Post #23 Garwood Breadbasket list 12/23/10

Over at the news outlet website http://www.garwood365.com/ they had an entry about pathmark. They called Garwood "the Breadbasket of Union County" which we can't argue. We are less than 1 square mile and there are so many places here. That got us to thinking just how many establishements presently in town are food related. So from memory we ran a list and found at least 34 places involved with foodstuffs. Below is the list. If we left anyone out, we're sorry and please correct us. See also fun with math afterward as we explain the viability of all these establishements.

19-North ave up and down: sugarhouse, cross roads, alphonsos, Mongolian bbq, mcdonalds, quik check, milans, portugues bbq, bienvenuto, rosies, beanery coffee shop, shop rite, Als deli, salad works, dunkin donuts, 7-11, quiznos sub place, burger king, frosty freeze,

9- South ave up and down: Pathmark, taco belle, kings, bensis, roberts, gerrys, mamas, chinchars, aloha bento

2-Center st up and down: lorenzos, don alex

4-Also mentioned: (really can’t just go and buy substantive food but they have food or are in the business) 5 star catering, little joes. Westwood, CVS

Total as of today 34

Fun with math department: If all these places only served GW residents, the per capita numbers would be 4500 divided by 34= around 150 people per establishment. Based on supermarkets averaging $50/ wk per person and if a Garwood family went out to eat 1x/wk spending $10/person avg on fast food or restaurants, we would have (150 x $50 x 52 wks) + (150 x $10 x 52 wks) = $390,000 + $80,000 = $470,000 avg G resident expenditures (revenues) per establishment per year. But that is avg and the supermarkets get the bulk of the revenue stream since all the residents would be frequenting the 3 supermarkets year-round. (that makes the revenues 4400 GW residents x $50 x52 wks div by 3 suprmkts=$3.8 mill each)

Now if you look at the 2 part equation breakdown one sees the supermarkets gets $490k/year, and the fast foood/restaurants get $80k/year from each 150 unit group. This is hardly enough revenue to exist financially just from GW. As a guess operating revenues should be around $8-10 mill for supermarkets and around $300k to $500k for the smaller eateries. Larger eateries like Lorenzos or McDonalds should be around $1.5 to 2 mill as a guess. Obviously, this market is heavily dependant on outside sources of revenue from people in surrounding areas (say from westfielders, cranfordites, clark, kenilworth). The smaller establishments with lesser name recognition really have to sell themselves hard just to exist. Possibly thats why we see some turnover like the portugues BBQ changing hands a couple of times, the corner where don alex is was changing hands many times or the italian place next to mongolian BBQ closing (it is reopening soon a sign in the window says).

The TREE and also Garwood365 always promote that the residents patronize all Garwood establishments as much as possible. Commerce is a vital backbone of our community. This we added as a community resolution in post 22.