Atlantic County - lack of retail (Camden, Vineland: sales, hotels, new home)

[subwayfan]

I was wondering why the Atlantic County area, which also services Cape May, and Cumberland to some extent, lacks these stores:

Upscale alternative to ShopRite:
Whole Foods
Trader Joes
Wegmans
Costco

Barnes&Noble
upscale dept store (like Lord&Taylor)

...among others big box stores, restaurants and mall stores
Have retailers avoided Atlantic County for site selection because is too far from the Philadelphia metro (i.e. first King of Prussia, then Cherry Hill....last Atlantic County), and/or the household incomes aren't high enough?

I thought there was wealth in the area, as they have an commercial airport where a lot of private jets take off, upscale mini mall the Pier at Caesars in Atlantic City, golf venues, high end casinos/hotels, and so forth. And, you have many visitors and people with second homes. Regarding the area, some of the towns like Hammonton, Pleasantville and Linwood are nice too. Also, if Macy's can work at Hamilton Mall, Pier at Caesars, people can afford to golf, than all of the above should work in my opinion, and add a lot of jobs.

The Atlantic County area is connected obviously to Philadelphia (same TV market and NJ Transit. Though, they have their own NBC station, and they have their own FMs, and don't listen to Philly FMs as much). Compared that to the rest of the state, primarily North and Central NJ, where its generally New York dominated, even though Monmouth-Ocean has some radio stations of its own. But, retail doesn't seem miss one area over the other in the rest of the state, except for the south east side.

[pcity]

I think it's incomes. Most of the high incomes in the area are tourists, and tourists don't really venture off from the shore towns. There aren't a lot of spaces large enough for department stores in the shore towns and even if there were, would tourists want to shop at the same stores they shop at home?

On the other hand, given how crowded the shore supermarkets are in the summer, and the incomes of tourists, I bet a Trader Joes or Whole Foods would make tons of money if they found a site that was close enough to the beach.

[subwayfan]

I've heard Hammonton has a upper-middle income base, but maybe that's too close to Marlton and Voorhees, Route 73? About 40 mins though.

Best Buy opened in Vineland which was a nice for the locals; I hear Vineland has a lower sales tax of 3.5% being in an urban enterprise zone. Vineland is more lower-middle class.

I know I'm may be of a minority, but I always consider the nearby retail in the area, before I consider moving to a place, and I wonder if the lack of these stores might defer new people from moving in.

Out of large malls, I know there is the Shore Mall and Hamilton Mall in Atlantic County, both that have great highway accessibility but are somewhat uninspiring in the current form. There is a Borders by the Hamilton Mall, but Barnes & Noble is supposed to be the stronger of the two and I can't see them conceding a market to Borders in general. (Though personally, I always get better deals off books at Borders) Re: Chains rivalry, staples wouldn't concede an area to OfficeMax or OfficeDepot. They'd just open up, and let OfficeMax or OfficeDepot figure out how to survive. I'd think if Wegmans opens, Whole Foods might not.

[dhanu86]

A.C. has many outlets, u can spend all day there. If u are rich u can shop in the mall on the boardwalk. There is also the cumberland mall besides hamilton mall. The shore mall is just a ghetto place with cheap clothes and couple other stores. As far as borders or barnes I don't know. Drive blackhorse pike for restaurants and if u go far enough (near philly lol) u will see many plazas.

[MaverickDD]

Originally Posted by subwayfan

I was wondering why the Atlantic County area, which also services Cape May, and Cumberland to some extent, lacks these stores

1) The year-round population isn't comparable to the Philly area or North Jersey, so the demand isn't comparable;

however...

2) Keep looking
-- Bookstores abound. Borders and Borders Express are in Mays Landing. Also, Atlantic City and Ocean City both have book stores.
-- There are many alternatives to the Shop Rites including A&P in Somers Point, Genuardi's in Egg Harbor, Super Fresh in Ocean City, etc.

In Atlantic County, just about anything you want (within reason) can be found somewhere along Black Horse Pike or Route 9.

[dhanu86]

Yea Genuardis is a good grocery store. And I never got the impression that this area is wealthy at all. Pleasantville is the opposite of wealthy. There are cheap/ nice descent homes, but not wealthy unless u live on one of those seasonal shore islands. Theres a BJs at cumberland mall.

[Gerania]

Maybe I should move further south; I'm currently in Burlington County. I am swamped with retail and the traffic and crowds that it brings. I don't go to malls, Starbucks, the Prominade and I only visit Borders because there are no locally owned, small book shops. I do visit the True Value Hardware and the Murphys market regularly.

[jcjh20]

Mays Landing seems to be growing little by little and is becoming more of a shopping hub I think. They already have a BJ's and a few plazas and malls. Also they've recently built a Bobby Chez, which shows an extention of the Philly metro area, and a few more new places like a new Red Robin opening soon. I agree though there should be a bunch more retail franchises. I don't understand why there aren't any Barnes and Nobles, or Panera Bread locations anywhere in that area, same as many other things that are in Monmouth county or Camden/Burlington that I can't think of right now. Wegmans or Whole Foods, a few more dept stores and eateries like Einstein Bagles, Chipotle, and more restaurants would certainly be welcome in the area I think.

Atlantic County overall is still pretty good and if you want bad, you need to take a look at most of Ocean county. Anywhere from like Bayville and south is absolutely pathetic for being part of the NYC metro area and being close to LBI.

[dhanu86]

Originally Posted by jcjh20

Atlantic County overall is still pretty good and if you want bad, you need to take a look at most of Ocean county. Anywhere from like Bayville and south is absolutely pathetic for being part of the NYC metro area and being close to LBI.

Ocean county is where people live and come to for summer [6flags,lbi,seaside] . If more development and noise and artificial things are added I think that defeats what people like about coming to the shore.

[VeradoDan]

Originally Posted by jcjh20

Atlantic County overall is still pretty good and if you want bad, you need to take a look at most of Ocean county. Anywhere from like Bayville and south is absolutely pathetic for being part of the NYC metro area and being close to LBI.

Huh? Route 72 has more stores and restaurants on it than anywhere in Monmouth County or just about anywhere else in NJ. It is starting to resemble Route 1 in Princeton/Plainsboro more than anywhere else.

And Route 9 in Forked River has new shopping plazas opening up all over the place - huge new Home Depot/Applebees just opened there.

Ocean County is growing quickly in terms of both population and income. Much of the county is quite wealthy.