'Not A Typical Grocery Store:' Corrado's Market Coming To Brick

BRICK, NJ — It's news people have been seeking for many months: a grocery store on the north side of Brick, giving residents options that mean they don't have to leave Brick.

The news that Corrado's Market, a grocery store group that is owned by a North Jersey family, is coming to the site of the former Pathmark at the Laurel Square Shopping Center made the rounds on social media in recent weeks and initially was reported by the Asbury Park Press.

It's not just local residents who are happy about the prospect of a new grocery store coming to Brick, however.

"We are super, super excited," said James Corrado, whose family founded Corrado's Markets. His is part of the third generation of Corrados managing the company, which has six Corrado's Markets currently, all of them in North Jersey. But the pull of the Jersey Shore has been strong, and that led to the family signing a lease for part of the Pathmark space. The market will be 30,000 to 35,000 square feet and Corrado anticipates it will open sometime in the spring or early summer of 2020.

And when it does, people will find it is a different experience, he said.

"We are not a typical grocery store," Corrado said. For starters, there is a member of the Corrado family in each store, continuing a tradition that goes back to the founding in 1950.

"We're not like a big box store. You can walk in and always find a Corrado," he said. That has helped the company develop a closeknit relationship with its customers. It was that relationship that helped drive the move to come south.

"A lot of it has been our customers who have moved south, (but) who still come visit us once a month, once every few months" because of the selection the stores have to offer, Corrado said.

The markets cater to those who enjoy cooking at home, and that gives the market also has a different vibe.

The markets sell fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh fish and fresh meat. While they source their fish for the North Jersey stores at the fish markets in New York City, "the Jersey Shore gives us lots more options for local fish," Corrado said.

They are heavily involved in the state's Jersey Fresh program. "If we can deal direct with a farmer and get it to our stores, it's fresher and provides a better price value to our customers as well," he said. "The best stuff comes from New Jersey. It may not all be organic but it's the best quality you can get."

While the family's primary influence is Italian cooking, over the years "we have evolved and have a full line of products for everyone," whether it's Mediterranean-style cooking, Hispanic, or Indian, for example.

"Anyone who loves food, we're going to have what you're looking for," Corrado said.

And while their primary audience is home cooks, they do offer prepared meals and catering. Shop-at-home with home delivery is something they anticipate offering at the Brick store as well, Corrado said. "We're looking to offer that personalized service to the community."

James Corrado — grandson of the James Corrado who founded the market — said the move to expand to the Jersey Shore had been in the something under consideration for a few years, and the opportunity to go into the old Pathmark came up as the family itself started to move south: James lives in Monmouth County.

While the actual opening is about 10 months away — because the Pathmark had been closed since November 2015, there is a lot of work to be done — Corrado said the company plans to use that time to get to know the area and get feedback on what the community would like to see in terms of product selections.

Seeking customer input is something the family always has done. A 2005 New York Times feature about the company and its Clifton store noted the family would add new produce offerings based on requests from customers written that then were written on a board and the vendors would try to fill the requests.

"Tahini, peppers, cilantro, avocados and different varieties of mango — all unknown to the Paterson-born and Fair Lawn-raised Corrados — became staples in the store because of the customers' initiative and the owners' listening skills," the New York Times article said.

These days, Corrado said, the family is notably more high-tech in its information-sourcing: they read the comments on social media, on their Facebook page and on other sites to see and respond to their customers' wants and needs.

"We're hoping to get a lot of feedback about what everyone is looking for," Corrado said. "Everything right now is in the planning stages. We want to make sure we do it right."

And when they do open, sometime next spring or early summer, there will be a Corrado in the store to respond to customers.

"We're looking forward to it," he said.

Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Brick Patch on Facebook.