A new Grocery Outlet coming to Sicklerville Cross Keys Road has set their grand opening date for June 27th.
I stopped in yesterday and toured the building with location owners Blake and Becky Maxey, who live close by in Camden County. The building is construction complete and has its Certificate of Occupancy… which means its time to load up the shelves!
The staff will soon be starting the process stocking the initial deliveries of dry good merchandise onto the shelves. Closer to the opening date they will bring in fresh produce, meats, and refrigerated/frozen products.
42Freeway first wrote about this upcoming Grocery Outlet almost a year ago to the day. The location is a former freestanding Rite Aid store which while it still retains the core familiar building shape, it has seen significant upgrades inside and out.
Most noticeably to the community is the bright red exterior signage which has been grabbing the attention of commuters and shoppers for a few weeks now on the busy Cross Keys Road.
In my visit yesterday it appears that other than putting merchandise on the shelves, the entire store is ready to go!
All of the cash register checkout lanes are in place as well as all of the shelving, freezer and refrigerator units… even the interior signage and catchy wall graphics are hanging and on the walls.
In multiple places the interior signage has images of Blake and Becky… as it truly is the Grocery Outlet model that the owners are an integral part of the customer shopping experience.
And to make sure they were ready for everything, the couple completed a TWO YEAR training program ahead of opening the Sicklerville store, which had them hands-on working all aspects of the grocery from stock and checkout, to managing store inventory, pricing, payroll and more!
The final challenge for them and the team is stocking the shelves… and at the back of the store large palettes stacked with dry good merchandise area arriving, staged to be put on the shelves.
Grocery Outlet – Opportunistic Buyers
If you are unfamiliar with Grocery Outlet, the brand considers themselves “opportunistic buyers” where they are able to make deals with distributors and manufacturers for name brand merchandise at deep discounts, which they pass on to the customers.
Merchandise and even pricing can vary each time you return, but it is a goal of the brand and the Maxey’s to ensure that they are covering all aspects of the shopping experience… at the best prices.
Grocery Outlet strives to be a full shopping experience for the local community and offers fresh meats and produce, dairy products and even personal hygiene goods such as shampoo or toothpaste.
Significantly low prices and special deals will be found throughout the store, with several super low price areas such as the “Power Wall” positioned at the front of the store which will feature the best “when they are gone, they are gone” deals!
While Grocery Outlet is new to South Jersey, just starting their big push to build out several locations… I was happily surprised at the amount of positive comments the are getting online from very happy customers who have shopped at their existing locations either in Pennsylvania or other parts of New Jersey.
The whole business model of Grocery Outlet is based on having the best pricing on the full supermarket product mix…
But Blake says as owner/operators of the location he and his wife can choose inventory and pricing for what the store offers, and it’s their goal to keep margins low and consistently be one of the best priced shopping experiences in the area.
A wide variety of grocery items is also important to the Maxeys. Grocery Outlet has a healthy product program called NOSH (Natural Organic Special Healthy) and the Maxeys are going beyond the Corporate recommendations buy offering an even larger variety of healthy, organic and gluten free items.
Grocery Outlet Sicklerville – Part of the Community
I chatted with Blake and Becky for about 90 minutes in the store, where we discussed the business model, the layout of different areas and the pricing model.
But one thing that kept coming up again and again was the number of efforts connected to the community.
For Grocery Outlet it’s very important for be an integral part of the community with several programs to support local charities and businesses (as suppliers). And it’s clear that Blake and Becky are looking to take the community support aspect to the next level with several of their own efforts.
Two days before the grand opening will be the Supermarket Sweep contest where police and fire departments will have a fun two-minute shopping spree battle where the focus is on picking items with the most significant savings. Whoever saves the most gets that money donated to their charity!
Sicklerville Grocery Outlet is opening just as the company has their their yearly “Independence From Hunger” program which raises money and food for area charities. Customers can make a $5 donation which goes directly to the charity, but in turn Grocery Outlet is giving you a $5 coupon to be utilized on your next visit.
The Sicklerville Grocery Outlet has chosen Unforgotten Haven in Blackwood and the Community Care Food and Clothing Pantry in Sicklerville as this year’s recipients for their store.
Blake and Becky also want to bring in local vendors and farmers where they can, and have made an arrangement with the local Ferrara’s Orchards to offer fresh jersey produce such as sweet jersey corn, blueberries and pumpkins.
They will also be carrying Holy Grounds coffee which is a nonprofit coffee company where the coffee is roasted and packaged by clients of Westville’s Saint John of God Community Services. The program improves the lives of individuals with disabilities by giving them a rewarding work experience being an integral part of the entire coffee business experience.
Grocery Outlet’s HERO program will offer active and veteran military members, law enforcement, firefighters and EMTs a daily 3% discount on purchases and seniors will see a 5% discount on their entire order on a designated day of the week!
So many reasons to try out Grocery Outlet Sicklerville… Opening Thursday June 27!
Links and Location
Grocery Outlet (Proposed at former Rite-Aid)
677 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd Rd
Sicklerville, NJ 08081