Soft Openings III: Out with Big Lots, in with Ollie's

Our next post takes us to another store we documented before the grand opening. Chances are you have already seen this place in its previous form.

Ollie's Bargain Outlet has replaced Big Lots #5248 at the Dutchtown Plaza in Palatine Bridge, NY.

As I will not be there for its grand opening, I have decided to document this store early. As noted, the store will have its grand opening on June 18th, the day after this post goes up. As OSJL and Ollie's are key players in the closeout arena here in the Northeast, they have ended up with the leases of various Big Lots stores that have closed months ago. Ollie's also ended up with Big Lots #5294 in Painted Post.

Cart Tax: As this is a newer store, it has these newer foreign-made carts.

I do not remember there being carpet in here when this was Big Lots, as it was not an SotF store. I have no idea why Ollie's put carpet in here.

Food items are on the right side, along the front wall. As Ollie's moved in fairly quickly, the store (fortunately) still has tile.

Registers along the front wall, similar to how Big Lots arranged their registers. Also there are fabric gazebos displayed along the front corridor.

Books, like many Ollie's stores, are located along the left wall.

Carpets and flooring are located in the back of the store. Also note that they did not remove the drop ceiling in this area to put in an open ceiling like they have done in the past. That is also due to them moving in quickly.

Looking back toward the front. Hardware can be seen here.

Look Inside: Tractor Supply Co. of Castleton-on-Hudson

Today's post takes us to a store with a hidden relic despite being repurposed. All photos were taken on May 25, 2025.

This building was previously home to Grand Union from 1977 to 2001, and sat vacant for a number of years before Tractor Supply repurposed the space around 2008. Around 2007 or so, it would lose its shingled Grand Union facade when the plaza's owners remodeled the whole plaza to get this exterior design.

Inside, we see that the lighting grid where the Grand Union registers used to be was retained, however the red embellishments were removed.

Humorously there is a red stripe across the wall, which ironically the Grand Union used to have one along the back wall. These stripes however, were done by Tractor Supply. Also, TSC kept Grand Union's drop ceiling (and possibly tube lighting), as this is an older store.

Cart Tax: Despite oddly having a set of Versacart V-Series 172L carts, they still had some of the original Rehrig Vista carts from when the store first opened. These are late-model ones with a metal end gate. None of them still have seat flaps and almost all of them are missing the rubber on the wheels, making them very loud and rattly. This one was also missing the backrest and seating platform.

A Look at a DG Market

While heading up Route 12 to Watertown, I noticed a DG Market on the right, off of Solomon Rd. in the town of Martinsburg in Lewis County. So I headed back that way after leaving Watertown. Let's take a look!

This "DG Market" store is located at 6163 Solomon Rd. in the hamlet of Glenfield in the town of Martinsburg. All photos in this set were photographed on May 21, 2025.

So far, this store looks like most Dollar General stores.

Cart Tax: Instead of the usual Jiulong shopping carts, the Market stores use American-made shopping carts, these ones being Wanzl (Technibilt) model 3541, manufactured 10/31/23.

Walking in, health and beauty products are displayed in the front of the store.

Paper goods are located in the right-most part of the store.

This is supposed to be aisle 12, but is unmarked. Bread products and frozen entrees are located here.

Left side of the store is mostly home items, like the average Dollar General store.

Some areas of the produce section were sparsely stocked at the time of this visit.

To conclude, this store was really nothing special; it is just your average Dollar General store with a green color scheme and added fresh food selections in the middle of the store. I will not document any additional DG Market stores.

The 1980s meet the 2000s - Watertown Price Chopper

Price Chopper #102

Opened: c. 1986

Location: 1283 Arsenal St, Watertown, NY

Date Photographed: October 11, 2018 and May 21, 2025

Normally Price Chopper stores are not really that interesting no matter their age, but this one does have some layout quirks worth mentioning.

This store opened in 1986, and certainly has that look. The rounded awnings surrounding the facade are a signature feature of 1980s glass-and-pillar Price Chopper stores.

This store has a long vestibule with two entrances, similar to late 1990s and early 2000s stores.

Entering from the right, we go over to the floral area. The frozen foods area has a very low drop ceiling, a feature that would run up to the very early 1990s.

Juices are in the very last aisle. You can see just how low the ceiling is here based on how little space there is between the top of the shelving and the ceiling, making it very dark with how very little lighting there is in this area.

You can see where the drop ceiling gets higher and the lighting improves as you go back toward the main grocery aisles. The blue wall here is where dairy is.

This angled wall is where certain frozen foods are located.

Meat department. The tile transitions from white vinyl to ceramic.

Pharmacy in the center of the store, as is typical in older Price Chopper stores.

Grand aisle area, which curiously has a drop ceiling, yet has ceramic tile. Whether it was put in along with the 2007-12 decor package or before that is unknown. You can see the front of this section in this 2018 picture shown below, excuse the blurriness.

Offscreen to the left here is the bagel prep area, which is separate from the bakery in many Price Chopper stores.

NON-UPDATE: Hannaford #8175

*This is an update to Absurdities in Layout and Décor: Hannaford of Watertown, NY. Please refer to that post for the full tour.*

Exterior photo. All photos in this set were taken on May 21, 2025.

It is 2025, and many Hannaford stores have been remodeled to their newest decor package, but how about this one? Let's go inside, but before we do...

Cart Tax: The Precision Wire 122C and 348W carts were replaced with these Instore IS2 and INS147 shopping carts, however it does appear that they added some used ones recently. They are the INS147s with yellowed bumpers and IS2s with red bumper caps.

Welcome To Shop 'N' Save I mean, Hannaford. Even in 2025, they have not remodeled this store even though stores that are many decor packages newer have been updated. It does have LED lighting though.

While there is some new track lighting (where there was none before), the un-centered "Fresh Fruit 'n Vegetables" sign is still present.

The category markers on the coffin cooler in front of the Dairy section are still of the Shop 'n Save variety, and the only ones that were not updated to the 2010-era post-Festival ones. And don't these look like street signs?

Coming around to the front end, we do see this store has updated checkout lanes, with the modern circle lane lights, with self-checkouts laid out the same way instead of in a bullpen arrangement.

Before going, here is a cute-looking cart, made by Tote Cart Co. It is a Junior Shopper, and would have complemented a set of chrome-framed early 2000s Tote 1234 carts. And that concludes this revisit.

Runnings Has Removed the Rain Shelter

Our next retail stop in Watertown takes us to a farm and fleet operator that has repurposed a former big box store along Route 3.

Runnings opened this store on October 13, 2021 in what used to be Kmart #7432, which closed on September 3, 2017.

As you can see here, Runnings has removed the tower and squared off the former Kmart C Series 37R facade. Compare that to a previous picture from when Spirit Halloween was temporarily reusing this former Kmart space:

Older photo, taken on October 11, 2018. The Kmart logo would have been where the Spirit Halloween logo was placed. The rain shelter was great while it lasted, but it had to go for improved maneuverability in the parking lot.

This store did not get a new set of carts, but rather a low-end remanufactured set of Precision Wire 348W carts that were recycled from a grocery retailer. All I found was the word "MARKET" on one of the short caster plates, but nothing else indicating where these originated from.

This clothing area covered where Kmart had the checkouts, restaurant area, and women's apparel.

This part of the store takes to where the women's apparel section ended and where the men's big and tall plus the baby section used to be.

This area housed the toys as well as sporting goods departments ironically enough.

This store's automotive area is where the electronics area was once located.

Our final photo of this store takes us to a part of the former Kmart garden center.

Tour de Union: The Conclusion

With the Owego store gone, this is our last Grand Union store to visit, unfortunately. However, it is in the North Country, which we recently visited along with other retailers which we will soon see.

All photos in this set were taken on May 21, 2025.

This store is located at 22050 Seaway Plaza Drive in Watertown, New York.

This store, like the rest, was converted from Tops to Grand Union in 2022. But the signage surrounding the logo easily identifies this store as being a P&C Foods. This one was branded as P&C Fresh Market before Tops acquired it. P&C was originally located on the other end of the shopping center, with this side possibly being a W.T. Grant department store. But before we look at the interior, we must pay the cart tax.

Top to Bottom: Dark green 2005 Technibilt 6240, possibly ex-Big M or P&C Foods, late-model Tote 1412, 2019 Unarco M90ZX (former Tops unit). As the store mostly had only the Tote Carts as Tops, the green Technibilts may very likely have been transferred from the Owego store when it closed. The M90ZX set appears to be a Norwich transplant, oddly enough judging by the advertisement in the backrest panel. They were very low on carts in general.

As with many stores of this size, the first aisle houses the produce area as well as condiments. You can see bakery up ahead, along the back right wall.

Front end. The deli section is located just past the checkout area.

A nondescript 2009 Technibilt 6240 is being used for clearance energy bars.

The final aisle, number 13, houses cold beer, dairy, and some frozen foods.

The back middle part of the store houses the meat department.

Newer unbranded Big Lots cart from the Watertown store's final fleet made it into the store, being used for out-of-date juice items.

Ditto with this 2006 Tops Unarco M160.

I noticed that C&S Wholesale's Best Yet brand had what appeared to be a new corporate minimalist logo. This was apparently a very recent change, and won them a bronze 2025 Vertex Award "for Best Private Label Redesign". And that concludes our Tour of the Watertown Grand Union.

For a recap of all the previous tours up to this point:

• Warrensburg (toured March 2, 2022)
• Cooperstown (toured on June 14, 2022)
• Rome (toured with other retailers on June 15, 2022)
• Saranac Lake (toured with other retailers on July 2, 2022)
• Cortland (toured with other retailers on August 4, 2022)
• Rutland VT (toured with other retailers on September 4, 2022)
• Peru (toured with other retailers on October 4, 2023)
• Norwich (toured on October 5, 2023)
• Sherrill (toured on April 5, 2024)