Sale of Orchard Superfresh Center to Affect Silver Spring Retirees

As a part of a larger corporate plan by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc., the Superfresh located in the Orchard Center on Cherry Hill Road—along with 21 other Maryland stores—are up for sale, as reported by The Gazette.

Spokesman Eric C. Andrus, from the New Jersey based-company, said they are selling 22 of the 24 Maryland stores (which make up 5.6% of their total portfolio of 295 stores across eight East Coast states) “because they were not as successful as the locations in New York and New Jersey.”

The parent company filed for bankruptcy on April 13, 2011.

One group likely to be most affected by the change is the residents of nearby Riderwood Village retirement community. Riderwood operates a shuttle that takes some of the 3,000 residents to the Superfresh on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so that the seniors can do their shopping (the shuttle also goes to a local Giant on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)

According to Timothy Reynolds, who is helping his parents consider a move to the Riderwood community, “relatively few of the residents shop at the convenience store within the complex, due to a limited selection of items at higher prices than Superfresh.”

Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea is hopeful that the stores will be sold by mid-June, but locals need not worry about the store closing before that time frame. The two Superfresh locations that are not part of the sale are located in Ocean City, which the company considers part of their core market.