When will Stop & Shop close its supermarket in Jackson?

Stop & Shop will close its Jackson supermarket later this fall, the company said Friday, citing the store's lackluster performance.

"Stop & Shop has made the difficult decision not to renew the lease for our store located at 2275 West County Line Road, in Jackson, New Jersey, as the store was not meeting financial expectations," the supermarket chain said in a statement to What's Going There.

Stop & Shop said it made a decision to not renew its lease for its 67,112-square-foot store at Bennetts Mills Plaza following a regular review of its stores' performance.

"As part of that process, the Jackson location was identified as a store that was underperforming relative to financial expectations," Stop & Shop said.

The company said the store will remain open through the early fall of 2024. Stop & Shop has other supermarkets in Howell, Toms River, Freehold Township and Brick. Those stores "look forward to welcoming our West County Line Road shoppers after the store closes," the company said.

All employees will be given the opportunity to transfer to other Stop & Shop locations, Stop & Shop said.

About 85 full and part time employees are represented by two locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. "We've been notified that the store is closing," said John T. Niccollai, president of the UFCW's Local 464A.

"Everyone is going to be placed by the company, both the members of 464A and the members of (Local) 1262, ... in other stores," said Niccollai, whose local represents about 15 workers in the store's meat, deli and seafood departments.

"We're going to do our best to see all these people are placed" in other locations, said Harvey Whille, president of UFCW Local 1262, which represents employees who work in the front of the store.

There also are opportunities for workers who don't want to move to another Stop & Shop, Whille said. "We're having a hard time attracting people into the retail food industry so there's lots of job openings in all the other locations."

Stop & Shop is second in food sales in Ocean County, where it has seven stores, food sales of $255.3 million and a nearly 12% market share, according to a 2023 market survey by Food Trade News. But it is dwarfed by ShopRite, which has nine stores and leads with a 30% market share and $640.6 million in food sales, the survey states.

"The competition is stiff out there," Whille said. "This store got hurt by ShopRite."

Niccollai said the union doesn't like to see any store close. "But we certainly understand the economics of doing business and we're very pleased and thankful that all our members are going to be placed in other stores, " he said.

David P. Willis, an award-winning business writer, has covered business, retail, real estate and consumer news at the Asbury Park Press for 25 years. He writes APP.com's What's Going There column and can be reached at dwillis@gannettnj.com. Please sign up for his weekly newsletter and join his What's Going There page on Facebook for updates.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Stop & Shop will close Jackson supermartket