Highland Park Stop & Shop Will Close Sometime In 2023, Store Confirms

HIGHLAND PARK, NJ — The Stop & Shop on Raritan Avenue in Highland Park will be closing sometime in 2023.

The news was confirmed Friday by a spokeswoman for the Stop & Shop grocery store chain, and confirmed by Highland Park Mayor Gayle Brill Mittler.

This is an isolated store closing; no other Stop & Shops in New Jersey will be closing along with it. However, in January of this year Stop & Shop closed a store in South Brunswick and before that, closed a location in Paramus.

"After a detailed review of the operating performance of our stores, we have made the difficult decision to not renew our lease at our store located at 424 Raritan Ave in Highland Park, NJ," said a spokeswoman for the company. "All store associates will have the opportunity to transfer to other area Stop & Shop locations. Our Highland Park store will remain open into 2023; a closing date has not yet been determined."

The Stop & Shop leased that store space; it is unknown if there was a rent increase.

Mayor Mittler said Friday she was "deeply disappointed" and will be "doing everything in my power to work with them to stay."

Since the 1980s, there has been a grocery store in that Raritan Avenue location, she said. Now, there will be none.

Also, the Stop & Shop was within walking distance and was extremely convenient for many residents of Highland Park, a bustling academic town right across the river from New Brunswick and Rutgers University. The impending closure means there will be no "main" grocery store in Highland Park; the nearest food store is a kosher grocery store on Rt. 27 on the Edison border.

"There isn't a supermarket like the Stop & Shop in town that provided food for all of our residents. I'm frankly disappointed and I am exploring all options. I will do everything in my power to make sure they stay," Mittler told Patch Friday afternoon. "I am an eternal optimist and I'm going to do everything in my power to stop this. I am also not ruling out the possibility of another grocery store moving in there."