Two New Jersey communities are preparing to lose longtime supermarkets as Stop & Shop moves ahead with plans to close its stores in Basking Ridge and Westfield. The decisions come as shoppers in the state already face another pair of announced supermarket closures involving Kings Food Markets.
Stop & Shop confirmed the Westfield and Basking Ridge plans in July. The Basking Ridge location is expected to close in October, while the company has described a fall shutdown for Westfield without announcing a firm final date.
Two longtime grocery locations are affected
The Basking Ridge supermarket is at 553 South Finley Avenue in Lyons Mall, in Bernards Township. The Westfield store is at 219 Elm Street, near the town’s downtown shopping district.
The South Finley Avenue address has a particularly long grocery history. Grand Union opened there in 1970, and Stop & Shop took over in 2001. The planned departure will end more than five decades of supermarket service at the shopping center unless another grocer moves in.
In Westfield, Stop & Shop took over a grocery storefront that previously operated under other supermarket names. Its closure would remove another established grocery option from a walkable downtown area.
Why the stores are closing
Stop & Shop spokesperson Jennifer Brogan told New Jersey 101.5 that the Basking Ridge decision followed a routine evaluation of the company’s operations. The Westfield decision followed a separate review.
The Basking Ridge lease expires this month. Bernards Township Committeewoman Ana Duarte McCarthy said the company had informed her in July that a financial review, together with the expiring lease, contributed to the decision.
In her August community update, McCarthy said the landlord had mentioned a potential replacement tenant preparing plans for township consideration. She did not identify the business, so there is no confirmed supermarket replacement for the Lyons Mall space.
The grocery chain has not announced a new statewide round of closings tied to these two stores. Stop & Shop previously shut several New Jersey locations during a broader reduction in 2024, and a Toms River store closed earlier in 2026.
Employees offered transfer opportunities
The company has said workers at the affected stores will have opportunities to move to other Stop & Shop locations. For Basking Ridge employees, McCarthy identified Berkeley Heights, Madison and Watchung as potential destinations.
That does not mean everyone will take a transfer. The chain has not publicly established how many workers will leave their jobs as a result of these two closures, so an exact layoff figure remains unavailable.
Shoppers will have alternatives, including other supermarkets in and around Bernards Township and Westfield. Still, losing a familiar store may add travel time or change how residents handle routine grocery trips, especially for customers who depend on nearby shopping options.
Basking Ridge shoppers have only the rest of October before the expected closing, while Westfield customers are still awaiting a firm last day. For employees and regular shoppers, both decisions mean another change to familiar grocery routines this fall.
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