Walmart Supercenter Work Starts

RIO GRANDE – The construction making parking difficult in front of the Rio Grande Walmart is the beginning of the long-awaited conversion to a Walmart Supercenter.
Approved by the Middle Township Planning Board in April 2014, the project was deferred during a period when executives at Walmart headquarters began to cut back on new store openings and supercenter conversions. 
Just six months after gaining Planning Board approval, Walmart announced a slowdown in new store construction and conversions of existing stores.
With energy and financial resources moving to its online sales platform driven by the growth of Amazon, Walmart recalibrated its expansion of physical stores.
During that period, Walmart also had to fight off litigation over its plans for Rio Grande.
The major difference between a Walmart discount store and a supercenter is the presence of a full food supermarket. It is this aspect of the expansion plans that led to litigation by Village Supermarket Inc., owners of the Rio Grande ShopRite.
The suit unsuccessfully tried to overturn the planning board approval.
Two years after those public announcements by the parent company and a year after the litigation ended after Village Supermarket’s appeal was also lost, the Rio Grande store was able to move ahead with its supercenter conversion. 
The construction in the Rio Grande store’s parking lot is related to an upgrade of the existing stormwater management system. 
The existing structure is approximately 164,000 square feet, with 25,000 of that given over to smaller retail shops to the north of the store’s entrance.
According to legal documents that were part of the litigation, the conversion will add 30,000 square feet to the site, bringing it to just under 200,000 square feet with the smaller independent retail space significantly reduced.
The Walmart in Rio Grande opened in 2007. Historically, New Jersey was the last state in the industrial northeast to attract Walmart investment.
The state’s first store, in Turnersville, was built in 1991. According to the Walmart corporate website, the state boasts 73 Walmart retail stores, including 29 supercenters.
In 2014, the expansion plans for Walmart projected an addition of 75 to 90 associate positions. Walmart touted the additional jobs at the time of the presentation to the planning board.
Opponents of the project say that the supercenter will mean the end of other supermarket jobs in the area that pay better than Walmart.
Walmart states that the existing store will remain open throughout the construction period. 
While no one at the store was able to confirm a construction schedule, the 2014 presentation to the planning board in April had projected that the then-planned expansion could be completed in the remaining eight months of that year.
According to Forbes magazine in 2016, Walmart is still the nation’s largest retailer with Amazon accelerating up the list.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.