A busy year continues Plaza at Cherry Hill At the Center (next to Cherry Hill Mall), 2nd Ave Thrift Superstore is scheduled to open in July, the Sam Ash music store will begin a closing sale, and Pure Hockey appears to be moving into the Center.
Add these changes to the much larger, feature-packed Total Wine store that opened last year and… well, the team at shopping centre owners Urban Edge are keeping busy.
The Plaza at Cherry Hill is adjacent to Cherry Hill Mall on Route 38. The multi-building complex includes an ALDI grocery store, Guitar Center, Esporta Fitness, Raymour and Flanigan, Chuck E Cheese and more.
2n.d. Avenue Thrift Superstore
2nd Ave. Thrift Superstore is taking over the left-most unit of the L-shaped shopping center…the unit that most recently housed Today's Man, which means the space has been vacant for over 20 years, I guess.
42Freeway and other media outlets initially reported the store as “Savers,” which is also the name of the parent company, which carries multiple brands. For the new Cherry Hill (and Voorhees) store, we chose the 2nd Ave Thrift Superstore to match the branding of the existing Pennsauken store.
As with any thrift store, you can browse through the products and purchase slightly used items at deep discounts. Products start with an ever-changing donation, so many customers keep coming back to see what's new in the store.
One thing that sets 2nd Ave Thrift apart is the size of the store. It's big.
2nd Ave. Thrift superstore also has a unique model of being a for-profit thrift store, but supporting nonprofits by purchasing items they collect.
For example, in New Jersey, the Military Order of the Purple Hearts Service Foundation is listed as a nonprofit partner. If you donate items to Purple Hearts, a portion of the donations may be sold to 2nd Ave Thrift, which may then sell the items to customers in its stores.
This is a win-win, as the charity gets the revenue and can use it for services that help people in need. Additionally, fewer items end up in landfills.
Specific to the Cherry Hill location, I stopped by about a week ago and chatted with some of the on-site staff.
At the time, the store appeared to be architecturally complete and the shelves were all in place, but there were no products in the store.
And finally, to the point where they were said to be targeting Opening date is July 11th.
They are also building a store in Voorhees, but could not confirm a date, but will likely open around the same time. Both Voorhees and Cherry Hill have job listings online in advance of their store openings (Savers.com Careers)
Sam Ash Closing – Closing Sale
After 100 years of providing musicians with the highest quality products at affordable prices, Sam Ash has announced it will be closing all of its stores on May 2nd.
There is one Sam Ash store in the Plaza at Cherry Hill, and a closing sale sign was posted when I visited a week ago.
While stock levels certainly seemed to have decreased, there was still a fair amount of product available in the store.
However, many of the products I thought I might be interested in, such as PA equipment, mixers, and musical instruments, were discounted by around 5%.
Accessories such as headphones were 30% off.
Let me express my rare personal opinion here. In my case, if I'm buying a $2,500 mixboard or a $550 instrument, he'll need more than a 5% discount to buy from a company that's about to go out of business.
Of course, this is just the beginning of the game for consumers and it is clear that the discounts will get deeper and deeper over time, so you will need to decide at what point to buy to get a good discount while there is still stock.
The Guitar Center is still operating in the same shopping center today.
Pure Hockey – Unit relocation?
Pure Hockey is located in a separate group of buildings in the Plaza at Cherry Hill center, which was home to Tower Records more than 20 years ago.
If you've never been there before, you'll basically be shocked at how big the store is for a merchandise line that is literally just focused on hockey.
An interesting aside: if you visit the store and look around, the interior wall dividers and even the round light fixture in the middle of the store are all from when Tower Records was open. There is still a DVD rental return slot built into the glass front. Or was it VHS?!
Well, things are still going well for Pure Hockey, but they seem interested in relocating to another store in the shopping center.
The center's leasing company has presented a site plan that was updated last year… Pure Hockey will move into the former Total Wine location in an inside corner wedge next to Sam Ash.
Just to be clear, it looks like the old Total Wines store will be split in half and Pure Hockey will take over one of the segments.
I spoke with several people at the store and they told me that the current store doesn't have a rear delivery area, so deliveries of large items are brought in through the front door and placed in the main department of the store until staff can clear them out. The new store (if it ever happens) will have a rear delivery area.
Attempts to contact the shopping center's owner today did not elicit a response from any of the public phone lines as of 1:30 p.m.
Links and locations
Savers – Recycle Shop Cherry Hill (July 11th)
The Plaza at Cherry Hill
2100 Route 38
cherry hill new jersey
