Fresh Grocer to join Wakefern, rebrand Drexel Hill store as ShopRite

The Fresh Grocer, an independent grocery chain with eight stores (six in PA), announced yesterday that it was joining the Wakefern cooperative and that it's Drexel Hill, PA store would switch to the ShopRite banner. The seven other stores plan to retain the Fresh Grocer name.

The Fresh Grocer, currently owned by Pat Burns and supplied by Supervalu, will become Wakefern's 50th member when it transitions to the cooperative in October.

The Fresh Grocer to add 5 stores in underserved communities

The Fresh Grocer, which currently operates seven stores in Philadelphia, Drexel Hill, PA and Wilmington, DE, announced that it has teamed up with the Partnership for a Healthier America and will open five full-service supermarkets in the next five years in underserved communities.

The first of the five stores will open in New Brunswick, NJ next year and is the result of a partnership between The Fresh Grocer, the city of New Brunswick, the New Brunswick Development Corp., the New Brunswick Parking Authority and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

A second location is slated to open in 2013 or 2014 in Washington, D.C.

The company is not new to the idea of opening stores in underserved areas. In 2009 The Fresh Grocer opened two stores in Philadelphia, which, according to the company, created more than 400 local jobs and put an end to two of the city's biggest food deserts.