Morristown, NJ residents giddy over Amazon Fresh opening (Opinion)

The first time I noticed the empty Toys "R" Us in Eatontown turning into something new, I was excited. Empty stores scare me. They remind me of how the retail landscape is changing so rapidly and they also just look bad.

So I’m pretty happy that there’s an Amazon Fresh opening up near me. And now I hear about a new one in Morristown.

I’m not really sure if people are excited about the prospect of an Amazon fresh opening or if they are just excited that it’s not another housing development. Regardless, the news that an Amazon fresh would be opening near them got Morristown residents abuzz on Instagram.

I know how they feel. Even though there are plenty of supermarkets really close to the Amazon fresh it will be opening in my neighborhood as well as the one in Morristown, it’s exciting to see something opening there besides new apartments or another huge health center.

Every time I drive by I look to see how far they are in the construction project.

Why is it that people are excited about Amazon fresh? I mean do we really need another grocery store here in New Jersey?

I always thought that a lot of people in New Jersey had an anti-Jeff Bezos feeling. Or that they had the same negative thoughts towards Amazon that a lot of people have towards Walmart. You know, the “they’re taking over the world“ type of thing.

But it appears that all over New Jersey, although Amazon is closing their other retail stores, they are concentrating on supermarkets and they’re popping up like mushrooms in NJ.

The word on the street is that Amazon fresh will be opening in Cedar Knolls Plaza at 235 Ridgedale Avenue in Morristown.

Apparently, much of the excitement about the Morristown location is that this space has been an “empty wasteland“ for a long time and some people are really excited for anything at all to be moving into the spot. No one wants to see abandoned buildings or empty strip malls in their town.

“That strip mall is a dump. Anything would be an improvement,” is just one of the comments that I found on Instagram regarding the new store.

On the other hand, some community members have said that there are already so many supermarkets there in such close proximity to that plaza and others have complained that they wished it had been a gym opening there instead of an Amazon Fresh.

However, if you check out the Morristown New Jersey Instagram page, you’ll see that most people are pretty excited about the news. Would you be happy if I knew Amazon Fresh was opening up near you? Or would you be happier if it was something else? A gym? A new housing development? An urgent care?

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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