TOUR: McCaffrey's Food Markets - West Windsor, NJ

McCaffrey's Food Markets
Owner: Jim McCaffrey III

Opened: 1996
Cooperative: none
Location: 335 Princeton Hightstown Rd, West Windsor, NJ

Photographed: February 2021

We arrive at our second McCaffrey's, and the chain only has two locations in New Jersey so we'll see a few more but over in PA. This 40,000 square foot store opened in 1996 as McCaffrey's third location (Yardley, PA opened in 1986, then Princeton, NJ in 1992) and appears to have been a new-build store at that time. We will get the feeling that this store looks a bit older than Princeton, so I assume Princeton was remodeled in the 00s while this store was not.

That said, this store looks absolutely beautiful inside, and like the other locations is very high-end. We enter to produce in the front right corner, with deli/cheese behind it. Deli is in an island backing up to the grocery aisles, with prepared foods and seafood around the perimeter. Meat lines the back wall, with dairy in the second aisle, bakery in the back left corner, and frozen in the last aisle.

We can clearly see that the bones of the store are older, although it looks really good.

Lots of prepared foods here, and many of these counters as we see are on diagonals, creating a winding path through the grand aisle.

Looking across to deli in the island; we can see a little of seafood to the right and grocery aisles are behind deli.

Beautiful prepared foods counters in the back corner of the grand aisle. Notice again that prepared foods are separated from the regular deli counter.

Seafood and then meat lining the back wall.

It seems that the butcher cases have been replaced since the store opened, but I want to point out the beautiful low-level lighting. (It also looks like there was decor here that was removed at some point.)

As I mentioned in the Princeton post, this decor package has many notable similarities to the A&P Foodmarket decor of the 90s, including the nearly-identical "thank you for shopping" sign on the front wall. I'm fairly certain the same design firm was responsible for both.

We notice distinct similarities in the ceiling design, the lit panels above the grocery shelving, and so on.

Plus, the overall color pallette is nearly identical to the 90s A&P Foodmarket decor. I think maybe this decor package has held up a bit better than the Foodmarket decor has. Speaking of that, are there any former A&Ps out there with the Foodmarket decor still intact? Offhand, I can only think of one (which is actually a former SuperFresh). We will certainly be touring that store when we get out to that part of PA!

Looking very good, and certainly clean!

Here's a look at the bakery in the back corner. What do we think, was there ever decor hanging from those braces visible to the top left? Or are they themselves part of the design?

Beautiful frozen foods aisle at the far end of the store -- I love the color and the ceiling! Frozen foods continue on the front wall for a little bit, with greeting cards in front of them...

Great window and lighting here. And then we move on to the front-end, which also has vaguely A&P-like flooring.

When we get out to the newer McCaffrey's in PA, we'll get to see some really beautiful stores. Not to say that this one and Princeton aren't nice, but they're clearly older than the brand-new ones I've visited out in PA. But wait, this isn't the only post for today! There's another supermarket at the other end of West Windsor, which you can tour here. Tomorrow, we return to Princeton for a supermarket at the far southern end of town. Check it out tomorrow on The Market Report!