Offbeat Places in New Jersey #1: Shop-Rite in West Caldwell

The ShopRite supermarket in West Caldwell, New Jersey is unique.
First of all, it must be an old ShopRite, because it still has the hyphen in the name.
According to a January 31st article in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
In American advertising lingo, rite makes mite. Or maybe might. The ShopRite grocery chain is the first rite I can remember. ShopRite is a postwar neologism; for a while in the fifties and sixties, the name was spelled with a hyphen (Shop-Rite), after which the logo lost its hyphen but kept the internal cap.
Even more interestingly, whoever built or designed this ShopRite made it with an Asian theme. I've been told that the owner at the time really liked Asian style. Not only does the front of the store have an Asian theme, but it even has endearing matching phone booths! One of the phone booths still has a working phone.
Even on the inside, the Asian theme continues. I blatantly took pictures with my camera on the outside, but I don’t think I’m supposed to take photos inside the store,






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Is there a large Asian population there? Or maybe they were into themes and had different themes for different stores at one time? That's an old chain because they were in New Jersey when I used to live there.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is a large Asian population at the time it was built. From what I understand, the owner of the store just liked Asian design.
DeleteInteresting indeed! Food Lion would look cool with Asian architecture elements.
ReplyDeleteBtw, thank you so fairy much for the sweet compliment on my blog. *sparkle*
You are welcome!
DeleteNow that's usual and very cool!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI like this Asian design. Perhaps other grocery stores could take the hint and do something like this in the United States of America. For example: French designs. Italian designs. Swiss designs etc.
ReplyDeleteIt might be fun to go shopping instead of spending more money on getting rid of cashiers and packers with automation. Soon customers will be scanning their own groceries, packing their groceries, no help out to the car, and then lugging all those groceries into the house to then put them all away. For a young person it is an easy thing to do. On the other hand for an older person this is not something they can do; they need help.
It would be fun to see this store and to shop there, I think.
JM Illinois
It certainly is different.
Delete