Stop & Shop at 553 S. Finley Ave. is closing in late October. When it does, Bernards Township will lose its only supermarket, a description used by the Bernardsville News. A replacement tenant is lined up for the space. As of September 30, it has no public name and no application on the township's planning registers. Most of the errands Lyons Mall handles today will stay in Basking Ridge for now. The grocery part will move to Bedminster, Warren, Bridgewater, Stirling, Bernardsville and Berkeley Heights.
A grocery anchor since the mall opened
Lyons Mall was built around a supermarket. Grand Union was the first tenant to sign a lease. It opened with a ribbon-cutting on Aug. 25, 1970, and the first 500 customers received orchids. The original store also had a books and stationery department. It drew little business and was eventually sealed off, and that space now holds three other stores.
Stop & Shop took over the space in January 2001, after Grand Union's parent company filed for bankruptcy. That makes 56 years with a supermarket at the center of the mall, under two names. Mayor Ana Duarte McCarthy brought up that history when she announced the closing. She noted that her husband, Mike, has childhood memories of the Grand Union ribbon-cutting.
According to the mayor, a Stop & Shop government affairs liaison told township officials on July 21 that the store would close sometime in October. She said the decision followed a comprehensive financial review and comes as the store's lease expires. Stop & Shop is closing its Westfield store this fall as well, according to NJ.com.
The last day is still a range
Neither Stop & Shop nor the township has announced an exact final day. The Bernardsville News reported that around July 20, employees were told the store would close on Oct. 28 or 29. An earlier report in the same paper also cited sources who gave two different dates. Plan on the store being open through about the fourth week of October and closed by the end of the month.
Here is where each piece stands as of September 30:
| Item | Status as of Sept. 30, 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Stop & Shop closing | Late October; employees told Oct. 28 or 29 | Bernardsville News |
| Employee transfers | Offered at Berkeley Heights, Madison and Watchung stores | TAPinto Basking Ridge |
| Pharmacy and prescription transfers | Not covered in the closing reports | — |
| Replacement tenant | Lined up but unnamed; plans being prepared for township review | Bernardsville News, Patch |
| Planning Board or Board of Adjustment filing | None for 553 S. Finley on public lists | Bernards Township |
| Gabe's Bagels at 450 S. Finley | Estimated about three months from mid-August; not yet open | TAPinto, Patch |
Stop & Shop says associates are being offered transfers to its Berkeley Heights, Madison and Watchung stores. The closing coverage did not explain what happens to prescriptions filled at the store. If you use that pharmacy, ask at the counter well before the last week of October.
A tenant without a name
The most-asked question about the closing so far has no public answer. Patch and the Bernardsville News both report that a new tenant is preparing to replace Stop & Shop. The mayor said plans and specifications are being prepared for township review. Nobody has said whether it will be another grocer.
The township's public records don't settle it yet. The Planning Board project dashboard lists four applications, and none of them is for Lyons Mall or 553 S. Finley. The Board of Adjustment pending-applications page lists two other cases. The Planning Board's Sept. 22 meeting was canceled. A plan that is still being drawn up may not have reached either board. Whatever moves in, the township review has to happen before any build-out. That means the space is likely to sit empty for some time after the last Stop & Shop shift ends.
Those two boards are where the tenant's name will most likely show up first. If a filing for 553 S. Finley appears on either list, the hearing date will give the best clue yet about when the space reopens.
Lyons Mall without a supermarket
The rest of the mall still covers many of the errands that were often combined with a grocery stop. Walgreens at 16 Lyons Mall offers prescriptions, flu and other vaccines, FedEx pickup and drop-off, and passport photos. The UPS Store at 5 Lyons Mall handles shipping. Taste of Thai, AT&T, Mathnasium of Basking Ridge and Dental Care Basking Ridge all list Lyons Mall locations.
The center's own tenant page is out of date. It still lists Dunkin', which local coverage says closed at the end of March. Check with an individual store directly before you go.
The former Dunkin' at 450 S. Finley is the only food business with a stated opening timeline at the mall. Gabe's Bagels is moving in. It will be the business's fifth location, after East Hanover, Chatham, Fair Lawn and Martinsville. Gabe's has been operating for about 20 years and specializes in hand-rolled bagels. The owner told Patch on Aug. 11 that opening would take about three months. That points to roughly mid-November, close to when the supermarket space goes dark. As of today, the Gabe's website still lists four locations.
Where the grocery run goes
Without a full-service supermarket in Bernards Township, the weekly shop moves to neighboring towns. Each of these stores is a full-service grocer, and the addresses come from each store's own location page:
| Store | Address | Town |
|---|---|---|
| Kings Food Markets | 450 Hills Dr | Bedminster |
| The Fresh Market | 75 Washington Valley Rd | Bedminster |
| ACME Markets | 177 Washington Valley Rd | Warren |
| Wegmans | 724 Route 202 South | Bridgewater |
| ShopRite of Stirling | 1153 Valley Road | Stirling |
| Stop & Shop | 404 Springfield Avenue | Berkeley Heights |
Local coverage of the closing also lists ShopRite of Bernardsville on Route 202 as a nearby supermarket.
The list splits along familiar lines. Kings and The Fresh Market are both in Bedminster, and The Fresh Market and ACME are on the same road, Washington Valley Road, in two different towns. Wegmans sits on Route 202 in Bridgewater. The Berkeley Heights store keeps the Stop & Shop brand and its weekly ads for anyone who wants them. It is also one of the three stores where Basking Ridge associates are being offered transfers, so the cashier who rang you up on South Finley could turn up there.
Smaller arrivals closer to downtown
The supermarket is leaving, but other new businesses are filling in nearby. Jersey Girl Chocolate recently opened at 20 Lewis Street, according to TAPinto's Sept. 19 report, with its grand opening set for Sept. 26. Farther up the same corridor, Ridge Hair Studio opened at 108 S. Finley Avenue and held its ribbon-cutting on Sept. 21. Across town in The Hills, Fire Phoenix Asian Fusion has opened at 576 Allen Road, serving Thai and Asian fusion.
None of these replaces a supermarket. They show that South Finley Avenue and the streets around it are still drawing new storefronts this fall, even as the corridor's biggest space empties. The next concrete sign of what happens at 553 S. Finley will be a filing on the township's planning boards. Until then, the bagel shop next door is the closest dated arrival.
The team at Brown & McCrea follows changes along South Finley Avenue closely, from the Lyons Mall tenant search to new storefronts downtown. If you'd like help understanding what a change like this means for your corner of Bernards Township, we're glad to talk it through. Contact Us.
