Lost in the supermarket

On November 9, 2012, Mayor Jim Cahill led a ribbon-cutting at the Fresh Grocer, a 50,000 square foot supermarket in downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was the city’s first new full-service supermarket in a generation, the latest nine-figure project spearheaded by the New Brunswick Development Corporation.“We’re not just a supermarket. It’s some ways, we’re a community center,” explained the Fresh Grocer CEO Pat Burns, taking pride in his company’s ability to work with low-income residents in urban communities to help create a supermarket that best serves their needs. To that end, the New Brunswick location would provide ethnic foods that cater to the city’s minority communities, partner with a local non-profit to sell food created by New Brunswick residents, offer a free shuttle service for those who shopped there, and provide job training and nutrition programs for employees.With the cut of a ribbon, New Brunswick was no longer a food desert.A year and a half later, the Fresh Grocer abruptly closed.