Murphy’s Fresh Markets operates three stores in southern New Jersey. The stores are nestled in their respective neighborhoods, with strong relationships with customers and a reputation for charitable giving. But the grocer knows that to continue to be successful, the stores have to provide the goods, literally, as well.
“My family’s grown roots here and we do know our customer base, but we also try not lean on that too much and just try to execute as best as we can in the store,” said Ron Murphy, VP, son of the company’s founder and president, Ronald S. Murphy, or “Mr. Murphy,” as he is affectionately known.
“We know that we have to be very competitive in terms of quality in order to stay relevant with a customer base that that also has the ability to go to an Acme, a ShopRite or even a Sprouts or a Trader Joe’s.”
Murphy’s Fresh Markets is headquartered at its store in Tabernacle. Built from the ground up, that store is 30,000 square feet. The Medford Lakes store, the first location for the company in 1978, totals 23,000 square feet, and the Beach Haven store on Long Beach Island is 16,000 square feet.
Beach Haven is open year-round but is considered a seasonal store, with the bulk of business occurring between Memorial Day and Labor Day. A former Beall’s, the Murphys purchased the store in 1995. Though a bit smaller, Beach Haven offers a full complement of categories, just with reduced selection, Murphy said.
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Fresh focus
Murphy’s Fresh Markets, as the name implies, places focus on fresh departments.
The stores have a strong reputation for quality meat, Murphy said, carrying lines such as Certified Angus Beef.
“We really don’t veer from quality, even in the inflationary times that we’re in now,” Murphy said.
Deli sandwiches are another draw. They offer a 2-foot-long Italian hoagie that is especially popular during the football and holiday seasons, he said.
Signaling its commitment to its prepared foods program, Murphy’s hired a chef who had served as an executive chef for Wegmans for 25 years. Under the chef’s leadership, Asian, Italian, regional and other ethnic dishes are now offered.
Bakery is another point of differentiation for the stores, and that department has seen an uptick in sales over the past two to three years, Murphy said.
“Daily we have bagels and doughnuts; Italian rolls come in daily. We offer individual desserts, homemade cakes, pies, muffins, cupcakes, things like that,” he said, adding that Murphy’s was “fortunate to be able to hire some really talented cake decorators.”
Thanks to them, Murphy’s has begun promoting the fact that it is a destination for specialty cakes for weddings, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Christmas and other events.
The bakers and decorators also are responsible for producing massive, decorated cakes for the Tabernacle and Medford stores’ annual St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Always looking for new points of differentiation, a few months ago Murphy’s launched a weekly meal planner to inspire shoppers. The first page features seven days of meal ideas; the second is a shopping list.
Heritage of service
“Community is No. 1 in terms of my dad and his mission, so to speak,” Murphy said of his father, who started in the grocery business when he was 16 years old at a small store in northeast Philadelphia.
He was a grocery manager in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, when the Medford store came up for sale in 1978. An industry friend helped him and his wife, Kathy, buy it, giving them a loan they repaid as soon as they could.
This year marked 46 years in business for Murphy’s, which has operated as many as seven stores at one point. The three it has now have “staying power,” Murphy said. However, the family is always on the lookout for a store that fits the previously noted model.
Children and education are the two big giving areas for Mr. Murphy, as well as charities such as Ronald McDonald House and the Lions Club in Medford Lakes.
“Communities, really, are at the heart of a lot of what we do. We try to instill that in our culture, and it’s important in our family,” said Murphy, who spent six years working for the company after graduating from Villanova. After he earned a master’s in accounting at Drexel University, he worked in the corporate world as a financial analyst for 12 years before coming back to the family business.
Murphy and his wife had just welcomed twin girls to their family (joining their older sister) and his wife’s commute was growing longer as her company was moving farther away. His father was also looking at eventually retiring, so in 2018 he came back to Murphy’s to begin the work of learning how to run the operation.
Two years into the process came COVID-19. The stores remained open during the pandemic, as they provided an “essential” service to the community.
“I learned a lot quickly because you were forced to, so it’s been challenging … I think it’s helped me grow personally,” Murphy said. “And I don’t think a new perspective, a different perspective, is ever a bad thing. Overall, it’s been a very good experience.”
In fact, he says that the changing nature of the business is one of the things he enjoys most.
“There’s new legislation or new situations that arise all the time and you just have to be on your toes and adjust. So I think that’s the best part – you have to stay motivated. It keeps you active and you have to stay involved.”
He credited the New Jersey Food Council and its president, Linda Doherty, with being a strong voice for retailers when legislation affecting them is presented.
Another group Murphy’s is affiliated with helps it have more buying power. Murphy’s Fresh Markets is part of The Advantage Group, comprising grocers supplied by UNFI that have a “central person” that helps them as a group negotiate deals with manufacturers for ad and marketing funds.
“We just signed a new contract with UNFI, and our intent … is to continue to find independents like us that would want to join a group and have similar goals and interests,” Murphy said.
Treating staff like family
The family culture Mr. Murphy created at the stores has yielded many long-term employees. Two who were at the Medford store when Mr. Murphy bought it in 1978 are still with the company, and a number of managers have been around for two or three decades. Some have retired with 30 or 40 years there, Ron Murphy said.
“We feel very fortunate about that. We promote from within first and try to allow people to create a career here if they want to,” he said. “We try to create an environment where different opinions are embraced, but we kind of stick to our guns in terms of things that have worked [in the past].”
Murphy’s also wants to make sure staff members have time for their personal lives.
“We are going to offer work/life balance and make sure that people have time with their families, which is another key value that we hold,” Murphy said.
Murphy’s also offers scholarships to employees, and store managers are mentors, especially to younger staff members.
