Landmark Food Market to Shutter its Doors

A LITTLE BACKGROUND:  It may appear to be just another business that is closing down, but the A&P food market situated on Route 202/206N, at the junction of Burnt Mills and Washington Valley Roads has, since it was built in 1967, been an iconic presence at what is one of the busiest intersections in Somerset County.

This now-too-little and outdated store at 75 Washington Valley Road in Pluckemin Village represents the history of a great business enterprise.

A view of the A&P in Pluckemin, New Jersey,
on Sunday afternoon, January 27, 2013

The success story of the A&P began modestly in 1859 with a chain of stores selling tea and coffee that grew to 70 outlets by 1878.   In 1930, it had become a coast-to-coast behemoth of 16,000 grocery stores.

But the very size and success of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, combined with other marketing, operating, and competitive factors, would soon attract the attention of the anti-trust division of the U.S. Government. 

The A&P chain was destined to enter into a slow and painful decline.  By 1950, the number of its stores had dropped to 4,500 and would eventually plummet to 336 by 2012.  

Subsequent to a filing for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in December, 2010, the firm emerged in September, 2012, as a privately held company.

A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE:  It was only yesterday, on Sunday afternoon, that Priscille and I discovered the A&P’s fate as we pulled into the parking lot and sadly saw bold black lettering against a yellow background, “STORE CLOSING.” 

Sooner or later, we expected it.  Over the last ten years, there had been numerous rumors that another store chain might be taking over.  For a long time, the interior of the A&P had been in need of a thorough overhaul, even though some improvements were made.

Indeed, the entire complex of the Somerset Hills Shopping Center – from the parking lot to the complex itself – especially the façade, the walkway, and store fronts -- are in need of a serious makeover.  Competition is a demanding and ruthless teacher.

The Somerset Hills Shopping Center, looking
towards the A&P anchor store in the distance.

The A&P has been a favorite spot for us to shop, even though we also frequent some of the larger food stores in the area.  It was the place where our daughter, Denise, worked as a cashier to earn spare cash while she was a student at Bridgewater-Raritan High School East (now a middle school).

There are other pleasant memories:  Not infrequently, prominent personalities who resided in the Somerset Hills also patronized the A&P in days gone by.

Malcolm Forbes, former publisher of Forbes magazine, was also a gregarious motorcyclist and head of the Forbes clan in those days. 

Several times, on a balmy summer day, Priscille and I came upon the chase vehicle of the Forbes hot air balloon.  A white Mercedes minibus, it once waited patiently in the parking lot of the A&P, while, presumably, some of its occupants inside the store loaded up.   

(Occasionally, as we drove through the countryside west of Bridgewater, we spotted hot air balloons slowly cruising overhead.  The best way to see where the wind will take one of those, if you are very lucky, is to find the balloon’s chase vehicle and to safely follow it, staying many car lengths behind.  Seduced by gentle air currents, they don’t move quickly; and chase vehicles are in radio contact with them at all times.)

The sign in the doorway says it all.

Another luminary of the time was C. Douglass Dillon, also a resident of the Somerset Hills.  One day, as I walked into the checkout lane at the Pluckemin A&P, there he was in front of me with his wife, both very stately, yet completely unpretentious, as – like anyone else – he paid for their purchases. 

Dillon held several significant posts. In 1961 he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by John F. Kennedy and later was kept in this position by Lyndon B. Johnson.  In 1953, he was appointed by President Eisenhower to the post of U.S. Ambassador to France.  Mr. Dillon lived to see 93 years.

Remember John DeLorean of automobile fame?  Well, I also saw him at least a couple of times at the A&P as well.  You just can’t miss a person with such a craggy face, a full mane of hair, and one who towers over anyone else in sight.

Another person, former Bridgewater Township Mayor, James T. Dowden, is another locally notable public individual that I happened across and engaged in good conversation in the parking lot of the A&P, not long before his untimely death after both of us had left public office – his term of service longer than mine. 

And so it goes --

Thousands of people of all backgrounds and means passed through those checkout lanes since 1967, all of which added their own contributions to the diverse history of this area.

(Click on any image for an enhanced view.)