Connecticut-based grocer Stew Leonard’s broke ground recently on its newest store, in Clifton, N.J., its second location in the state and eighth overall. Located in the Styertowne Shopping Center, the new supermarket will open by next summer, reports Progressive Grocer. The Clifton store will reportedly bring 500 jobs to North Jersey.
The supermarket anchor store will be 56,000 square feet of the 210,000-square-foot Styertowne Shopping Center. It will integrate the current Stew Leonard’s Wine & Spirits store now located at Clifton’s Promenade Shops, on Route 3. The current liquor store, owned and operated by members of the Leonard family, is an independently operated and licensed store.
During the groundbreaking event, Stew Leonard Jr., CEO and son of the founder of the supermarket chain, who died in April, said, “We like Clifton’s diverse and dense population.”
Dubbed “the Disneyland of Dairy Stores” because of its country-fair atmosphere, with costumed characters and animated entertainment throughout its stores, Stew Leonard’s has also been designated the “world's largest dairy store” by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Family-owned and -operated, Stew Leonard’s has seven stores in Norwalk, Danbury and Newington, Conn.; East Meadow, Farmingdale and Yonkers, N.Y.; and Paramus, N.J.