New Grocery Store Officially Coming To Barnegat

BARNEGAT, NJ — For years now, Barnegat grocery shoppers have had one choice in town - Acme. Or, they had to drive to neighboring towns to do shopping. But that won't be true for much longer, as a new Aldi has gotten approvals from the Planning Board.

At a lengthy meeting Tuesday night, officials approved the construction of the new Aldi Food Market, which will be located at 10 Barnegat Blvd., behind the Walgreens. It also neighbors residential homes. That's currently a 5.3-acre empty lot, which was once supposed to be home to a two-story assisted living facility. While the site was cleared for that in the early 2000s, it was never constructed, and the property has been vacant since.

Engineer Josh Sewald explained that Aldi is not a "power shopping center," but rather a "neighborhood grocery store." It will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week and because 90 percent of the store's offerings are private label, there will only be one tractor trailer a day doing deliveries, with up to two possible during busy seasons.

"They pride themselves on simplicity and efficiency," Sewald said of Aldi.

The building itself will be 19,631 square feet. Sewald said that Aldi likes to plan for the future, so there are also two expansion areas that, if eventually built, will bring the building to 21,495 square feet. It will also have 95 parking spots, which is common for most Aldi locations.

The landscaping will preserve existing vegetation along with adding new trees and shrubs.

There will be two entrances/exits, both off Barnegat Boulevard. The northern exit will be right-in, right-out. At the intersection with Ocean Avenue, there will be a four-way.

Another engineer, Justin Taylor, spoke to the traffic study done. He noted that Barnegat Boulevard is a county road and they needed county approval. They will be restriping the road southbound to accommodate vehicles heading south, Taylor said.

The plan was met with approval from residents. Deputy Mayor Al Bille, who also serves on the Planning Board, said that for the past 15 years, the number one request in town has been to get another grocery store.

"The Barnegat community does deserve a reasonable alternative for grocery shopping," resident Thomas Nichol.

At least one resident opposed, however. Christine Spangler, who lives close to the site, said it was a quiet area and having an Aldi there would be dangerous with people coming in and out and with school buses along the road.

"It's a disaster waiting to happen," she said.

However, the board unanimously approved the application.