One of the more recurring questions I receive is “why doesn’t Robbinsville have its own grocery store?”
Not since Raymond McFall closed the Foxmoor Shopping Plaza location, more famously known as Marazzo’s Thriftway in 2011, have we been able to land a legitimate grocer willing to compete with the big store chains such as ShopRite, Acme and even Aldi — all within a 5 square mile radius of Town Center.
Just a bit of a history lesson. Sam Marazzo, who sadly passed away last year, sold the business to a couple in 2006, but the bank foreclosed on them and by the time McFall and his parents purchased the property in May 2009 the tide had already turned.
“By the time we got here, we should have probably just stayed out,” McFall told The Times of Trenton in November, 2011. “It was already probably going the wrong way.”
McFall admitted the once bustling grocery business in Foxmoor under Sam ultimately suffered from the surrounding competition. He was forced to lay off all 50 employees and shutter the building after receiving zero interest from anyone interested in buying it.
“We’ve been trying to (sell it). Nobody’s interested at all,” McFall said in that 2011 interview.
Last month, I asked our Department of Community Development and Administration to take a look at a feature our neighbors in Bordentown Township put on its website answering questions such as “Why Doesn’t Our Town Have a ….. (fill in your favorite big box store here).”
Our team decided that was a great way to explain certain municipal government decisions — some of them complicated and legal, some of them more easily explained —to our residents since Land Use and its many rules and restrictions can be a dicey subject. Here is what we came up with for our website and in the July 21 Newsfeed to better explain our grocery store dilemma, among other Land Use topics.
So, to answer the main question, Robbinsville does not have a grocery store because, despite our many attempts to bring one to town, there has simply not been a developer willing to do so. Location has a great deal to do with this dilemma.
There are three ShopRites, an Aldi and an ACME all within five miles of Robbinsville. With that type of competition, a developer must decide whether building a new grocery store in Robbinsville would get enough community support to make it a viable business venture and the most profitable use of that property. Unfortunately, no developer has made that determination as of yet.
With a population of approximately 15,000 residents, one would think a local grocer would be a no-brainer. However, in the years since Marazzo’s Market closed, many in our town have since adapted and grown accustomed to driving a little further to the ShopRite in the Hamilton Marketplace, or the ShopRite/Acme on Route 33 — all of which have undergone significant store upgrades in the time since Marazzo’s closed.
Does that mean we are going to stop trying? We certainly will not. However, these are the challenges we face in the increasingly competitive grocery space.
Dave Fried is the mayor of Robbinsville Township.
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