A lot has changed in the last two years in Ocean County with businesses closing.

With that being said, there are businesses that recently opened in Ocean County and that is great news.

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I was hoping when 2022 would come, everything would go back to normal. Well, normal as we knew it. That didn't happen. I was waiting for the magical unicorn to swoosh on in and change things, but nothing changed. These businesses still stayed closed and never opened again since the pandemic.

Zager, Getty Stock, ThinkStock
Zager, Getty Stock, ThinkStock
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Some of these stores we grew up with. When Covid-19 hit, I had no clue the impact it would have all over the country, let alone in Ocean County.

We are all about shopping "local" and helping out small businesses, the ma and pa's of local businesses need us now more than ever. How were local businesses supposed to make it through such a rough time? We have rebounded slightly but businesses and employees are still hurting.

This summer, especially I am hearing many business owners saying it's hard to find good employees and employees that actually want to work.

Something else I noticed this year more than ever, empty strip malls. They just look horrible and it seems they've been empty forever. That's a blog for a different time. Kathy from Brick just wrote me, GNC closed, too.

It became clear to too many local businesses that they would never financially recover from the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates that either forced them to close their doors for an extended period of time or radically change their business model to meet standards that were just too expensive to uphold.

This summer is a pretty amazing summer and lots of people are visiting, so that's great news for Ocean County.

Here are 10 I miss...

I Still Can't Believe These 10 Businesses and Restaurants are Closed in Ocean County

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