Big Lots | Millville, NJ

 

101 Bluebird Lane

Welcome to the Millville Big Lots!

It's been a while since we went to a non-grocery store! And this one is for a special, but sad, reason. The Big Lots in Millville is one of the hundreds of locations nationwide that is closing its doors. I happened to catch the store soon after its closing sale had begun. This store opened on October 24, 2014, in half of a short-lived former Acme location that operated from 2005 to 2011. Planet Fitness takes up the other half. As we will see inside, the store still has somewhat of an Acme feel, but Big Lots definitely made it their own in the pretty much exactly 10 years that they were here. So, let's check it out!

A look at all of the store closing signs in front. "This location only" is like a 1/3-truth, because, while not all locations are shutting down, more than 500 are.

More signs. While the store was "up to" 25% off, most of it was only at 10%. I'm sure those discounts are much higher now if the store is still open.

Furniture is on the right side of the store. Some locations have Big Lots Furniture stores-within-stores, but this one just has it out in the open. In the Acme days, this would have been where the frozen foods were, and probably the pharmacy too. Think of Avalon.

Discounts were abound. At prices like these, products were flying off the shelves.

The home section -- or maybe it's just the pillows section -- is in the back right corner of the store.

Notice the skylights which are left over from Acme.

The grocery section is in the middle of the store. I was surprised by the selection. You can't do all of your weekly shopping here, but I was surprised by how much they had.

Lots of miscellaneous merchandise and store closing signs on the left side of the store.

Not the best view of the checkouts, but they aren't that interesting anyway, other than Big Lots-themed lane markers.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2015

Here's a look at both the Big Lots and the Planet Fitness about a year after they opened.

Thank you for joining me on this tour! I don't go to Big Lots often, but it's always sad to see a closing stores. I hope Big Lots can recover, because they're quite an interesting store, but it would be nice if they went back to their original model of selling closeouts. This is my last store post for the month! But, don't worry, we'll continue every Friday with other retail content, and I'll have new tours next month. Thanks for reading! Serve The. Save Retail Connection.

ShopRite | Clementon, NJ

1224 Blackwood-Clementon Road

Welcome to the Laurel Hill ShopRite!

From one Zallie's ShopRite to another. Last week's store is only located about two miles away, but feels worlds different. It originally opened in 1974 and has had several different tenants and remodels over the years. ShopRite didn't come along until 2007, and operates quite a modern store there today. The same cannot be said about this location, the ShopRite of Laurel Hill. It opened in 1973 as a Shop 'N Bag, being the first Zallie's supermarket, and became ShopRite in 1980. Sure, the sign on the exterior has the current ShopRite logo (though it didn't until 2018 - and, as we'll see, not all of the exterior signage has been updated), but that's it. The inside is still totally '80s. Not for long, though, as work is already ongoing to convert the former Clementon Kmart down the road into a new, state-of-the-art Zallie's ShopRite, not unlike the one we saw last year in Woolwich. 42Freeway has a lot of great information about the ShopRite situation here in Clementon, so please check out that article! But, for now, let's enjoy the current Laurel Hill ShopRite for what it is: a snapshot of the '80s.

The European breads section and the bakery are on your right when you walk in. I'm kind of confused by the decor here, because it's decidedly not modern or recent, but it looks newer than everything else in the store. I think it could be an upgrade from some point in the '90s.

And across from the deli, you find the deli department and the prepared foods kitchen (or "food court"), both of which are incredibly retro. I don't know what's more '80s-looking: the all-lowercase "delicatessen" or the urgent "THE FOOD COURT". I love the italics and the bright neon.

The produce department is in the back of the grand aisle. The second half of the "fresh produce" sign is burned out, but the ceiling makes up for that.

The seafood counter and the meat department are in the back.

Kind of an odd setup here. You can either go straight and through the meat department, or go to the left and go down the aisles. We'll do the latter. Both paths end up at the dairy department on the right wall.

A look at aisle 10, international foods. I like the old-school look of most of this store, but the aisle markers are pretty ugly. So are the category markers, although those are newer based on the logo and slogan.

Dairy's in the last aisle.

Checkouts are in the front. The checkout lanes themselves seem like they could be new, but the lane lights probably date back to when the store opened.

Also along the front end are the pharmacy, floral, and the customer service counter, all with glorious neon. The mirror treatment in the floral section was a common feature of ShopRites of the '80s.

As we leave the store, here's the ShopRite sign on the right side of the store. This logo was phased out in 2002.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2023

As you can see on the far right side of the photo, the old ShopRite Pharmacy logo is still up on the road sign. If you're wondering why the sky looked like this, it was because of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires last year. I have asthma and I could barely go outside during that time because of how bad the air quality was.

2013

Still sporting the old logo on the facade here.

Thank you for joining me on this tour! I enjoyed seeing this ShopRite and comparing it to the one we saw last week. Despite being owned by the same family, the two stores couldn't be more different in terms of layout and aesthetics. Knowing how the Zallie's ShopRite in Woolwich turned out, the new location in Clementon is going to be great. I believe there are plans for this store to become a storage facility of some kind after ShopRite is all moved out, but I don't believe that's 100% confirmed as of now. Thanks again for coming with me, and I'll see you again next week!

ShopRite | Laurel Springs, NJ

 

1200 Chews Landing Road

Welcome to the Chews Landing ShopRite!

Welcome back to the Garden State! Today, we're going to be touring a store with a very New Jersey history. The first supermarket to operate in this location was Shop 'n Mart, which opened the store on October 29, 1974. I'm not familiar with Shop 'n Mart, but it seems like they were a small local chain (other locations in Cherry Hill and Voorhees opened on the same day). In 1978, Shop 'n Mart merged with Thriftway, and this store operated under that name until the mid '90s. Super G opened a store in the space on July 10, 1996. The store was converted to a Stop & Shop in September 2005, and was then bought by ShopRite along with most of the other Stop & Shop stores in South Jersey in September 2007. Today, the store is run by the Zallie family. Let's go shopping!

Quite an interesting welcome sign on a baked goods display. The in-store bakery is all the way in the back of the store, as we'll see later.

Produce and floral are on the front wall. This store has a really odd layout, with no grand aisle. I believe the layout is left over from Super G.

Dairy is on the right wall. I like the decor here. I don't know how common it is among Zallie's stores, as I've only been to one other - Woolwich, which has their current decor.

Deli and bakery are in the back. This ShopRite serves Boar's Head in addition to the chain's competing brand, Black Bear of the Black Forest.

Snacks and other promotional items are in aisle 13.

A small cafe in the back of the store, with a very tiny seating area. This is probably the strangest part of the layout in my opinion, as I've pretty much only seen cafes in the front of the store.

The pharmacy is up next. I was here on a Sunday, and they're only open until 3:00 on weekends.

The quality meats are next to the pharmacy. This store must not have a service meat department.

It does, however, have a strangely prominent seafood department.

Frozen foods are on the left side of the store. Having frozen foods and dairy on opposite sides of the building is definitely a choice.

We're checking out of the store now. I've definitely never seen self-checkouts numbered up to 90. There definitely weren't 90 registers, so I don't know where that number comes from.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2019

The trees look much prettier here, but the store itself is pretty much the same.

Thank you for joining me on this tour! This was a pretty nice store. It's a good size and the decor is awesome, but the layout is really bad. It would be nice if the next remodel comes with a new layout, but it's probably going to be a while before this store gets a makeover. Zallie's has their hands full in this area right now, as they're working on a new location about two miles south in the former Clementon Kmart. That store is going to replace the current (and very outdated) Clementon location, which we'll be touring next week! See you then! The Retail Connection: Check out happy.