

The Walmart in Mays Landing opened in 1994 and was expanded to a Supercenter in 2012. Inside, it has the current Airport decor from Walmart. The tour for this store can be found here.

4.4 miles away: Lidl of Egg Harbor Township

Despite being in the same town, the Egg Harbor Lidl is further away from the ShopRite than the Mays Landing stores. This store was built by Genuardi's in 2001 and closed with the rest of the chain in 2012, later becoming the independent JR's Fresh Market (affiliated with Thriftway and later Foodtown) from 2015 to 2018. Lidl opened in 2021. Check out my July tour of this store here.

That's all for this tour! Despite its seriously dated decor, I thought this seemed like a pretty nice and well-kept ShopRite. It seemed quite busy as well, compared to Acme at least. I'm sure we'll be back in New Jersey in no time, but for the rest of the year we'll be in southeastern Pennsylvania. See you next week! The Retail Connection: Check out happy.

Lidl | Egg Harbor Township, NJ

 

3121 Fire Road

Welcome to the Egg Harbor Township Lidl!

Welcome back to The Retail Connection! Today, we're in the township of Egg Harbor, located in Atlantic County just a few miles away from shore towns like Atlantic City and Ocean City. Instead of enjoying the boardwalk or the beach today, though, we'll be taking a tour of this Lidl. First, a short history. Genuardi's opened here on February 14, 2001, about a week after their acquisition by Safeway. The Genuardi's division closed in 2012, with many Pennsylvania stores being sold to GIANT (which doesn't operate in New Jersey). No buyer of this store was named, and the store closed in December 2012, eliminating another grocery store from the town after Pathmark closed earlier that year on March 2. The store sat vacant until JR's Fresh Market, a Thriftway/Shop N Bag and later Foodtown affiliate, took the space over from 2015 to 2018. Lidl opened in most of the building on April 14, 2021. Without further adieu, let's begin our tour!

Heading in through the iconic Genuardi's tower...

This store has a different decor package from what we saw in Folsom. The New Jersey flag in the heart is a nice touch.

We enter to the left to the bakery, Lidl's only in-store fresh department. I think I prefer this look over the older one. I like the fake chalkboard signs. By the way, if you've never been in a Lidl before, I think you should know that you can smell the bakery no matter where you are in the store. That's just another thing to love about Lidl.

The produce market is across from the bakery. Interestingly, the produce sign is unchanged from the previous decor.

Seafood and meats are in refrigerators in the back left corner. I really like the "floating" freezers in this store. We'll see them again later on.

Deli meats and cheeses are behind the refrigerators on the back wall. The signage here is definitely much clearer and more noticeable than it was before. See the same area in Folsom for comparison.

General merchandise is in the middle of the store. This Lidl in particular had quite a lot of beach and pool supplies, probably because this store isn't far from the shore.

Frozen foods and the rest of dairy are on the right wall.

Here we see those interesting freezers again. I've never seen anything like them before.

Looking down aisle 7. The aisle markers are hung above the shelves as opposed to above the aisle. I can't say I care for that idea.

Registers along the front end, as per usual. I was intrigued by that "Egg Harbor Township community wall", but it didn't really have anything on it other than ads for Lidl's magazine.

Purpose-built Lidl stores have all glass along the front end, so it's interesting to see decor on the front wall.

Lidl didn't take over the entire Genuardi's/JR's building, so there's a small part on the end still vacant and looking like a Genuardi's. This was the entrance to the Signature Cafe back in the Genuardi's days. Check out Josh Austin's Flickr page to see a photo of this store back in June 2012 when it was still Genuardi's.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2017

The store was JR's Fresh Market and affiliated with Foodtown at the time of this picture. By the way, if you're interested in seeing photos of this store when it was still JR's (which retained the Safeway decor from Genuardi's), click here.

Nearby competition

4.4 miles away: ShopRite of English Creek

This ShopRite on Black Horse Pike co-anchors the English Creek Shopping Center with an Ollie's (former Jamesway). This store opened sometime in the 80's as a Starn's ShopRite, and was sold to Village Super Market in 1986. It retains the "STARN'S" logo on the side of the building, as you can see. Unfortunately we won't be getting to see this store, but I hope to get to it sometime soon. Sleeve Did It has a video touring this store, if you're interested in seeing it. Also, there's an Aldi across the street from this ShopRite, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Thanks for checking out this Lidl with me! While the earlier Lidl stores in the US have beautiful exteriors, the newer ones have very nice decor on the inside. Personally, I'm a big fan of Lidl stores, and this one was no exception. I'm also glad to see an older supermarket building reused and still selling groceries. Thanks for reading and see you next week! The Retail Connection: Rethink grocery.