The Deptford Boston Market location is closed with a large Stop-Work Order from the State of New Jersey displayed prominently on the glass front door.
The checked off items and commentary calls out “failure to comply” related to unpaid wages, records, failure to provide records, minimum wage, as well as handwritten items added-in related to payment of earned sick leave and records for that sick leave.
The Stop-Work order was issued by New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce’s “Division of Wage & Hour Compliance”, and signed by Director David Biglin.
I stopped over last night at the Deptford location to see a building that looked like it was completely without power, other than one security emergency light which is likely powered by battery and intended for use in emergencies.
While I stay away from rumors and speculations, seeing the power off completely in the building maybe an indication that the Deptford location could be looking at a permanent closure. This is the last “42Freeway” area Boston Market left and may have been the last in New Jersey.
This is not the first time that New Jersey has issued a stop work order for a Boston Market location within the State. In August of 2023 all (then) 27 New Jersey locations were closed for several weeks due to similar “failure to comply; wage” concerns.
That’s just one part of a larger story of financial challenges for the once high-flying restaurant brand. For the main company, in February of this year Boston Market lost an $11.9 million lawsuit filed by one of its distributors, U.S. Foods over unpaid bills. They then filed an additional lawsuit for $30.7 million.
It was also reported that Boston Market company owner Jay Pandya was going through a series of personal bankruptcy attempts.
Today’s Boston Market is a much different story from their boom era in the early 1990s when it was the hottest initial public offering of 1993. Later that same year the stock more than doubled in price, and then within three years had doubled again!
More recently, since last year’s temporary closing (and reopening) of the then 27 New Jersey restaurants, they have been permanently closing many locations across the state.
Locally, back in March locations in Turnersville and Moorestown were closed. It’s a little difficult to clarify how many locations still remain because Boston market has not been removing closed locations from their official corporate website. The Moorestown property is planned to become honeygrow, and Turnersville is expected to become a Chipotle.
Meanwhile for Deptford over the last year there were signs of positivity when they surprisingly reopened the drive-thru, investing money in installing an all new digital drive-thru menu board. This is the first time they operated the Boston Market location with a drive-thru.
Some may not remember this but the building was originally developed as a Gino’s Hamburger restaurant, which later became Roy Rogers. Both of those brands operated in the building with the drive-thru, but for as long as Boston Market operated at the location they had peviously never utilized it.
Coincidentally this is the 30th anniversary of Boston Market operating in Deptford, originally opening as Boston Chicken.
For the current Deptford restaurant closing I could not find an official Press Release from Boston Market or the state of New Jersey at this time.
I was a huge fan of Boston Market in their heyday and in fact when my wife and I were moving to Deptford 10 years ago and remodeling our house and kitchen, we’d regularly stop to pick up dinner at Boston Market on our way from Bellmawr to Deptford… so overall I’ve been sad about the downturn of the brand and restaurants.
That being said I consider this Deptford building a very prime piece of commercial real estate perfectly centered in a thriving shopping center which will soon be adding Grocery Outlet… Across from the incredibly popular shopping center that is home to Sam’s or Walmart. Not to mention the different mall which is 1/2 mile away.
Simply I’ll go out on a limb and say that if this is a permanent closure of Deptford Boston Market, I don’t think it will be empty for long.
Links and Location
Boston Market Deptford
891 Hurffville Rd
Woodbury, NJ 08096