The 26,000-square-feet organic-focused grocery store opens the doors to its 400th store Friday morning.
By Matt Skoufalos | September 7, 2023
Sprouts Haddon Township opening day crew. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
After nearly two years of development, Sprouts Farmers Market grocery will open its Haddon Township location this weekend.
The company first began exploring the 26,000-square-feet storefront in the Westmont Plaza in late 2021, said Sprouts Regional Vice President Rick Pratt.
Since the store fit-out was begun, work crews have been inundated with questions about how soon its doors would open, he said.
“While we’ve been doing construction, we’ve had so many customers saying, ‘We can’t wait for you to open. We don’t have anything like this,’” Pratt said.
Haddon Township will be the 400th store in the Sprouts portfolio, which spans 21 years of operations in 17 states. The company is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, but has been expanding rapidly across the east coast, especially in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, said Melissa DiCesare, Sprouts Marketing Manager for Grand Openings.
Sprouts positions itself as a rain-or-shine farmers market, with products typically preferred by health enthusiasts and active-lifestyle shoppers, but DiCesare said the store truly is aimed at people who take a close eye at ingredient labels.
“We want to operate and feel like a mom-and-pop,” she said. “Whether you have a dietary preference or you want to try new things, I think Sprouts is a really great place for that.”
Sprouts Haddon Twp dairy (and non-dairy) case. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
At the same time, the market provides options for cost-conscious consumers, including digital coupons through its mobile app, weekly promotions, and a bulk shopping aisle, “where you can get just as much as you need, so you’re not overbuying,” DiCesare said.
For shoppers who want to find something new, Sprouts also features an “innovation center,” whereby smaller, boutique brands may find a platform for introducing themselves to a broader audience.
On a weekly basis, the staff selects a different drink and edible item for shoppers to sample, whether it’s of seasonal produce, local coffee, or a product from an up-and-coming manufacturer.
DiCesare said the innovation center can “really help these tiny brands” by giving them a platform for customers to try their goods. The market shelves products from several local businesses, like Philadelphia-based La Colombe and Green Street coffees, and Jersey Fresh produce from growers like Flaim Farms of Vineland and Nardelli Lake View Farms of Cedarville.
Sprouts also features traditional grocery sections, including produce, meat and seafood, a bakery and deli counter, frozen foods and desserts, to-go sushi, vitamins and supplements, and a dairy case that also includes comparable items made without animal byproducts.
The Haddon Township store is staffed with 95 employees, and will continue to add more cashiers and deli workers, said Haddon Township Store Director Chelsea Leonard. The crew comprises Haddon Township locals, as well as residents of nearby communities, and to her, that’s a sign of its health.
“I’m nothing without the team,” Leonard said. “My success in the store with them is wholly dependent on the community around us.
Sprouts Haddon Township opening day crew. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
“If I can make this a place where people in Haddon Township, Collingswood, Camden, Gloucester City say, ‘I want to work here,’ that means the store is doing well.”
Leonard, who started with Sprouts as a cashier at its South Philadelphia location, said the company has offered her opportunities to grow along with it.
“There are so many of us who started just because we needed to work during the [novel coronavirus] pandemic, and now we have careers,” Leonard said.
“I was a South Philly punk; I had neon orange hair,” she said.
“I wasn’t overlooked for those things, and I was still recognized for what I was doing in the store.”
Although the store management team is new to the area, they’ve rapidly acculturated themselves to some of their Haddon Township business neighbors, Leonard said, including Westmont Bagels and Nick and Joe’s Pizza, which share storefronts in the same shopping plaza.
Sprouts plans to embed itself more deeply within the community through its charitable efforts, which include a food rescue partnership with the Food Bank of South Jersey, a composting and farm feed program, and plans to throw its support behind neighborhood events in the near future, Leonard said.
This weekend’s grand opening kicks off with a schedule of activities, discount shopping, and food sampling. Customers who register with the Sprouts app will receive 20 percent off their entire purchases from Friday through Sunday.
On Friday and Saturday, the first 200 shoppers will receive a reusable tote bag full of products; on Saturday, the first 400 customers will receive a $10 store gift card.
There’s also a book signing with author Danny Seo on Friday, a sponsored hot dog lunch on Saturday, fruit carving, face painting, and more. View the full list of specials here.
Sprouts is located at 640 West Cuthbert Boulevard in Haddon Township. Hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. For more information, visit the business website.
