Original Tenant: Village ShopRite
Address: 1711 NJ-10, Morris Plains, NJ
Opened: 1964
Closed: 2013
Later Tenants: Uncle Giuseppe's (renovations began 2021)
Photographed: June 2020
It's amazing that this Village ShopRite lasted all the way to 2013! Not so much that it was small, at over 40,000 square feet, but simply that it was outdated and wasn't renovated after the late 1970s, when Village gave it its last overhaul. It was replaced by the Cedar Knolls location, which was newly built closer to downtown Morristown and off NJ-10 -- notably moving farther away from the Morris Plains Stop & Shop, and much closer to the Morris Plains ACME.
Acme Style captured the store soon before its closure, which you can see here (along with their coverage of the new location and the Stop & Shop). Here's what the store looked like after ShopRite's closure. The store had been cleaned out with an auction of the fixtures as you can see in the poster in the first picture, but surprisingly the decor actually remained on the walls, for the most part. Watchung is the last Village to have this decor package intact, although it's largely still there in Millburn too. Dating back to the late 1970s or early 80s (since it was put in the acquired Good Deal stores, which Village purchased in 1976), it featured prominent wood paneling as we can see here in the entrance hallway. Unfortunately the store doesn't really have any other windows, but we can get a glimpse of the interior here...
Just about three weeks after I visited this store and was very surprised to find the store still abandoned eight years after its closure (it's possible Village held the lease for a while after moving out, too), Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace announced they were moving into the space after extensive renovations. If you're curious about the culinary wonderland that is Uncle Giuseppe's, check out our tour of their Ramsey location here. And from culinary wonderland to culinary mediocrity, we have a tour of the Stop & Shop across the street here today as well! (That's not nice to say. Sorry to any fans of Stop & Shop out there.) Tomorrow, we're heading east along NJ-10 for our next Hanover area store over on The Market Report!
When we moved to Morristown we more or less had two logical options: Acme in Morris Plains and this Shoprite. I remember my mother going to Acme for smaller orders, probably because it was closer and easier to shop but more expensive. Shoprite was for big orders and was a chore- always busy, and parking was a nightmare even before strip malls were added to the sides of Caldor and Shoprite. Even in the 80's this Shoprite felt old and tired, but business was always brisk.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your memories!
DeleteThe (original) Morris Plains ShopRite opened on June 10, 1964. Over the years, the store next door has changed hands five different times:
ReplyDelete*From 1963 to mid-1972, it was an FMC Discount Store.
*From October 1972 to sometime in the latter half of 1974, it was a White Modell Department Store.
*From March 12, 1975 to November or December 1981, it was a Two Guys.
*From November 2, 1982 to May 1999, it was a Caldor.
*Kohl's has been open since March 10, 2000.
Also, as you can see on HistoricAerials.com, there was an expansion to this shopping center that occurred between 1984 and 1987.
One thing that is not apparent by going on HistoricAerials.com is that the Morris Plains ShopRite was not in continuous operation from June 1964 to November 2013 (when it was replaced by the Cedar Knolls store). This very surprising piece of information was something I just learned today. Per an article on Page 15 of the August 3, 1982 edition of the Daily Record (that primarily discussed Caldor's upcoming opening):
"In a related announcement, Village Super Market Inc. said yesterday it would reopen its Shop Rite supermarket in the same shopping plaza within six months. Village had closed the store after the Two Guys store went out of business last winter.
Bill Sumas, vice president of the company, said the company would refurbish and double the size of the supermarket to 40,000 sq. ft. before opening it."
FYI, a bit more time than six months passed, as the Morris Plains ShopRite did not reopen until May 24, 1983. I'm virtually certain that the store never received decor updates after that date (which is surprising, given that it did such brisk business).
Thank you for sharing these interesting photos of the abandoned Morris Plains ShopRite. When I drove by the area this past summer, I seem to recall that the building had been gutted.
There's a good chance you already know this, but (in case you don't know) Uncle Giuseppe's opened on January 14 of this year:
https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/2022/01/14/uncle-giuseppes-marketplace-morris-plains-nj-grand-opening/6511925001/
I have not yet had the chance to visit this new supermarket. If and when you're able to go, I'll be very curious to read what you have to say about the store.
--A&P Fan
Thanks for all the history! Fascinating about the time gap after Two Guys closed. I have not been able to get to Uncle Giuseppe's yet but I really want to! Hopefully sometime this spring.
Delete