Location: 1425 Kennedy Blvd, North Bergen, NJ
One of just two remaining Food Basics is on it's way out. I popped in to check out the remaining selection of America's Choice products. Not too much left but probably more than in most of the A&P and Pathmarks that are still open. Photos of some of the products are included after our tour of the store.
This store was a fairly nice A&P up until the early 2000's when it was converted to Food Basics. The North Bergen ShopRite replacement store opened around that time. At first A&P tried to compete by doing a light remodel. Not long after, the store was closed and converted to A&P's low-price concept. The company had huge hopes for this new banner. It was an easy way for them to dump unionized employees in all of the service departments. All products in Food Basic stores were prepackaged. The format failed to live up to A&P's expectations and many of these stores have been closing in recent years. The North Bergen location seemed to be very successful. They tampered with the format here many times, never seeming to figure out what these stores needed to be. The last revamp actually included a reduction in sales floor space. That far wall was installed reducing the store by a 2 or 3 aisles. Rather costly move as they had to relocate the frozen food aisle. I would stop in here every once in a while to see what kind of deals they had. It was never worth the hassle. The store was always a mess and the lines at the registers were ridiculously long.
Ummm... the savings are, in fact, about to stop.
After the last revamp, they added a "Dollar Store" to this area. Didn't last long.
Center aisle. It was strange being here for the closing sale. I remember vividly shopping here when the A&P was in it's final days.
Last look at some of the America's Choice products
Food Bazaar will be taking over this location.
