The Marlton Circle Is Gone But the Businesses That Survived It Are Still Here
The Marlton Circle was built in the 1940s when Routes 70 and 73 were quiet enough that a single-lane rotary could handle everything coming through. Then the township grew. Then the suburbs arrived. Then the families started moving out from Philadelphia and Camden and the circle that had been perfectly adequate for a farming community became, in one motorist's words, "not a traffic circle — a non-traffic circle." By the time anyone got serious about fixing it, the businesses around it had to decide what to do. Some of them didn't survive the waiting.
What Wegmans Coming to Route 73 Taught Every Small Business Owner in South Jersey About Competing on Experience
When Wegmans opened on Route 73 in Marlton, the conversation in South Jersey business circles went predictably. Smaller operators worried. Regional chains ran the numbers. People drove in from three towns over just to walk the produce section. And somewhere in all of that, a lesson was available to every small business owner in the region. Most of them missed it. The ones who caught it are still here.
Marlton Doesn't Have a Neighborhood Feel. It Has Five of Them.
Most people who don't live here think of Marlton as a single place — a stretch of Route 73 with good schools and easy Turnpike access. That's technically accurate and almost entirely useless if you're trying to understand how people actually live here, or how to reach them. Evesham Township is a collection of distinct neighborhoods, each with its own loyalties, its own way of circulating recommendations, and its own rules for who gets trusted.