Construction for a new Grocery Outlet “Bargain Market” store on Cross Keys Road in Gloucester Township NJ is fully underway with a significant contractor presence at the site, completely enveloping the building inside and out.
There are literally construction vehicles, materials or dumpsters on all four sides of the upcoming Cross Keys Road Grocery Outlet building.
The new discount grocery will be taking over a closed 15,000 sf Rite Aid store, which sits at the corner of Johnson Rd and Berlin Cross Keys Rd.
A loyal reader alerted me yesterday to seeing construction trucks at the property, and when I stopped in this morning I was surprised by the amount of activity and vehicles on site!
A concrete excavating company was inside, likely working on breaking up sections of the floor to install utilities in new locations within the building.
Other construction trucks were in the front of the building, and a large tractor trailer is parked off to the side, likely filled with construction materials or store fixtures.
And in the back of the building several electrician trucks and workers were outside in the former drive-thru area.
The updated targeted opening date for this location is: June 27th!
42Freeway brought plans of this store to readers back in May of 2023 when the project moved to the Gloucester Township Planning Board for approval.
My apologies to the many readers who have been asking me for an update on this project… I really haven’t had any answers.
I have on my list to do a video specifically about why commercial projects can take longer to get started, as well as the “waiting for things to start” timeframe when it’s very difficult to get updates.
Simply, while business owners do love 42Freeway when it’s time to open and they want to bring customers in…. in the very early stages of approval and getting the project started through construction, there really is no need for them to talk to me… there’s just no positive outcome to oversharing during that stage.
So after that public planning board meeting.. it’s typically very tough to get updates. And I reached out to Grocery Outlet several times!
And even when constructions starts most developers still do not want to offer dates until the very last minute.. there are just a million things that can go wrong, or just getting those final inspection approvals can be challenging.
Grocery Outlet – Opportunistic Buyers
Grocery Outlet is a discount grocery which has over 400 locations in the United States, but they are just entering the South Jersey marketplace.
They recently opened in Delran NJ and also have a location under construction in Gibbstown, in a portion of the former ShopRite building. I believe they are also working on other South Jersey locations and I’ll have updates on that soon.
There are several aspects to the Grocery Outlet business model that are unique.
The main thing is they are a discount grocery store and call themselves “the largest opportunistic buyers” in the industry, which means traveling the world looking for the most exciting deals at significant discounts … and passing the savings on to customers.
They state that they carry the same top brands you would find in traditional supermarkets, but through smart buying opportunities they could sell it reduce prices. One example they offer is when a product label changes and they are able to buy out the remainder of the prior packaging.
Grocery Outlet also wants to provide a full shopping experience to customers and realizing that not every product can be acquired at steep discounts all the time (or restricted by law), they do fill out the full product mix within all grocery categories including core items such as milk, eggs, and meat
Since deals are always popping up and changing, Grocery Outlet offers “Wow Alerts” where in real time you will get an e-mail of top selling unadvertised deals from your local store sent directly to your inbox. Those deals may be around only for as long as the product supplies last, so it could be a smart thing to sign up!
Another interesting aspect of the Grocery Outlet model is each store is individually owned… a franchise grocery! This offers benefits to the local store as the owners can be more “in tune” with the product mix to support the community.
The Grocery Outlet model seems to be working as in their last quarterly financial data in November they crossed the $1 billion sales mark in a three-month span… which equated to a 9.3% increase in sales year over year!
Links and Locations
Grocery Outlet (Cross Keys)
677 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd Rd
Sicklerville, NJ 08081