New Timonium ShopRite Will Open July 31, Replacing Superfresh

Supermarket chain ShopRite will open a new store in Timonium on July 31 at the site of the recently closed Superfresh grocery at the Fairgrounds Plaza shopping center, the new owner announced July 20.

ShopRite plans a splashy grand opening, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring local officials and special offerings for first-time shoppers, spokeswoman Kate McAllen Bowers said.

The opening represents part of a major expansion of ShopRite into the Maryland market.

ShopRite will open a second store in the state on the same day in the Washington, D.C. suburb of White Oak, and plans are in place for other ShopRite locations to open next year, according to local grocery retailing expert Robert Gorland. 

by Village Supermarket Inc., a company that already operates 26 supermarkets under the ShopRite banner in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

Village Supermarket, in turn, is associated with Wakefern Food Corp., a cooperative of regional food retailers that operates more than 200 ShopRite stores in the mid-Atlantic region.

The purchase of the ex-Superfresh site in Timonium came as part of an auction of 25 Superfresh stores by former owner Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P).

A&P sponsored the auction as part of a bankruptcy proceeding it initiated late last year. A&P filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in a New York federal court in December 2010, and has closed or sold dozens of stores since then.

Workers there received termination notices in late May or early June.

Village Supermarket announced last month that many of the Timonium jobs would be restored under the new ownership. 

The company said it had an agreement with Towson-based United Food & Commercial Workers Local 27 to offer jobs to some of the displaced Superfresh workers, although no guarantees of re-employment were offered to individual employees.

The new ShopRite store will offer many features designed to attract new customers, Bowers said. In addition to the full range of conventional groceries and fresh foods, the store will offer a pharmacy and a full-service floral department, she said.

Furthermore, the new ShopRite will be marketing an extensive selection of fully prepared foods that are ready to eat, either at home or at the store’s eat-in lounge, Bowers said. Also featured will be the “American Bean” in-store coffee bar, she said.

“ShopRite is going to have a very definite impact on the competitive marketplace in the area,” commented Gorland, vice president of the Harrisburg, PA-based consultants Matthew P. Casey & Associates.

“They don’t have a lot of name recognition in the area, so I think it is a good move for them to do heavy promotion work before the openings,” the grocery retailing expert said.

“ShopRite is definitely a competitive threat” to other grocery retailers, Gorland continued. “They operate a lot of other high-volume stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They are considered one of the toughest competitors in every other market that they are in,” he said.

ShopRite has been making major inroads into Maryland over the last two years, according to Gorland.

Klein’s, a major grocery operator in Harford County, has become associated with ShopRite, and there are widespread reports within the industry that there will be further ShopRite openings in the Baltimore area in 2012, Gorland said.