[THE WRAP UP TOUR] A Festival in Utica

That's an eye-catching title isn't it? Well, this is the last supermarket we are going to cover here on UNY Retail, so let us make the best of it, shall we?

This Hannaford, located at 1122 Mohawk Street is one of three Hannaford stores purchased from Tops Friendly Markets c. 2005. The other two were Clinton and Washington Mills.

Cart Tax: Like several other Hannaford stores, this one received a fleet of used carts from other locations. The top Instore is most likely a newer one they ordered within the past five years; the other two Instores are from 2018. Like several other Instore fleets, there are Precision Wire 348Ws mixed in.

The one major change is the front end. Pretty much all stores have these newer round checklane lights, regardless of what decor package the store has.

Behind this photo is the Deli section, where "Pizza-Subs & Sandwiches" are prepared.

Cheese section is located in the back right corner of the store.

A Festival-era Aisle 12 sign, a rare feature as most Hannaford stores stripped their stores of pre-2010 aisle signs post-Festival in 2010-11.

Bakery is located completely separate from the deli area, in the front left corner of the store, near the Frozen Foods.

Dairy is in the standard back left corner of the store.

And to conclude this tour, a wide-angle shot of "The Butcher Shop" sign.

And thus concludes our last supermarket tour, as well as our last retail tour on this blog. Again, I want to express gratitude for those who have supported me throughout the past seven years. I do hope to keep the shopping carts rolling in.

Retail Regents

Writer, UNY Carts and UNY Retail

[THE WRAP UP TOUR] Cambridge IGA - Cambridge, NY + Extra!

Cambridge IGA

Cooperative: IGA (supplied by Topco)

Location: 35 W Main St., Cambridge, NY

Photographed: September 8, 2025

This store has had several names over the years, based on which co-operative they were under at the time. This store previously had full IGA branding before joining the Western Family Foods co-op, giving it Shurfine branding. Eventually after Topco bought out Western, this store would keep the branding for a few more years before phasing it out, currently being branded simply as "Cambridge Village Market". It is unknown who the actual owner is, but it is run by Byron's Village Market, which also has a store in Schuylerville. A Byron Peregrim is listed as the company's president.

Cart Tax: At first glance, it looked like the Precision Wire carts were the store's entire fleet. However, some older carts remained in place. From top to bottom: Precision Wire 215Z (ex-Hannaford), Folding Carrier Corp. S/N 219020 (possibly a 1975 model; former Super Valu unit), Unarco (Byron's Market, reads Greenwich IGA on the side).

Store is definitely on the older side, with the dark-colored ceiling grid with light-colored tiles and the suspended tube lighting with diffusers. The first thing to your right upon entering is produce and condiments, a staple of stores of this size.

Front end, with 3 registers. Beverages are located in the alcove up ahead.

Aisle 5, with the Bakery visible up ahead. It is located along the back wall, parallel to the aisles. The Deli faces 90 degrees to the right, perpendicular to the aisles.

Aisle 6, which simultaneously houses both bread products and Frozen Foods.

It seems that Topco must have supplied the decor as well, since these aisle markers prominently bear their Food Club brand on them.

Now that we are finished with the main attraction, let's take a look at a store we visited before arriving to this one:

This Dollar General, south of the town limits, was undeniably a former late 1970s Grand Union building that was subdivided (with a vacant space to the right). The facade was painted blue sometime after 2009 and before 2012.

The flooring here is a very strange choice for a Dollar General. Apparently this wood-look floor replaced ceramic tile sometime after 2018. Even that did not look original to Grand Union either.

The wood floor continues inside the store.

I do not have any other way of concluding this post, other than the fact that this concludes our coverage of the Capital District. I can only say our last post goes the opposite way.

- Retail Regents

[THE WRAP UP TOUR] Hoosic Valley Shop 'n Save - Schaghticoke, NY

Hoosic Valley Shop 'n Save

Previous Tenant(s): Grand Union

Cooperative: N/A (merchandise, fixtures and equipment supplied by Hannaford)

Location: 6 Main St., Schaghticoke, NY

Photographed: September 8, 2025

This is the other "Shop 'n Save" in NY that is still in operation. Like Ravena, this one happens to be a former Grand Union, and is also supplied by Hannaford, both in its merchandise selection and its fixtures.

Due to the store's smaller size, produce is to the right of the entrance. Also noticeable is the general lack of decor. Ravena had some, in the post-Festival style.

Front end. The express checkout sign and checkstand lane lights are of the Festival style. While not visible, this area did still have the Grand Union red tile ring around the checkstand area. Also note that the original light panel above the registers is long gone, and replaced by individual troffer grids.

Aisle 11, located at the far left side of the store. While it has frozen foods and dairy in this section, there are kitchen utensils in this aisle, most notably above the dairy display. Also noticeable are sections of blue tile in this area.

Meat section along the back wall. Themed with sections of red tile.

Aisle 1, whose product selection is so very typical for stores of this size (except maybe the lunch meats). Since it is just past the Produce section, it is themed with sections of green tile.

The last photo in this set is an aisle marker, which is a variation of the post-Festival era aisle signs so typical in most Hannaford stores with any pre-2016 decor package. Also note that these ones do not have a circle around the aisle number, making it harder to read.

[THE WRAP UP TOUR] Peck's Market - Livingston Manor, NY

Peck's Market

Owner: Lee Reimer

Cooperative: PSK Supermarkets

Location: 29 Main St., Livingston Manor, NY

Photographed: September 5, 2025

As part of the "Wrap-Up Tour", our next stop takes us down to Livingston Manor, to the fourth Peck's Market currently in operation. Our friends at The Market Report have covered the other locations in Callicoon, Eldred, and Jeffersonville.

Like the other locations, this store was previously affiliated with IGA until their sale to PSK Supermarkets in 2024. This change will be noticeable in the product selection seen in this store.

Vestibule, which has wood paneling that has not been painted, a dated but unique element of this store. The shopping carts are United Steel & Wire model 585 from the mid 2000s. The Eldred store also has a set of these carts.

The very first aisle is located to the left of the entrance. Here, the meat section is along the wall, opposite to condiments and canned vegetables. The aisle markers in this store are closest in design to Jeffersonville, but in dark grey.

Produce is along the back wall. There is a noticeable slope in the ceiling, similar to that of the Callicoon location.

Yoghurts and frozen foods were in the final aisle, number 7.

Deli and Bakery are along the front right corner of the store.

Coming back to the front end, where there are 4 registers. Overall, this store's layout is very similar to the Callicoon location.

To wrap up the post, here is a sample of some of the private-label products that are distributed by PSK. Note that the Best Yet products still have their previous logo.

Major Blog Announcement

As hyperbolic as that title card is, I am retiring this blog as of 2025. No new posts will be made after 31 December 2025, with all other posts remaining up as archives.

After seven years of posting to this blog, and ten years of documenting retail, I have made the tough decision to wind the blog down with a few more supermarket posts. Over the past few years, I have not had much interest in documenting retail stores in full, and simply do not have a lot of time to make the drive out to many of them, especially now that I also have a full-time job that will be taking a lot of time away from covering retail in general. Plus, a major favorite of mine, Wal-Mart #1610, has lost its most unique feature to the Airport reaper, its tile floor. It was one of the last stores to have the 1990s red stripes, and needless to say, I was severely disappointed to see that.

What does this mean for the future of UNY Retail? I will still continue to run the UNY Carts blog, as one of my biggest interests in retail is the shopping carts many of these stores use. I am currently working on the third section of Volume 11 of Retail Carts. I have documented nearly 4,000 shopping carts throughout parts of the Northeast, and I do not intend to stop documenting carts. I will still accept contributions for shopping carts over there. It is also a low-key blog which requires less writing and more photos, which has always been my general way of explaining what I document. It is here to stay. I also have a Flickr page that I still regularly use for commenting. In addition to those pages, I still contribute regularly on Bluepages, and intend to continue making contributions. You can also find me on the Ames Fan Club Forums.

As for the Retail Regents School Bus Show, no new photos of buses will be uploaded to that post, but rather to my other Flickr page, UNY School Buses. I also participate in Discord servers revolving around school buses for those who are interested in them.

Currently, I have four* supermarkets I intend to cover during this wind-down period. One has already been photographed and whose post will go up later today. The other two will be covered within the next few weeks, at the earliest. When they get a post made, an amendment will be made to this post with the date the post was uploaded. Also, I might have a retail related, but non-tour post toward the very end of the year. As for the supermarkets, they are as follows:

• Peck's Market - Livingston Manor, NY (Due for upload effective the day of this post)
• Hoosick Valley Shop 'n Save (former Grand Union) - Schaghticoke, NY
• Cambridge IGA - Cambridge, NY
• Hannaford - Utica, NY (added 9/10/2025)*

I want to express gratitude for those who have read my blog, and hope for your support and understanding of this decision. I hope to see you on the UNY Cart Photography Flickr page and the UNY Carts blog.

Retail Regents

Writer, UNY Carts and UNY Retail