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.

Acme | Mays Landing, NJ

 

4454 Black Horse Pike

Welcome to the Mays Landing Acme!

It's our second time in Mays Landing! We saw the Walmart Supercenter in town back in September, and now we're taking a tour of their Acme. The store opened in 1990 as the anchor to the Festival at Hamilton center, featuring the 80's Superstore layout. It received the Industrial Circus remodel in the 2000's, and more recently Quality Built. Despite the white signage on the outside, it never had any variation of the Premium Fresh & Healthy decor. Let our tour begin!

The welcome signage is being obscured by Halloween snack displays, which I'm sure are all stocked for Christmas now. We're entering on the left side to the store's grand aisle.

Produce is to the left upon entering. This prototype was prior to the iconic Acme produce alcove, so this department is kind of just out in the open.

Up next past produce is the fresh bakery. The checkerboard tiled flooring is a remnant of Industrial Circus. We'll be seeing a few of those throughout the store.

Fresh meat and seafood are located in the right corner. The backsplash, which is also found in the deli, is another Industrial Circus leftover.

Lancaster meats and the corner deli are in their usual places along the back wall.

A look down aisle 6, the location of frozen foods in the store. You'll never guess which decor that tile is from.

HABA in aisle 12, which ends by the pharmacy.

Dairy rounds out the food departments, located in the last aisle on the left wall. The dairy aisle here is wider than most I've seen in an Acme.

Pharmacy and greeting cards are in the front left corner. I wonder why they bothered to hang an empty aisle marker.

Customer service faces the checkouts along the front end.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2016

The exterior is looking the same here as it does today other than the apple-filled windows. To see the store in 2006 before the current signage was added, click here.

Nearby competition

0.4 miles away: Walmart Supercenter of Mays Landing

This is an Airport store that opened in October 1994 and was expanded into a Supercenter in October 2012. We've toured this store in this past, and you can click here to see that post.

2.7 miles away: ShopRite of English Creek

Next week, we'll be touring the English Creek ShopRite located down the road in Egg Harbor Township. It's owned by Village Super Markets and is pretty much completely unchanged inside and out since opening in 1987.

And that concludes our tour of the Mays Landing Acme! This was a nice and clean store, and I like the look of the decor, but for some reason it feels much older than it actually is. It also seemed pretty significantly less busy than the ShopRite, although the stores have coexisted for almost 34 years now so I doubt that means much. See you at ShopRite next week! Sincerely, The Retail Connection.

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.