Its obvious that this whole delay is about Shop Rites being afraid of business being hurt by Wal Mart. Shop Rite has no business sticking their nose into the construction of Wall Mart, its called compitition. I guess they are afraid they may have to lower their prices.

I guess they did'nt pay off mikey

I don't see how this new Walmart will decrease the quality of life for residents of Manchester and Toms River. It is a new store, with a full supermarket (hence why Perlmutter is scared and is pulling out all the stops to avoid competition) and in a less congested area than the current store. This store will bring new jobs and groceries at a cheaper price for seniors and all residents. Walmart will have to improve the intersection, so traffic will flow much smoother than it does now. The current Walmart where it sits today has no room to expand, so there is no way the company can offer the full supermarket selection. Once the new store is built, I would imagine they would turn the old building into a Sam's Club to compete with BJ's- which is still creating more jobs and not leaving the town with an empty building. As for people speeding through Pine Lake Park, I will leave that up to the residents there- I do not live there. I know the Manchester Police do an excellent job in enforcing speed limits, so perhaps residents can request extra patrols or speed humps? More competition is better for all of us who are struggling with grocery bills already- and Route 37 is a commercial corridor. When people choose a place to live, they should consider what major highways are close, and what they zoning laws are.

As most of us know there have been several different supermarkets over the years in the area. Shop Rite has moved all over Toms River to drive them out of town, When the new Shop Rite on Rte 37 and Rte 166 was being planned Perlmutter tried to stop that too, because it was not a "Perlmutter" store. How many times is Toms River and Manchester going to let "Perlmutter" get away with trying to eliminate the competition? Give us a break!!!!! As for the those of you who think it will cause quality of life issues "Do You Shop In The Walmart In Toms River Now???

The township (Mayor, et al) have been on the right side of this thing all along. It is a Perlmutter-driven thng (he is funding the environ folks, who really are doing what they feel is right). Either way, how long have we gone without the tax revenue share we would get from this project? Enough is enough....this is a ready and willing rateable for us. Let's get it moving.

Has any one even been back in the area where they want to put this wal mart? The people who care about the environment and are complaining obviously don't. Its littered with trash, and the remains of homeless camps. It is a disgrace. Additionally I own a business over there. I honestly can't wait until they break ground. It will bring more traffic and hopefully people will say "wow I never knew we had a store like that!" and stop in.

We don't need another Walmart in the area. I deal with Walmart on a regular basis as my company sells to them. They are ruthless in business and their insistence on all of their good being made in China or other 3rd world countries has been the ruination of business in the USA. I refuse to shop at Walmart.

I wish the Permuter family luck in their suit. KEEP this away!! If the seniors want this so bad put it up next to Renascence. That intersection with all of TR's school buses and Wawa traffic is already a nightmare. Another thing, it will attract people at first and than they will run back to Perlmart's Shop Rite because of Wal Marts low quality and limited service and help. If anyone think they will get a clean store and service like what Permart give they are nuts. Stick with the family owned store instead of the lets grab all the money we can and shutter the little guy with low quality on cheap goods sold with slave labor.

WalMart does not give a living wage, therefore it does not support American families, They do not support American jobs. They make slave and sweatshop labor elsewhere. They suck up tax dollars because a huge percentage of it's workers get welfare or food stamps and intersection's and traffic lights get built for them on state and county roads. All while feeding a multi billion dollar family with even more money that gets a nice tax break to boot. Permart gives better wages, buying there supports families and American workers. It is a better deal for all because it's a circle. Spend money here, support our families and friends so the jobs can be made here and we will all be working. What no one gets is the very high cost of saving a buck.

I say let's call Billy the Exterminator. I'll bet there is no pine snake and Mr. Perlmutter is full of poo. I hope the new Walmart is built.

I am certainly not defending Walmart and their poor business practices. I also would never defend how they pay well under a living wage and offer no benefits. They certainly are not the best company to work for, but if you have been out of work for a few years and have run out of unemployment, a job is a job. Some money is better than no money. Most of what Mark Wendell said appears to be the truth, but in this case the state is making them pay for the intersection improvements. As Americans, we have voted with our wallets that we would happily sacrifice quality customer service and products to save money. Foodtown, Pathmark, and A&P are all on the verge of closing because nobody shops there. People prefer Shop Rite, Walmart, Target, and other places for groceries. In the long run, buying cheap imported goods from Walmart is not helping our trade deficit, but we have no choice. There are no American made televisions, laptops, iPads, etc. Also, for a family on support and has to count every penny... $150/week for food at Shop Rite versus $120/week at Walmart might make or break them. Sure it is nice to support American companies that directly support American workers... but that is not always an option. I drive a Ford, but I bet half the commentators here badmouthing Walmart and their Chinese imports drive Japanese, German, or Korean cars and think nothing of it.

I wonder how many of Shop Rites mercenaries have written comments here. Hey, no comments about Walmartians yet??????

I have yet to see anyone get pulled over for speeding through PLP in my 6 years here. I even submitted a FOIA request with the PD to find out how many speeding tickets have been issued on Common Wealth Blvd in the last year. They denied my request claiming they did not track that. Perhaps it is more like they do not want it to come out that they do not care about everyone who uses PLP as a short cut to speed through. If the Walmart is built they need to lower the speed limit from 45+ to 30. It is a large residential area with over 700 kids. Protect our kids! We are already taxed to death paying for all the senior accommodations while we get no services.

I hate Walmart! Sells inferior products, takes returns and places back on the shelf to unsuspecting consumers. Produce is the pits. Down south the Walmart super centers are major markets that's where they belong. Walmart can just stay away for all I care, haven't shopped there in years and I will not shop there in the future.

Shop Rite has nothing to fear. Have you ever shopped in a Super Walmart? The meat has no flavor. Most of the other items sold in Walmart are junk.

The Walmart economic cycle- Sam opens Walmart after Walmart with the slogan "Made in the USA". Then, he goes to China and finds out he can buy cheap Chinese crap and the idiots in America will buy the junk cause they can save a buck, and he makes four times the profit on the garbage. It works so well, that he invests millions in infrastructure in China, and then forces the American companies over to his infrastructure to do their manufacturing there cheaper, so he can make more money. American jobs go overseas, and the jobless can only afford to go to Walmart to buy his highly profitable Chinese junk. Eventually, since there are no manufacturing jobs that pay well left in the US, Walmart sales drop because the entire concept of Walmart's economic cycle come around to bite them in the rear, because no one can afford to shop anywhere, including Walmart!
No company should be allowed to control all aspects of the retail industry. It creates total unfair business practices that exterminate all other competition.
When a new store opens in a town, they don't create new customers, the take them from elsewhere. When one company like Walmart controls so much of the retail industry, they can, and do, annihilate their competition at will. Once they do, then they jack their prices and screw the customers they stole from everyone else.

Christie, a Republican forced the State Department of Environmental Protection through his businessman "Environmental" Commissioner to change the long standing DEP rules that at one time protected endangered species.

The question for New Jersey voters is are they happy when environmental rules are changed by politicians?

Forget Shop-Rite Please !! How about getting a Wegmans to open in this area?
The one in Ocean Township on Hwy. 35 is great.

Shop-Rite fought Pathmark for years when they tried to come to Toms River, again its about the competition - Perlmutters got hurt with the Shop-Rite on Rt 37 that they don't own - JD Toms River

see above jd comment - thanks

I find it extremely IRONIC that Manchester does not want to allow a Walmart in their town because it will harm the "quality of life" there but will embrace Snooki & BowWow or whatever her name is! Incredible!! Exactly what quality of life will those two young "ladies" bring to their township? I'm not getting this!

All that aside, isn't there only one major grocery store in Manchester with a smattering of convenience stores? Surely those 40,000+ Manchester residents could use another grocery store in their midst. Why does the Shop RIte have to have a monopoly on food shoppers? Things surely have been a little suspect with this opposition for years. I mean WHO really believed that there was an almost extinct little snake causing all that trouble for years? Did someone go to a pet store to buy and plant it there to stop the WalMart plan from going through?

Also, I think many folks over look the fact that this WalMart will also be on Toms River turf and you don't see the residents of Toms River up at arms about it and Toms River certainly has many more stores, traffic, etc than the more rural Manchester.

Something's very wrong with this whole deal!!!

Long time resident of Pine Lake Park. The whole quality of life issue is specifically linked to the enormous influx of new traffic that will ensue at the Northampton/Rt. 37 intersection. Unless there is some major traffic reenginnering completed, it will become an absolute nightmare for any resident attempting to exit Pine Lake Park. No, we don't want to drive additional mileage in the opposite direction to the Commonwealth/Rt 37 intersection just for the sake of avoiding traffic. Northampton has been a perfectly viable intersection available for many decades. This project needs to include a much larger or completely repositioned jughandle, to accomodate the Rt 37 westbound traffic, make the Wawa side exit "right turn only", Include two left turn lanes on Northampton exiting onto Route 37 East a separate straight/right turn lane. If the Wal-Mart were to finally be approved, I would even go as far as to advocate for speedbumps on Commonwealth and Northampton because we already see cars doing 50-60mph in a 40mph zone, plus lots of accidents. Take care of the traffic issue proactively, then myself and many other PLP Residents will be converted to huge supporters of Wal-Mart arriving here. Of course, let's hope that Manchester Residents wouldn't have to vote on the budget on any such road improvements or it's guaranteed not to pass, as the folks in 99% of the Senior Villages will travel to Wal-Mart from Rt. 70 and Rt. 37 East and could care less about issues in PLP.

Don't blame Walmart or China for what is going on in this country. Blame the Unions and Democrats who drove all the factories out of America. Unions forced the cost of basic labor up to the points it was impossible for the jobs to stay in this country. It should never have cost $60/hr for some guy to turn a screw driver.

You can also blame all the Democrats who that took all those Union dollars which forced those factory owns to pay them those wages or be fined out of business. In addition to having to follow unrealistic liberal regulations which restrict any sort of business growth. Stupid Unions and Democrats forgot America is not the only country in the world and dismissed the global economy as a checkmate end game to their Marxist agenda .

America needs to go back to how business was done in the roaring 20s. Plenty of affordable labor, non restrictive regulations, less taxing the innovators and put back to work those hard working folks who rather not sit on the couch playing video games because collecting government entitlements is their new career.