A drive on Route 35 and nearby highways gives a sense of supermarket competition in New Jersey.
Between Holmdel and Neptune alone there are several ShopRites, some Super Foodtowns, a Wegmans Food Market, Whole Foods Market, A&Ps, Stop & Shop, Pathmark, and specialty grocers Top Tomato and Dean's Natural Food Market. Trader Joe's, the specialty grocer powerhouse, is set to open its first Monmouth County store next month.
"I have to say that New Jersey has to be the toughest competitive environment out there," said Matthew P. Casey, president of Matthew P. Casey & Associates, a Clark-based retail research firm specializing in supermarkets and pharmacies. "It is by far the most difficult arena for a supermarket to compete."
The competition is not lost on Louis Scaduto Jr., president of Food Circus, the owner and operator of 10 Super Foodtowns in Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties. His uncle Joseph Azzolina Sr., and his parents, Louis Scaduto Sr. and Rosemary Azzolina Scaduto opened the company's first Foodtown supermarket 55 years ago. The Azzolina and Scaduto families continue to own and run the company.
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