TOUR: Woo-Ri Mart - West Windsor, NJ

Woo-Ri Mart
Owner: Heung Park
Opened: 2017

Cooperative: none
Location: 64 Princeton Hightstown Rd, West Windsor, NJ

Photographed: February 2021

I was in for a few surprises here at the Woo-Ri Mart in West Windsor. The first is that buried behind that new facade is actually a pitched-roof ACME, whose ceiling is exposed inside as we'll see. That was quite the shock to me when I stepped into the store. Turns out, while this is now referred to as West Windsor, back when ACME was here they called the store the Princeton Junction ACME, which of course I was familiar with from Acme Style. Princeton Junction refers to this area of West Windsor Township, so I wasn't aware that those were the same place. The second surprise, which I only actually came across while writing this post, is that this 22,000 square foot store was opened in 2014 as a Mrs. Green's Natural Market as their first (and only?) New Jersey location after ACME closed in 2009. It then closed in 2016, with Woo-Ri Mart opening the following year. Woo-Ri is an Asian supermarket that has another location in Northvale (Bergen County).

As we'll see, they didn't do a whole lot of renovations after the ill-fated organic chain went under, but the space is looking really good and a lot more vibrant since it seems to do much more business than Mrs. Green's did.

I'm not entirely sure how Mrs. Green's would've been set up, but in Woo-Ri we walk into produce on the left side of the store. In the back, there's an island for seafood and meat/dairy are on the back wall. Deli/prepared foods are on the other side of the produce wall we see to the right above, and frozen is in the last aisle. The only way to get from the produce/seafood room to the main supermarket is in the back; there's no pass-through in the front.

Looks like Woo-Ri installed this sign directly on top of another sign Mrs. Green's would've had there. I'm unclear just how much of the signage is left over from Mrs. Green's, but the NJ.com article gives us a good look inside.

Although Woo-Ri doesn't have Mrs. Green's 100% organic produce department, there is an organic produce section, something we don't see too much in the Asian supermarkets. This store is a little more of a general supermarket than many Asian stores and has a fair amount of mainstream groceries along with the Asian imported foods. It makes for a very pleasant hybrid.

Again, I'm unclear whether the Fresh Fish and Dairy signage we can see here are new or left over from Mrs. Green's. I would be inclined to say that the fish signage is left over but the dairy signage is new.

Here's a look across the back wall of the store. Notice the chairs upside down on top of the refrigerator case straight ahead -- there was a food court in this area when it was Mrs. Green's, and Woo-Ri also had a food court which was then closed for the coronavirus.

Looking up towards the front of the store (and we can see the exit straight ahead). This area is where the seating area would've been. Notice the delicatessen signage to the right; this store doesn't have a traditional service deli, so I assume that signage is left over from Mrs. Green's. Now, this area is all prepared foods and baked goods, with beverages facing.

The beverage case would've been Mrs. Green's cheese/prepared foods case, that much I can tell. The pitched roof is looking really good here!

Woo-Ri did not replace Mrs. Green's shelving, but it was in excellent condition and still is. Also take a good look at these products, many of these are mainstream American items you wouldn't find in a lot of Asian supermarkets. There's a good mix here because the population of the area is quite diverse.

Plenty of Asian sauces and ramen noodles, though, too. Notice that Woo-Ri extends beyond the pitched roof section of the building; ACME would've extended farther to the left but I'm not sure where ACME would've ended on the right.

As we see, the shelves are certainly packed here and the whole store is very clean. We see some stock in the aisles, such as below, but that's just in preparation for the weekend rush as I visited at the end of the day on a Friday.

The only hint that this store was previously something else is these category markers which no longer really make sense: stir fry pans are under a label for "children." Now my question is, what exactly would Mrs. Green's have had here that could be labeled "children"?

Frozen foods in the last aisle.

And a look at the front end. I think this is a really good conversion of a pitched-roof ACME and also a good reuse of the closed natural market, certainly an unusual store all around. But a good stop! Don't forget to see today's other post at the McCaffrey's just east. Tomorrow, we return to Princeton. We'll be seeing one store on route 1 south of town on The Market Report for our final stop within Princeton proper!