Without Stop & Shop, Basking Ridge's Grocery Run Goes Back to Its 1970 Route

On Aug. 25, 1970, the Lyons Mall on South Finley Avenue held a ribbon-cutting for its first tenant, a Grand Union supermarket, and gave orchids to the first 500 customers. As New Jersey Hills recounted, the store did poorly in its early years because most local residents shopped in Bernardsville or Stirling.

Fifty-six years later the grocery run is heading back out of town. Stop & Shop at 553 S. Finley Ave., which New Jersey Hills calls the township's only supermarket, told staff its last day would be Wednesday, Oct. 28, or Thursday, Oct. 29. The store that wins most from this is the same one that drew Basking Ridge shoppers in 1970. The ShopRite on Route 202 in Bernardsville opened in July 1966, four years before Grand Union.

A store that had never gone dark

Before this fall, the Lyons Mall supermarket had never had a scheduled closing. Grand Union Co. of Wayne went bankrupt, and its store passed to Stop & Shop in a liquidation sale in January 2001. The doors stayed open through the changeover. In the early years, Grand Union even sold books and stationery in space now used by three other storefronts. That department drew little business and was walled off in the mid-1970s.

Stop & Shop spokesman Daniel Wolk told Patch the decision came "after a routine evaluation of our store operations," and that "all associates will be given the opportunity to transfer to other Stop & Shop locations." At the July 28 Township Committee meeting, Mayor Ana Duarte McCarthy said the timing reflected a comprehensive financial review and the end of the lease. She also said the liquidation would work with area food bank networks so usable products reach people who need them, New Jersey Hills reported.

Three closings in eleven years

Basking Ridge isn't the only place losing a supermarket. The Somerset Hills have been closing them for a decade, and each closing has pushed shoppers toward the same few stores along Routes 202 and 206. New Jersey Hills traced the sequence:

1. June 2002: an A&P opens in the Dewy Meadow Village complex off King George Road in Bernards Township.
2. November 2015: that A&P closes after the national chain's bankruptcy. The building sits vacant until it is torn down in May 2019 to make room for apartments.
3. January 2021: the Kings in Bernardsville Centre on Route 202 closes. It had opened as an Acme in July 1956, and the space was later expanded and divided among several tenants.
4. Oct. 28 or 29, 2026: the last day staff were given for Stop & Shop at the Lyons Mall.

That leaves three supermarkets across the five Somerset Hills towns: the ShopRite in Bernardsville, Kings on Route 206 in Bedminster, and The Fresh Market on Washington Valley Road in Pluckemin. None of the three is in Bernards Township.

Where the weekly run goes now

Here are the addresses and hours each store posts on its own website as of late October 2026. Holiday hours can change them, so check the store's page before a big Thanksgiving shop.

These stores aren't interchangeable for someone replacing a full weekly order. New Jersey Hills described the Bernardsville ShopRite as the only competitor within several miles of the Lyons Mall. Kings is open the latest of the Somerset Hills stores. Wegmans has the longest hours on the list and runs a pharmacy open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday until 6 p.m., and Sunday until 4 p.m. Whole Foods calls its store "Bridgewater," but the address is in Bound Brook.

If you want to stay with Stop & Shop, the nearest remaining locations are in Berkeley Heights, Madison, Watchung and Morris Plains. For produce, the Bernardsville Farmers' Market runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Nov. 21, which leaves three Saturdays this season after this post goes up.

Why size works against the Lyons Mall space

The Lyons Mall store and ShopRite's history help explain why the closing came and what could replace it. The Stop & Shop space totals about 30,000 square feet. It was last enlarged in 1992, when the store was widened by 8,800 square feet on the train station side and gained a 1,200-square-foot vestibule in front. New Jersey Hills calls the space relatively small by modern supermarket standards.

ShopRite kept growing instead. Its owners built an 11,914-square-foot addition in late 2004, bringing the Bernardsville store to 41,640 square feet. The store that was older than the Lyons Mall in 1970 is now about 40 percent bigger than the space it outlasted, and it is once again the only supermarket New Jersey Hills places within several miles of the Lyons Mall.

The square footage matters for the next tenant too. Whoever takes 553 S. Finley Ave. starts with a footprint that has held a supermarket for 56 years and has been called undersized for one.

What's next at 553 S. Finley Ave.

The building's future is still undecided. At the July 28 Township Committee meeting, Mayor McCarthy relayed what the mall owner had told her, as New Jersey Hills reported:

"There is a new tenant preparing plans and specifications for township review. More details will be provided as determined."

The tenant hasn't been named, and nobody has said whether it will be another grocer or some other use. During public comment at that meeting, one resident said he hoped "another market will move in there." So far, no Lyons Mall or Stop & Shop item has appeared on the township's Aug. 18 or Oct. 6 Planning Board agendas or the Sept. 9 Board of Adjustment agenda. When plans do arrive, those public agendas are where they will show up first.

The rest of the mall is getting at least one new tenant. Gabe's Bagels has announced its fifth location at 450 S. Finley Ave., in the former Dunkin' that closed at the end of March. Owner Gabe Gebril, who also runs shops in East Hanover, Chatham, Fair Lawn and Martinsville, told Patch in August that he hoped to open in about three months and chose Basking Ridge because he had always liked the area. TAPinto Basking Ridge reported the same timeline on Aug. 14. That puts the target around now, but no opening date has been announced.

When Grand Union opened in 1970, most residents shopped in Bernardsville or Stirling, and business at the Lyons Mall improved only as the township developed. Until a tenant files plans for township review, the ShopRite at 93 Morristown Road is the closest supermarket New Jersey Hills names.

At Karen Gray, we follow changes like this one because they shape daily life in Bernards Township. If you have a question about the Lyons Mall, the Stop & Shop space, or what else is changing along South Finley Avenue, let's connect. We'll share updates as plans for the space go before the township.