ShopRite of 1st State Plaza Unveils EVgo Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Station
Wilmington, DE. (April 26, 2024) – The ShopRite of 1st State Plaza hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony April 24 to celebrate a recently opened electric vehicle (EV) fast charging station at 1600 W Newport Pike in Wilmington, DE. Installed by EVgo Inc. (NASDAQ: EVGO) (EVgo), the station serves four stalls with two 100kW fast chargers and one high-power 350kW fast charger capable of simultaneously charging two vehicles. The charging station is available to customers shopping in-store, people in the community and motorists in the First State Plaza shopping mall.
This latest launch is part of a push by Wakefern Food Corp., the retailer-owned supermarket cooperative, to bring more public charging stations to communities served by ShopRite stores. The Kenny Family, which owns and operates the ShopRite of 1st State Plaza, is a Wakefern Member that has served Delaware with ShopRite stores for nearly 30 years. The addition of an EV charging station in the 1st State store parking lot is part of the family’s ongoing commitment to promoting sustainable solutions and helping customers and the community.
“We are excited to bring this new charging station to our ShopRite customers and electric vehicle drivers, and they are using it on a regular basis,” said Melissa Kenny of Kenny Family ShopRites of Delaware. “Our Wilmington store is a great location for this much needed infrastructure because it sits along Newport Pike in a busy shopping center with several other tenants, including the post office and cinema, making it more convenient and accessible for shoppers with EVs.”
Melissa was joined at the ribbon cutting by store associates, guests and community leaders including U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer, and Iris Turner, Deputy State Director, Office of U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester.
“The investments we make in charging infrastructure today are going to be critical in the years ahead as more and more Americans make the shift to electric vehicles,” said U.S. Senator Tom Carper, Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “I am grateful to everyone at ShopRite for taking this important step in helping our environment.”
New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer said the EVgo charging station at ShopRite is an important complement to the county’s “100 EV Plugs Plan,” which promises to make more than 100 EV charging plugs available to the public. “We are, through our parks and libraries, setting up 100 EV charging plugs across the community,” Meyer said. “But that’s not nearly enough. We need companies to step up – and that’s why we appreciate this partnership today with the Kenny family, Wakefern Food Corp. and EVgo.”
“EVgo builds charging stations in convenient locations where drivers can plug in their EV while completing everyday activities, like shopping or going to the grocery store,” said Marcy Bauer, Senior Vice President of Deployment at EVgo “As more drivers transition to EVs, EVgo is excited to expand partnerships with site hosts like Wakefern to meet the growing demand for public fast charging.”
Wakefern and ShopRite have long supported a range of sustainability efforts – both in stores and communities – and Wakefern’s Real Estate Department is working with cooperative members and stores to identify more locations for possible charging stations.
“Wakefern’s electric vehicle charging initiative is important to the cooperative and our supermarket banners. We are collaborating with EV charging providers to bring this critical infrastructure to our stores and communities because we know building a bigger and better EV public charging network encourages more drivers to go electric,” said Andrew Pittel, manager of Real Estate at Wakefern Food Corp., who is overseeing the EV charging initiative for the cooperative.
The Kenny Family and Kenny Family ShopRites have long worked to reduce the environmental footprint of their supermarkets. The stores employ energy efficient lighting and refrigerated cases and have programs in place to maximize recycling and reduce waste and water usage at retail. The company was also one of the first retailers in the state to join the federal Food Recovery Challenge, more than a decade ago, with a focus on fresh food donations to local food banks and composting at retail to reduce waste headed to landfills. They also work with local farms and Keep Delaware Beautiful, a chapter of Keep America Beautiful.
EVgo fast charging stations are compatible with all fast-charge capable EV models currently on the market. EV drivers can easily initiate a fast charging session on the network with the EVgo app, EVgo program card (RFID card), EVgo Autocharge+ or credit card. For more information about the EVgo charging network, visit https://www.evgo.com/
About ShopRite
ShopRite is the registered trademark of Wakefern Food Corp., a retailer-owned cooperative based in Keasbey, NJ, and the largest supermarket cooperative in the United States. With hundreds of supermarkets located throughout New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland, ShopRite serves millions of customers each week. Through its ShopRite Partners In Caring program, ShopRite is dedicated to fighting hunger in the communities it serves. Since the program began in 1999, ShopRite Partners In Caring has donated nearly $62 million to food banks that support more than 2,200 worthy charities. As a title sponsor of the ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer, ShopRite has donated more than $38 million to local organizations, hospitals and community groups. For more information, please visit www.shoprite.com.
