BJ’s Wholesale Club plans to open its smaller-scale BJ’s Market in Delray Beach sometime this year. It will be only the second BJ’s Market grocery opened by the wholesale chain in the United States.
The company announced plans for the store in March as part of its scheduled expansion of 25 to 30 clubs this year, but has not publicly confirmed its location.
However, Kimco Realty, which manages leasing for the Marketplace of Delray shopping center at Military Trail and Atlantic Avenue, identifies the former site of a Winn-Dixie at the center as “occupied” by a “Future Grocer.” Above those words on the page of the real estate agency’s webpage is a BJ’s logo.
Various social media sources have identified the space as the future home of BJ’s Market, and a Kimco representative told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that she could not say at this time whether BJ’s “is or isn’t” coming to the site.
A neighboring storekeeper near the former Winn-Dixie store said a man recently introduced himself as a BJ’s employee and said he had come to check out the site.
A news release in March promised that the market will provide a “convenient, expedited grocery shopping experience that will feature top-selling fresh foods, produce, sundries and seasonal products for members, with all the value and convenience that BJ’s members have come to know and love from the club.”
Bill Werner, BJ’s executive vice president of strategy and development, was quoted in the release as pledging that the market’s “innovative approach” would provide Delray Beach shoppers with “unbeatable value” on fresh food and weekly grocery needs.
A BJ’s spokesman declined to provide further information beyond what was included in the March announcement, but he sent a link to a separate news release from April 2022 that coincided with the opening of the first BJ’s Market in Warwick, Rhode Island.
At 43,000 square feet, the store is half the size of a full-sized BJ’s club, the release said.
The market offers the same package sizes and pricing as BJ’s full-size clubs, and BJ’s Wholesale Clubs members were provided immediate access. New BJ’s Market members were also given access to BJ’s full-size clubs and gas stations.
According to the 2022 release, the new market concept was to include testing of “exciting product assortments, displays, product demonstrations and convenience initiatives.”
Popular products offered included those sold under BJ’s exclusive Wellsley Farms and Berkley Jensen labels, it said.
BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, operates more than 150 clubs and 188 BJ’s Gas locations in 21 states, its website states. Forty-three BJ’s Wholesale Club locations are in Florida.
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071 or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.