CNBNews

Having moved to Gloucester City just last year, I have been incredibly lucky to have met so many of the wonderful people who live here. I have felt welcomed into this community and am proud to call Gloucester City my home. It has been exciting to see the many positive steps the city has taken towards its redevelopment- most recently the beautiful addition of the brand new TD bank!

I agree with Wil Levin’s point in his article that the residents of Gloucester City would benefit from a new grocery store. While this is a great idea, I feel that a new grocery store would unfortunately only benefit the residents of Gloucester City. In order for Gloucester City’s redevelopment to really take off, our town needs to be able to draw people in from out of town. A “regular” grocery store will not do that as people from other towns will simply continue to shop in the store that is most conveniently located for them.

Due to the popularity of organic and specialty foods, I feel that bringing a grocery store such as Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or Wegmans to our town could be just what this town needs. I have spoken to many people who love these stores and willingly drive out of their way to shop there. Being that the closest Wegmans is in Cherry Hill, and the closest Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are in Marlton, I feel that there is a large market of people in south Jersey who would patronize any one of the above stores if located in Gloucester City. This would be very beneficial because it would bring many new people into our town and make Gloucester City a place for people to visit.

Gloucester City has everything a large specialty grocery store would need to thrive here: space for a lot (both in town or on Route 130), a central location among many neighboring towns, and a large market of potential consumers.

I hope the town will consider my letter and actively recruit one of the above organic grocery stores to Gloucester City.

Patricia Williams, Gloucester City