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Dollar General Taking Over Pine Hill Perk’s Market on Erial Road. Jimmies Scoops Heads Across the Street. Two Closed Buildings Back to Life

Dollar General Taking Over Pine Hill Perk’s Market on Erial Road.  Jimmies Scoops Heads Across the Street. Two Closed Buildings Back to Life
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Last month Dollar General won approval for their second Pine Hill store, this one located more in the core of town on Erial Road in what was previously Perk’s Market.   The building will remain… this will be a conversion to Dollar General!  And to make this all happen, the beloved Jimmies Scoops & More will move across the street to the corner of Erial and 8th, taking over the closed property that was previously TJ’s Corner!

One deal.  Two Buildings brought back to life!   And new excitement to a great neighborhood!

Before we get too deep into this… Jimmies Scoops & More has closed for now as they prepare for their move and expect to be opening back up at the new location in just a few weeks, after they complete some upgrades!  They are owned by a local Pine Hill family and 42Freeway fans love supporting the locals!  Go like their Facebook page, and get ready to visit them at their new location soon in early fall!

As mentioned, the folks at Dollar General will be keeping the building and remodeling it… making it a large 13,455 square foot retail store.  The remodel will come with a full property refresh.  According to planning documents; related site improvements including but not limited to, parking spaces, signage, lighting, drainage, and landscaping.

Jimmies Scoops & More

While I have a lot of familiarity with this area of Pine Hill (My wife grew up a few blocks away), I didn’t know of Jimmies Scoops and More Ice Cream, which had set up shop in the smaller bump-out section of the Perk’s Market building.  We reached out to them on social media, and learned that the little shop was actually a core player in this!

We are the owners of the Market and Jimmies. We are under contract with Dollar General.  We are moving Jimmies Scoops & More across the street on Erial Road. Thank you for reaching out.

And a compliment deserves a nice gesture.  We knew about this a few weeks ago, but when the local business folks are fans of your work and ask for a small favor, you oblige…

I enjoy your page and never thought I would be in it. I have a request if possible that you hold off a week due to the fact we haven’t told our customers about the move. We look forward to our move since it’s a bigger building and is more visible.

Well last week Jimmies Scoops made the big announcement on their Facebook page, so here we are!  Oh and go like their page, and visit them often!

TJ’s Corner, future new home of Jimmies Scoops and More!

So yeah… about the Jimmies Scoops move… what a nice win-win-win for them and Pine Hill.  Their move will take them across the street and a block over, to what was previously TJ’s Corner Ice Cream, which currently sits as an empty property.  It is a very visible and prominent corner.  Once refreshed this will be a nice upgrade for Jimmies, as their current shop sat back off the road on the back side of the market building and this new location should provide more visibility and parking.

The combination of moves will bring new life to area.

Perk’s Market

Perk’s Market was a beloved full grocery store in Pine Hill for 65 years, and closed in 2017!  My wife remembers shopping there her entire life.   

A 2017 article by the Inquirers’ Kevin Riordan (a 42Freeway fan!) tells the story of Perk’s Market… the family, the history and the closing.  I learned that the “Jimmies” I had been chatting with on social media was actually Veronica, the wife of the local couple who own the building and ice cream shop, third generation owners of the original Perk’s store founder.  In the article, current owner Jim describes the successes, and then the difficulties, they had in the changing small town grocery business.

“The big stores are killing us,” owner Jim McCouch, 46, says from behind the counter where his late father, James, taught him how to cut meat. It’s where Jim taught his son James Jr. the trade as well.

I know they would’ve preferred to have the Perk’s Market still thriving, but this series of business moves is a nice win for the family, and well deserved.  

Dollar General

If you weren’t aware, Dollar General is… well its a grocery store selling mostly the dry goods… no produce or meats.  In the mix they do offer national brands such as Clorox, Proctor & Gamble, Kellogs..etc.  Canned goods, boxed goods, paper products, batteries, medicines.. all are part of their offerings.  A larger drug store, without the pharmacy!  They are BOOMING in the US, with over 16,500 stores now and they are pushing STRONG into the South Jersey area.

We mentioned “second Dollar General for Pine Hill”.  There is another location in Pine Hill on Berlin-Cross Keys Road… that I don’t think many realized that section of the road was Pine Hill.  The Cross Keys store was all new construction and I am not clear if it is opened… I saw they were deep into construction last time I drove by.  We wrote about it in January of this year.

Dollar General is adding a ton of stores in our area, and just last week I wrote about a new store coming to Blackwood-Clementon Road.. not too far from the edge of Pine Hill.

Say what you want about Dollar General, but they are absolutely popular with shoppers, their sales are booming, and they are filling in “holes” in communities where shopping options and commercial development have been lacking for years.  This is a wonderful neighborhood and small commercial district, but like most similar communities in America it has been tough to draw in new development… especially stores in the grocery category.

Jimmies Scoops and More
Current address
712 Erial Road
Pine Hill NJ

Future Address
805 Erial Road

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