Original Tenant: A&P
Address: 410 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ
Address: 410 Springfield Ave, Berkeley Heights, NJ
Opened: 1960s
Closed: ca. 1970s
Later Tenants: Drug Fair (closed 2009) > subdivided
Photographed: June 2021
It might have a lot of modifications done, but you can recognize that A&P centennial facade from a mile away! This 16,000 square foot store was built as the anchor of this small strip mall in what might be considered to be the center of Berkeley Heights in the 1960s. A commenter on Flickr writes that A&P built in the 1970s the 36,000 square foot replacement store for this location at the other end of the strip mall, which later became Grand Union and then Stop & Shop, but JoshAustin610 says that the space was instead a Mayfair Foodtown before Grand Union. (To me, the store has neither the hallmarks of a 1970s A&P nor a 1970s Mayfair Foodtown, but that more likely means that Grand Union did extensive renovations after moving in. You can tour the store here, our other post for the day.)
Note that A&P's roof has been extended for a sloped awning across the A&P storefront and the neighboring ones, which resembles the Grand Union-era facade over on the Stop & Shop, so it's likely the facade renovation dates back to that time. Tmorrow we're heading next door to see a former Kings here on Grocery Archaeology along with its replacement store on The Market Report!
The Berkeley Heights A&P opened on February 8, 1966. (Note that advertisements referred to its address as 400 Springfield Avenue.) The A&P was replaced by Drug Fair in 1977, though I cannot ascertain exact dates for the former's closing and the latter's opening. The A&P must have been in the process of closing on April 7 of that year, since newspaper ads stated "Prices not effective in A&P Store at 400 Springfield Ave., Berkeley Heights." And the Drug Fair opened no later than September 15, since an ad from that date listed a location at 400 Springfield Ave. in Berkeley Heights. Here's a photo of the Drug Fair during its Spring 2009 going out of business sale, courtesy of Flickr user Shawn Collins:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/affiliate/3390579592
The Grand Union opened on June 22, 1991 as an addition to the shopping center. It was never a Foodtown or an A&P. Interestingly, before the A&P closed in 1977, that chain made a request to expand its Berkeley Heights store; the denial of that request was apparently the reason why A&P closed.
Also, I believe that the Berkeley Heights Foodtown--which opened on November 12, 1969--was in the same building that later became a Kings (although I cannot find confirmation of this). The Foodtown shopping center was renovated in the mid-1980s, and the Foodtown itself was still open in August 1988. As for the Kings, it opened no later than September 1997.
--A&P Fan
Thanks for the history!
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