Account Set Up For Struggling Market Fresh In Bayville Removed

BERKELEY TOWNSHIP, NJ - The recently opened Market Fresh supermarket store in the Baywick Plaza in Bayville is revamping some of the items it offers in an effort to stay in business.

And a gofundme page for Market Fresh set up by "campaign organizer" Jessica Soucy briefly on Friday night, is no longer on the fundraising website on Friday night.

"Please help Market Fresh survive," the post stated. "Two young individuals have invested their heart and soul into Market Fresh, and it would be very sad to see them fail due to lack of support from our community. Please step up and help them the way they’ve tried to help us. It would be very, very sad to see this beautiful store close. From the owners to the employees, every last person goes above and beyond to accommodate the customer. It is very unfair that we are not helping by paying back. Any donation will help. The owners have families to support and it means the world to them to keep this store open. BAYVILLE WE CAN DO THIS !!!"

The page had set up a $25,000 goal. No donations were received during the brief time the page was up.

The store has offered large discounts over the past few days and had an neon-orange sign on the front of the story that said "Now Open" on Saturday.

The store opened on Dec. 1.

Kumar Patel and Michael Giammarino liked what they saw when they looked at the site of the old Foodtown store and saw it as a great location for a supermarket.

"I had to spend a significant amount of money to get it up and running," said Patel, who co-owns the business with Giammarino.

Patel promised great customer service and competitive prices, with a full produce section, meats and Boar's Head delicatessen meats, he said.

The old SuperFoodtown store, which had been the plaza's anchor store for more than 20 years, closed in February 2012. It was replaced by another food store that didn't last long.

Kumar said in an earlier Patch interview that he did not plan on competing with ShopRite, which at the time the only supermarket in Bayville.

This is a developing news story. Neither co-owner could be reached for comment yesterday.Patch will update when more information is available.

Photo: Courtesy of gofundme.com