Supermarket

IF A supermarket worker doesn't have health insurance, how likely is it he'll see a doctor when he might be sick? The answer should concern consumers. Study after study shows that workers without insurance are less likely to see a doctor when they aren't feeling well than those who have it. And when it comes to supermarket workers, those without insurance may be placing customers at risk of food poisoning. Food poisoning has become a significant problem. President Obama, in his recent address on food safety, said cases of the disease have risen 250 percent since the early '90s.

It was the kind of neighborhood decision city officials have nightmares about. Opposing organizations, each with valid arguments on their side, squared off against each other yesterday to demand a decision in their favor on the future of an empty lot. The subject was a proposed Super Fresh market at 19th and Hamilton streets in the Franklintown section. Passions ran high as 150 supporters and opponents crowded into the city Planning Commission's bimonthly meeting seeking a final vote.

In a move that effectively blocks a controversial proposal to build a supermarket on Maple Avenue, the Planning Board last night voted unanimously to change the property's zoning to a mixture of residential and light commercial. The zoning change, which planning officials said would be reviewed tonight by the Township Committee, would leave open the possibility of building strip stores along Maple Avenue but would prohibit the large-scale supermarket the Pennsylvania-based Goldenberg Group had proposed.

To outsiders, it might seem like just another grocery store. But to the residents of Pemberton, who say they must travel out of town to find a decent salad bar or fish section, today's groundbreaking of an Acme at the corner of Broadway and Trenton Road is a big deal. Banners are flying. Hot dog and ice cream wagons are stocking up. And the high school band plans on stopping by, as does U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R., Mount Holly). Township officials are expecting hundreds of residents to attend the 11 a.m. event, which they hope will signal the beginning of an economic revival for the Browns Mills business district, not to mention good produce.

When it comes to stocking the family larder, Barbara Gorenstein, substitute teacher, does not so much shop as forage. "I keep my money and my coupons and my shopping list in my purse at all times, and I shop whenever I see a market near the school I happen to be teaching at," said Gorenstein, who lives in Franklintown. "I have no real loyalty. All I need is a market and a parking spot. " Such shopping strategies are not uncommon in a city that, before October, hadn't witnessed the grand opening of a supermarket in its core for 20 years.

The Cinnaminson Planning Board last week put to rest the development proposal of CenterPoint Properties Inc. of Atlanta, which would have brought a 24-hour supermarket to town and wholly renovated the near-bankrupt Square 130 Mall. CenterPoint's five-month, 30-hour presentation testimonial attracted up to 90 people at times, spurring strong feelings among Rolling Hills residents who said the supermarket would generate too much traffic, noise and crime. The proposal included renovating a portion of the existing mall, which is enclosed, and constructing a 55,184-square-foot Pathmark supermarket and 22,806 square feet of additional retail space.

A 33-year-old Croydon man has been charged with robbery and attempted kidnapping after a bizarre incident yesterday outside the Giant Food Market on West Trenton Avenue. Police said Vincent Joseph Marino forced his way into the car of a woman, identified only as in her 30s and from Morrisville, as she left the market at 9:30 a.m. Demanding money, police said, Marino told the woman, "Cooperate and you won't get hurt. " The woman tried to satisfy Marino's demands, said Cpl. Gene Ross, by giving him her last $20. But Marino balked, Ross said, and ordered her to drive him to a nearby bank to withdraw money from an automated teller.

U.S. Rep. Joe M. Hoeffel (D., Pa.) stood in the foyer of the Plymouth Township Super Fresh supermarket Saturday morning, greeting constituents with a handshake and an opportunity to give their man in Washington an earful. "Hi, I'm Joe Hoeffel," the freshman legislator, dressed in shirtsleeves and khakis, said to early-morning shoppers as they pushed their carts through the store's automatic doors. "I'm your congressman. If I can help you with anything in Washington, let me know.

A new, bigger Genuardi's supermarket is coming to the neighborhood. And some residents aren't about to jump on the Welcome Wagon. The Abington Township Commissioners' Code Enforcement Committee Tuesday unanimously endorsed the 50,000-square-foot Genuardi's store proposed for the southernmost end of the Huntingdon Valley Shopping Center, at Huntingdon Pike and Shady Lane. The plans - which, Abington officials say, conform to the township code - are scheduled for consideration next Thursday by the full Board of Commissioners.

Members of the Monroe Township Council said last night they wanted to resolve citizen complaints of excessive noise, lack of landscaping and improperly functioning retention basins at the Shop Rite supermarket on the Black Horse Pike near Sicklerville Road. Michele Leonetti, a resident of Ireland Terrace, who lives near the supermarket, presented a petition to the council that contains about 30 names and demands a solution to the problem. Leonetti took the supermarket to Municipal Court on June 8 and asked that Shop Rite take action to reduce noise coming from trucks that load and unload between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. She also said that rooftop air-conditioning units were excessively loud.

Inside Oscar's Personal Touch Barbershop in Lawnside, enthusiasm was building Tuesday afternoon about a soon-to-open supermarket. "I personally think it's a big deal," said Taj Enlow, kicking off a conversation among several men about what they hoped the new store would offer: variety, good sales, fresh seafood. None of those have been readily available for Lawnside residents since a longtime Pathmark shut down a year ago, forcing people to drive or take the bus farther from home to shop for groceries.

In a city where there is seldom a reason to celebrate, plans for the first new supermarket in three decades are welcome. The news in Camden may seem like a small thing to suburban residents, who can choose from a variety of supermarkets that compete for their business and offer extensive selections of fruits and vegetables. But many impoverished places like Camden have few stores large enough to carry much fresh food, leading to their classification as "food deserts. " The planned ShopRite holds promise not only for healthier eating habits in Camden, but also a desperately needed economic boost.

A former state trooper killed his estranged wife with a shotgun inside a central Pennsylvania supermarket Thursday and then killed himself, days after she filed for divorce and two months after he was accused of beating her, police said. Mark A. Miscavish, who retired from the state police in 2011 after 15 years, killed Traci Miscavish at about 10 a.m. at the County Market in Philipsburg, where she worked, authorities said. Police also spelled her first name Tracie. He was arrested Jan. 23 after Traci Miscavish, who had recently left him, returned to the home to retrieve some belongings, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said.

Camden announced plans Tuesday for its first new full-service supermarket in 30 years: a 75,000-square-foot ShopRite. The supermarket, which Mayor Dana L. Redd described as an oasis, will anchor a planned 150,000-square-foot retail shopping center at the Admiral Wilson Boulevard and 17th Street in East Camden, city officials and developers said. The ShopRite would be only the second such store in the city of 77,000 people. The developer, Goldenberg Group of Blue Bell, is just starting the permitting and land-acquisition process with the city and the Delaware River Port Authority, which owns a portion of the 20 acres the project needs.

Camden took the first step toward shedding one of its many unwelcome labels - food desert - by announcing plans Tuesday for a 75,000-square-foot ShopRite store. The supermarket, which Mayor Dana L. Redd described as an oasis, will anchor a planned 150,000-square-foot retail shopping center at the Admiral Wilson Boulevard and 17th Street, city officials and developers said. The ShopRite would be the city's first new full-service supermarket in 30 years and only the second in the city of 77,000 people.

Subaru of America Inc. is donating $300,000 to the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, which broke ground in December at its Cramer Hill site in Camden. The $300,000 donation will fund the center's Choice Food Pantry, which will be set up similar to a supermarket. The $90 million, 120,000-square-foot Kroc Center is expected to create 160 jobs and is scheduled to open in 2014. - Claudia Vargas

A bandit claiming to have a bomb robbed a Giant supermarket in Whitpain Township, Montgomery County, late last night. Whitpain Township police said that the robber entered the store on Dekalb Pike in the Blue Bell section just before midnight Wednesday and approached an employee working one of the registers. The suspect told the worker he had a concealed bomb. He then produced a device. The cashier gave him money from the register. The robber fled. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department bomb squad responded and found a device outside the store.

It would be the second-largest Whole Foods Market in the region - just smaller than a suburban behemoth at Plymouth Meeting Mall. It would have an enormous underground parking garage. And, most strikingly, it would be a stone's throw from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But principals in the hoped-for $100 million project for downtown Philadelphia remained tight-lipped Thursday about where, exactly, the lavish new store would be built, even though what they had in mind was a whopper on par with the mammoth Whole Foods on Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

High spirits reigned, if you will, at the Fresh Grocer in West Philadelphia Monday when a customer, no doubt inspired by Hurricane Sandy, started singing in the rain - or at least in the supermarket. "I've never seen that guy before," said manager John Faust, sounding a little harried as an exuberant tenor belted out something resembling a tune in the background. "We're doing pretty good now," Faust said. "We're not running out of anything," and replenishments were expected throughout the day. As usual, shoppers in the Philadelphia region made their supermarket runs over the weekend in advance of the storm, snapping up milk, bread, eggs, water and batteries, said Steve Sylven, spokesman with Acme's parent company, Supervalu Inc., based in Eden Prairie, Minn.