Trader Joe's proposed for Cherry Hill

Plans presented to Cherry Hill officials earlier this month reveal that a Trader Joe's store is proposed for The Shoppes at Garden State Plaza. TJ Maxx and HomeGoods are proposed as well.

If approved, the new stores, along with a Shake Shack restaurant, would be built on Haddenfield Road and Garden Park Boulevard, between Pier 1 and PNC Bank. Previous plans had called for townhouses to be built on that location.

Several projects in the shopping center complex are still pending, including a Costco.

The Market Place at Garden State Park, which is connected to The Shoppes, includes Wegmans, Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Dick's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Christmas Tree Shops, and several other retailers and restaurants.

MOM's Organic Market opens 19th store

MOM's Organic Market opened its 19th location earlier this month in Gaithersburg, MD.  The 16,000 square foot store follows recent openings in White Marsh, MD, Cherry Hill, NJ, Baltimore, MD and Philadelphia, PA.

According to Founder and CEO Scott Nash, the company doesn't have openings scheduled for the next 12 to 18 months, but will "put the pedal to the metal again in a couple years."

The company's Gaithersburg location features the retailers first in-store bakery, which Nash says is a test. It also includes an outlet of the chain's Naked Lunch eatery, which offers all-organic, vegetarian prepared items.

Gaitheresburg also includes many of the services that MOM's is known for, including free car-charging stations; a recycling center for corks, eyeglasses, cell phones, household batteries, shoes and plastic bags; a green roof that increases energy efficiency; rain gardens; and pollinator-friendly plants that help filter out pollutants in storm water runoff.

Mom's Organic Market opens in Center City Philly

Mom's Organic Market opened in Center City Philadelphia last month. The store - at 34 South 11th Street - marks Mom's first Philly store, and their third store in the PA/NJ/DE market (Bryn Mawr, PA and Cherry Hill, NJ).

The new store features all-organic produce, an all-vegetarian in-store cafe, and even a recycling center for glasses, batteries and wine corks. According to reports, Mom's Organic Market doesn't sell anything with artificial colors, preservatives or sweeteners, or hydrogenated oil.

Mom's currently operates 18 stores in MD, VA, PA, NJ and Washington DC.

Mom's Organic Market opens in Cherry Hill

Mom's Organic Market opened a new store last weekend on Kings Highway in Cherry Hill, NJ. The company now operates 16 stores, including one in Bryn Mawr, PA, and has plans for a third area store in Center City Philadelphia.

According to Store Manager Jen Weigel, the Cherry Hill location is the chain's largest at 22,000 square feet.

CEO Scott Nash thinks of Mom's as "a third leg on a stool... Whole Foods sells about 25,000 products and Trader Joe's, about 3,000 to 4,000. We sell 14,000 to 15,000, so we're somewhere in between the two."

According to the company, all produce is certified organic, bottled water and plastic bags are not allowed, and they boast a 93 percent companywide recycling rate.

Mom's minimum wage is $12 an hour, and Cherry Hill store perks for employees include a free meal daily at Naked Lunch, the in-store restaurant, paid maternity leave, subsidies towards the purchase of a hybrid or electric car, and a 30 percent discount on all products.

Whole Foods to open seven new NJ stores

Amidst increased competition from Trader Joe's, Fairway and Kings Food Market, Whole Foods plans to open seven new stores in New Jersey. According to Whole Foods, stores will open in Marlboro, Morristown, Cherry Hill, Parsippany, Clark, Closter and Newark. The Texas-based company currently operates 10 stores in the state.

Whole Foods plans to open more than three dozen stores in the U.S. by the middle of next year.

Another New Jersey Pathmark to close

Supermarket News reported last week that the Pathmark store in Howell, NJ will close in October. According to union sources, the employees were notified the previous week.

Parent company A&P announced in July that Pathmark stores would close in Cherry Hill, Camden and Edgewater.  A&P, which also includes Super Fresh, Waldbaum's, The Food Emporium and Food Basics, recently hired Credit Suisse to help review strategic alternatives that may include selling the company.

Many think the end is near for the iconic brand, a sentiment that's hard to argue with as competitors like ShopRite, Giant and others continue to eat away at A&P's market share.

Pathmark closing three South Jersey stores

Several reports yesterday confirmed that A&P officials told employees that the company was closing Pathmark stores in Cherry Hill, Camden and Edgewater Park in 60 days. The closings will leave Ventnor as home to the only Pathmark in New Jersey. A&P closed Super Fresh stores in Westmont, Marlton and Plainsboro earlier this year.

The closing may be especially troublesome for Camden, often referred to as a food desert. However, ShopRite plans to open a store in Lawnside within the next couple years (ShopRite to open store in Camden County's Lawnside Township). The new store will be about 10 minutes from the Pathmark location.

According to a union official that represents employees at Pathmark, A&P said they were "losing a lot of money..."

Supermarket analyst Matthew Casey said all three stores were unprofitable.

In a news report last night on one of the major networks, the reporter claimed that shopping patterns for thousands of people would change due to the closings. I would argue that if shopping patters hadn't already changed, the stores wouldn't be closing.

Whole Foods to take Genuardi's store in Cherry Hill

Whole Foods has announced it will open a store in the former Genuardi's site at Ellisburg Shopping Center in Cherry Hill, NJ. Safeway closed the Genuardi's store last summer after they couldn't find a buyer for it.

Whole Foods plans to renovate the store and open sometime next year. It will be the 13th New Jersey store for the company.

Audubon store to be last Genuardi's standing

It appears that by the end of the year there will be one Genuardi's grocery store left. With the Evesham, Egg Harbor and Barnegat stores slated to close soon, Audubon, PA will be home to the only remaining Genuardi's.

Earlier this year, Genuardi's closed stores in Royersford, Exton and Norristown. Over the summer, 15 Genuardi's transitioned to Giant, three to Weis and one to McCaffrey's. In August, the Cherry Hill site closed. That left four stores, three of which are closing, as mentioned above.

In a recent article the Audubon store manager said his supermarket is in it for the long hall, but that doesn't seem likely. Besides, Safeway's Eastern Division President Steve Neibergall said months ago that the company has decided to exit the Philadelphia market.

Genuardi's... and then there were 4

Five Genuardi's stores transitioned to Giant last week and 10 more will transition later this month. Three Genuardi's stores reopened as Weis supermarkets last month, and one will be a McCaffrey's within a couple weeks. For those (like me) keeping score, that leaves five open and operating.

Next month it'll be down to four. The Cherry Hill Genuardi's, located in Ellisburg Circle Shopping Center, will close on August 4, according to published reports. Safeway couldn't find a buyer for the store, and is still looking for buyers for the remaining supermarkets in New Jersey (Barnegat, Egg Harbor, Evesham) and Audubon, PA.