Burlington Stores planning to expand throughout NJ

Bucking a national trend, New Jersey based Burlington Stores is planning on expanding, adding new stores throughout the country, including here in New Jersey.

Among the new stores in New Jersey are locations in Howell, Brick, Secaucus, and Ledgewood. In a release, the company announced plans to open 100 new stores this year, with an eventual goal of having 2,000 locations; it currently operates 769 stores. As ABC 6 Philadelphia points out, the company plans to take advantage of the "opportunity presented by accelerating retail disruption and industry wide store closures." Additionally, the company said that its new locations would be focused on high-quality, off-mall locations, such as “power and strip centers.” As part of that strategy, they plan on moving into locations vacated by some of the retailers that didn’t survive the pandemic, like Modell’s and Pier One. Burlington also said it will open smaller stores in the future that carry less merchandise and have lower operating costs than traditional stores.

If you’re not familiar with the stores, Burlington Stores (formerly Burlington Coat Factory) sell discount women’s, men’s and kids' clothing, home goods, and footwear with up to 60% savings. They buy other companies’ canceled orders and overstocks and then sell them at a discount. The company’s expansion plans are based on the prediction that when retail shopping rebounds from the pandemic, thrifty shoppers will seek out bargains while wealthier consumers will continue to gravitate toward online shopping. Burlington caters to those bargain hunting shoppers. The new Howell and Brick locations just opened, with the Ledgewood store opening later this month and the Secaucus store opening this summer.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.