According to our last poll, a store like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods would best satisfy the concerns of Metuchen's culinary consumers. Maybe the people who voted "other" really like vending machine cuisine.
Latest Poll Results: Markets, Greengrocers or Superstores?
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Being told that bakeries, pharmacies and/or liquor can beat down a lot of interest.
I can imagine they wanted to take a look, but interest in building? No way. If they were that interested they would have made more of an effort, you can bet.
Like I said, those chains did have interest, there may have been reasons to not want them to come here, but to say there was no interest is not factual.
Wegmans? Why on earth would you want a Wegmans in Metuchen. Huge Stores, huge parking lots, massive amounts of traffic, huge tractor trailors coming in all the time.
No highway access either, I can't imagine any large food chain wanting to build here, I am sure they were interested in looking, but the business case for building was not there, either back then or now.
Why no bakery or pharmacy? Were we protecting the businesses that were already in town?
Metuchen actually had interest from 3 companies. Stop & Shop themselves were interested in the property that now has condos. They were interested in the property that backs up to the Guilton property. Wegmans' had interest as did Trader Joes' was also interested.
Once told that no bakery or pharmacy would be allowed, or the fact that a liquor license wasn't available/wouldn't be granted, they decided not to locate to Metuchen.
This of course was quite a while ago and the situation and climate was much different than today.
Trader Joes brings in money to Westfield not just in property taxes,but because you travel to get there you may stop for coffee, for lunch. I always make time for Williams Sonoma and some the shops.
I believe they have been approached and took a pass.
What kind of "specialty stuff" do you mean? The price would have to be pretty good to go to Westfield for it.
Have been there a couple times, didn't find much that I wanted to buy.
"Whole Foods" is just right for Metuchen. Great selection, very healthy,good selection of organic fods. Has anyone even approached them.
The Trader Joe's building pays Westfield $80,000 in property taxes. Don't they pay the same in property taxes whether the store is busy or slow? I guess there will be more parking meter revenue if they are busy.
Not necessarily - ever shopped there? They have some stuff - specialty stuff that is really well-priced.
"High end" goes hand in hand with high prices. No thanks.
I heard the Trader Joe's in Westwood (Bergen County) doesn't have a liquor license. If Trader Joe's already has two stores in NJ with liquor licenses, they are not eligible for any more licenses anyway. So any additional stores they open in NJ would not be able to sell liquor, unless they get the law changed.
Not without a liquor license, with one, might be a different story.
Trader Joes offers a lot of their own label, but it is really good high end stuff. People travel from all over to go to the one in Westfield, you have to wait for a spot. It must bring in a lot of money for that town. I love Trader Joes, but I doubt they will ever open one here.
Strange when I went to Trader Joes I thought they had less selection, often only offering their own private label items. And what do you mean by better packaging?
Um, "no, there are eough foodstores nearby" was one of the choices.
Maybe they dont think we need a food store at all, this area is swamped with them. A&P/Shoprite/Target/Walgreens/Stop & Shop all within 5 to ten minutes of here...
Good luck getting Trader Joes or Whole Foods in town, both those chains are trying to rein in their companies due to overexpansion. Rapidly losing customers, they are boom time food stores, where folks don't mind paying extra for better selection and better packaging.
Maybe you could include a box for the "other" people to write-in what they do mean.