Will Ocean County Ever Get A Wegmans Or Whole Foods? Maybe

Every time a new business is announced in Ocean County, the clamor begins:

"Why don't they put a Wegmans there?" "We want a Trader Joe's." "Put in a Whole Foods."

In recent months the clamor has grown louder. With the closure of a number of A&P and Pathmark stores in late 2015, residents have complained about limited choices for grocery stores while parcels sit open.

In Brick Township, the closure of the Pathmark in the Laurel Square Shopping Center on Route 88 has left shoppers on the north side of town with the options of driving to the ShopRite on Chambers Bridge Road, buying groceries at Walmart or Aldi, or driving to Wall. Residents on the southern end of town have the option of Stop '& Shop, which replaced a Grand Union several years ago.

In Toms River, the Super Foodtown in the Toms River Shopping Center has been empty since late June 2015, a casualty of competition from the ShopRite that opened across Route 37 a few years ago. There's a Walmart and an Aldi's out west on Route 37, and a ShopRite at the corner of Fischer and Bay avenues, as well as a grocery department at the Target on Hooper Avenue.

And much of Manchester is served by a Stop & Shop on Route 530 and a ShopRite on Route 70.

Farther south in Ocean County, there's ShopRites on Route 9 in Bayville, Lacey and Waretown and one on Route 72 in Manahawkin, along with a couple of Walmarts.

Most of those stores, however, have one thing in common: they appeal to a general audience. The growing emphasis on healthy eating, organic foods and specialty products has shoppers wanting those items driving long distances to get them, because Ocean County simply hasn't attracted one of the "high-end" stores.

It's not for a lack of trying. In February, Brick officials launched a social media campaign to urge Wegmans to come to the township, with the hope the company would take the albatross of the long-empty former Foodtown site off the town's hands.

The #BrickTownshipWantsAWegmans hashtag generated hundreds of comments and tweets. But a company spokeswoman said the decision on where to open a store isn't as simple as hearing how much it's wanted.

"We love it when we hear people want us to build a store," said Jo Natale, vice president of media relations for Wegmans. She said the company, which has 88 stores in six states, including seven in New Jersey, and only builds three or four new ones each year.

Wegmans chooses sites based on a few factors, with population density within 3 to 7 miles of the proposed site being most important, Natale said. Wegmans looks for a piece of property that is 15 to 18 acres because the stores are typically 100,000 to 125,000 square feet and employ 500 to 550 people she said.

"Our business is predicated on high traffic," she said. "That's why our stores are often part of a larger development."

For Whole Foods, which just opened a new store in Wall, the decision to put in a new store depends on a number of factors as well. Michael Sinatra, public relations and public affairs manager for Whole Foods Market's Northeast region, said the company's model for a while had been to look at areas with a significant percentage of college graduates.

But the company's move to put a Whole Foods store in Detroit turned out to be wildly successful, he said, and that changed the company's perspective a bit.

"We realized people want good food regardless of where they live," Sinatra said.

As the Whole Foods in Wall just opened, the company will be monitoring it to see how much traffic it receives and from how far away to determine whether it will open another store, he said.

Natale said because Wegmans only opens a handful of stores each year, the company has its expansion planned out several years at this point. Two new stores are planned in North Jersey in the short term, she said, but they are always looking at whether a store is serving a wide enough radius.

"We love it when someone say they want a store in heir town but doesn't mean we can necessarily follow through and do that," she said. "But we never say never."

Messages sent to Trader Joe's requesting comment on its store-siting decisions were not answered.

(Whole Foods opened in Wall last week, bringing organic products and more, and once again stirring the requests for one in Ocean County, where residents have long clamored for a grocery store with a wider selection of organic foods and products. Karen Wall photo)