Harris-Teeter rules out Newark Shopping Center

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Newark Mayor Vance Funk is asking residents to tell regional grocer Harris-Teeter that it was wrong to walk away from an earlier plan to operate from the Newark Shopping Center.

Funk took to Facebook to say that the North Carolina-based company had withdrawn its letter of intent to locate to the struggling shopping center. He wrote that  the company determined the location would not bring in enough business. The grocer, earlier in the year, announced it was looking into a possible sale and had hired an investment banker, according to the Wall  Street Journal.

Harris-Teeter, an upscale grocery chain, has  stores in downtown areas in the region, but has typically opted for large urban areas like Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

The company does operate three stores in coastal Sussex County an area with wide  swings in population depending on the time of the year, although more retirees are living in the area full time.

A possible factor in the decision is the large amount of grocery store square footage in the city. Both Acme and Pathmark operate stores on the outer fringes of Newark and Shoprite announced plans to open a formerly vacant Pathmark south of the city in Glasgow.

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Residents have been looking for an upscale chain, with a popular candidate being Trader Joe’s, which has a store on Concord Pike in north Wilmington.

The chain has not expanded beyond that area, perhaps because of Delaware liquor laws. Trader Joe’s specializes in lower-priced wines that have earned good reviews.

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