ShopRite (United States)

ShopRite is a retailers' cooperative of supermarkets with stores in six states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Based in Keasbey, New Jersey, ShopRite consists of 50 individually owned and operated affiliates with over 300 stores, all under its corporate and distribution arm, Wakefern Food Corporation. Wakefern itself owns and operates 28 of the locations through subsidiary ShopRite Supermarkets and is the largest affiliate within the cooperative. Several Wakefern members own and operate single ShopRite stores, while most own multiple locations. The average Wakefern member operates six stores.

ShopRite has been the largest food retailer in New Jersey for close to 70 years and is also number one in the entire New York metropolitan area. Since 2011, ShopRite is also the largest retailer of food in Greater Philadelphia, pushing long-dominant Acme Markets to second place and, in 2013, to third place. , Wakefern was ranked 17th by sales among all supermarket operators in the United States. In a 2022 survey by Newsweek, ShopRite was named the “Most Trusted Grocery Retailer” in the Northeast.

History

Early beginnings

ShopRite originated in 1946, when a Del Monte Foods sales representative talked to independent grocers in Newark, New Jersey. The grocers were having problems getting reasonable prices for wholesale goods. The Del Monte representative suggested the grocers try cooperative buying. Seven of the grocers agreed, paying $1,000 each to launch Wakefern Food Corp., which was incorporated on December 5, 1946. In 1951, the name ShopRite was created.

In 1958, ShopRite cut prices by 10% as an alternative to giving away trading stamps, which other supermarkets in New Jersey were doing. The move was successful, drawing customers and helping create more ShopRite stores. By 1961, ShopRite had 70 members, totaling $100 million in annual sales.

The breakaway of Supermarkets General

One large member, Supermarkets General, pulled out of Wakefern in the late 1960s, halving the number of stores. The Supermarkets General stores became Pathmark in 1968. The remaining Wakefern members redoubled their efforts, adopted "one member, one vote" as a management principle, and expanded aggressively. By the late 1970s, the volume lost from Supermarkets General's departure was restored.

For many years, ShopRite and Pathmark were extremely competitive on price in the New York Metro area, and each one had its loyal customer base. A highly leveraged management buy-out in the late 1980s left Pathmark saddled with too much debt, and the supermarket chain had no cash to fix up its stores, or invest in lower prices. At the same time, ShopRite stores were being replaced and rebuilt, stealing market share away from Pathmark.

The Pathmark chain was sold to A&P in 2007. A&P ran Pathmark as a division, but was unsuccessful in turning around the banner's fortunes. A&P filed for bankruptcy and sold or liquidated its stores in 2015, including approximately 150 Pathmark stores. Wakefern and its cooperative members acquired nine Pathmark locations along with several other former A&P banners with the intention of opening ShopRite, Price Rite and The Fresh Grocer locations.

The "Can-Can Sale"

In 1971, ShopRite introduced their Can-Can Sale, where canned goods (and eventually other products) were placed on steep discounts, and is held in January. Until the early 1990s, the sale was held in the second and third weeks of January but expanded to the entire month. Animated commercials for this promotion feature a chorus line of cancan dancers and a French artiste, though the style changed on several occasions over the years. In 2002, ShopRite expanded that sale to twice a year when they introduced the Summer Can-Can Sale, held in July.

In 2018, the Summer Can-Can Sale was discontinued, replaced with the "Can It Get Any Hotter?" sale. The Can-Can Sale has since then been reinstated in January, 2022.

Price Plus Club and beyond

In 1989, ShopRite introduced the Price Plus Club Card, which eventually merged with the Check Cashing Card (for those that use it for that purpose as well); it is free of charge to acquire. Having a Price Plus Card enables shoppers to receive special weekly discounts, listed in circulars mailed with local newspapers. Most sales are chain-wide regardless of owner but sometimes in a particular region, valid for all area ShopRites, however some stores choose to put special items on sale based on stock. The Price Plus Card also tracks purchases and use of rewards.

In 1996, ShopRite launched its own line (with Dietz & Watson) of deli meats, cheeses and complements with its private label, Black Bear of the Black Forest, to compete against the expansion of Boar's Head in competitor's supermarkets. In 2011, over 15 million pounds of Black Bear slicing meats and cheeses were sold at ShopRite.

Since 1999, ShopRite has offered an online grocery shopping service at select stores, under the service name ''Order. Pickup. Deliver.'' (formerly ShopRite from Home until April 2022.) For an additional fee, customers can place an order for pickup or delivery through the ShopRite website or mobile app, ShopRite employees then fulfill a customer's shopping order at a local ShopRite with options for curbside pickup.

ShopRite Stores Design

As a result of the cooperative system, there is no set format for building architecture, store layout, or color scheme of storefronts. Most stores are the product of the era in which they were opened, and the owner's style. For example, the ShopRite of West Caldwell, New Jersey, owned by Sunrise ShopRite, has a Japanese motif inside and outside of the store (including rickshaws, an exit sign reading " Sayonara" and two Japanese-style phone booths). The RoNetco family of stores ( Netcong, Byram, Newton, Franklin, Sparta, Flanders, Mansfield, and Succasunna, New Jersey) have different looks on the outside (including the shopping carts and cart corrals), although the stores themselves have a similar layout. ShopRite stores that were previously other stores usually contain elements of the previous occupants. As large corporations buy up stores, recent years have brought a homogenization in building design and store layout.

The ShopRite system today

Currently, ShopRite's base stretches northeast from the Washington metropolitan area in Maryland to the Hartford area in Connecticut, extending as far north as New York's Capital District. While New Jersey is home to the most ShopRite stores, the chain also has a strong presence in the New York City suburbs, and in Pennsylvania (mostly in the Philadelphia area). In 2010, ShopRite expanded its presence in Connecticut through the purchase of 11 former Shaw's stores.

In 2011–2013, ShopRite returned to the New York Capital District after exiting the market 23 years earlier. The SRS operating division opened stores in Niskayuna, Albany, Slingerlands, Colonie and North Greenbush. The Albany store opened on April 26, 2012; the Slingerlands store opened on September 30, 2012; and the Colonie store opened on April 7, 2013. The most recent addition was the North Greenbush location, which opened in December 2017. ShopRite currently has gas stations at the Albany and Colonie locations. Plans for additional future store locations had not been announced in late 2010. In 2013, ShopRite was the only unionized supermarket in the area.

On July 20, 2015, competitor A&P filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to close or sell off all of its stores. ShopRite acquired 13 supermarkets in A&P's bankruptcy auction, including some that had been ShopRite locations before Supermarkets General (later acquired by A&P) broke off from the cooperative.

On January 26, 2021, ShopRite announced that it would close 62 pharmacies in its stores.

Slogans

*Why Pay More? Shop at a ShopRite store!
*Hey, Mom, what’s for dinner? ShopRite has the answer! (1970s–1980s, still used in some stores on the in-store audio system)
*ShopRite Does It Right (1980s–1994)
*ShopRite does the Can Can, Selling lots of brands (1971–present)
*We Save You (more) Money! ShopRite Does it Right! (until 1994)
*ShopRite and Always Save (1994–96; alternate until 1999)
*Hey Mom, What's for Dinner? ShopRite Has the Answer! (1996–99; is still used, even with the current logo, on sale tags for Meats, Seafood, Delicatessen, etc.)
*Always Fresh...Always for Less! (1999–2008)
*One Place. Your Place. (2008–2012)
*It Makes a Difference Where You Shop (2012)
*We're All About Food. We're All About Savings. We're All About You. (2012–present)
*Shop smart, shop six feet apart. (2020–2021)
*Helping you get it together, together (2021–present)

Other chains and concepts

Price Rite

Wakefern also manages its wholly owned subsidiary, Price Rite, which is a limited-assortment chain of stores found only in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Rhode Island. As of April 2018, there are currently 66 Price Rite stores; 63 of those are owned outright by Wakefern.

Price Rite in New Jersey

The Price Rite stores in New Jersey are operated individually by Wakefern's cooperative members; in 2014, Wakefern announced that the Price Rite banner would be made available to all of those members, so they can open and operate their own outlets. The North Jersey locations, in Garfield and Paterson, are operated by Inserra Supermarkets, while the South Jersey location, in Camden, operated by the Ravitz Family closed in 2021.

Price Rite Warehouse Clubs (defunct)

The Price Rite name was first used in the early 1990s on Wakefern's failed warehouse club concept stores.

ShopRite Garden Center (defunct)

For many years, Foodarama operated a very small ShopRite Garden Center on Route 130 in East Windsor, New Jersey. In 2004, with the construction of a massive Home Depot directly adjacent to the small store, a decision was made to close the store and Foodarama moved its garden center operations into a former Frank's Nursery & Crafts store. The store had operated as a Franks location for four years before the company was liquidated, and the large building combined of interior selling space with of covered outside selling area, for a total of . The ShopRite Garden Center closed in 2008.

ShopRite Wines & Spirits

Wakefern members also operate a cooperative chain of stores which offer wine, beer and spirits called ShopRite Wines & Spirits. Most stores are located adjacent to or inside of ShopRite Supermarkets; however, there are several freestanding stores. One store (in Pennington, New Jersey) offers a bar inside the ShopRite store.
Members operate 38 ShopRite Wine and Spirits Shops in New Jersey and New York. One in particular, the Clinton, NJ store, is owned by QuickChek.

Sunrise ShopRites of West Caldwell also operates three ( Parsippany, New Jersey, Caldwell, New Jersey and Westfield, New Jersey