Look Inside: Lake Parsippany General Store - Parsippany, NJ

Lake Parsippany General Store

Owner: unknown

Opened: ca. 1980 - 2021
Cooperative: none
Location: 171 Kingston Rd, Parsippany, NJ
Photographed: December 2020

Here in the southern part of Parsippany, there really aren't any supermarkets. Residents likely go to either the Stop & Shop in Morris Plains or Wegmans in Hanover to the south, or else the Whole Foods or ShopRite to the north. Up until earlier in 2021, there was also the Lake Parsippany General Store, a 3500 square foot oversized convenience store in what was a very early ShopRite (unclear when or who owned it). Though plans to redevelop the dilapidated property date back to 2016, the store actually continued on in business (and deteriorating) through early 2021 when it was put up for sale and, when it was not purchased, closed for good.

The store might have stayed in business until 2021, but it was certainly was in decline for many years. We can clearly see that outside, and inside, it was looking equally bad as of my December 2020 visit...

Much of the interior was nonfoods of the type you might find at a dollar store, although there was one aisle of grocery. There were some of the basics along with a deli counter that seems to have been long gone even by the time of my visit.

This is the last aisle of the store, with roughly 1/3 of the sales floor closed off and just used for junk at the time I visited. Notice the overhead lights turned off to the left above, and to the right below (although there's also the one that's just burnt out...).

As much as I really wanted to poke around in the storage area, the clerk behind the counter was already looking suspiciously at me and I didn't want any trouble. I did manage to get this shot of the closed area, what looks like a grill and seating area by the deli. Again, all of this closed before the rest of the store did.

Those are all the photos I have of the interior, and I really wish I could've gotten more and better shots but that's all I could do. That said, I am very glad I got to document the store while it was still in business -- but it was an eyesore in every way. Hopefully redevelopment plans will go through and this space or property will be used for something better! Now this is where the geography gets funky. We're going to jump about 7 miles northeast to the northeastern corner of Morris County, where we'll stop in Towaco, Lincoln Park, Butler, and Kinnelon, before we come back to Boonton and Denville. Come back here tomorrow to see a small store in Towaco!