Farewell to a Restaurant Supplier

To wrap up the year, we will be taking a look at a local restaurant supply store in Johnstown, NY that is liquidating due to the owner retiring.

All pictures taken on December 24, 2020.

The business was originally located out of the home of the late George Barr on Perry Street before moving to this space in 1978 on Main Street across from the Charles Jenner Memorial Park. This store is expected to close after January 1st.

The front of the store housed glassware and dishes.

The center left part of the store housed commercial cleaning supplies in bulk.

In the center were assorted chairs.

From the Archives: Price Chopper International - Albany, NY (Westgate)

In this mini-post, we take a look at a store with an expanded ethnic food offering - and probably one of the last stores to still use the green Rehrig shopping carts. The photograph dates will bounce all over the place, so kind of expect it as not much has really changed!

Date Taken: November 23, 2020

Store was built in 1995 and renovated sometime around 2000, giving the interior open-truss ceilings. Was labeled as "Market Center" until the late 2000s when the first two aisles were expanded to have their own dedicated International foods section, hence the tagline on the building. The orange awning color came a little later. The façade is flanked by green Rehrigs on either side.

Date Taken: June 19, 2017

The first aisle is quite sizeable, as it has foodstuffs from countries you wouldn't find in most American supermarkets.

Date Taken: October 29, 2019

Rather than upgrade to a set of lame, boring Unarcos, this store installed new Rocateq wheels on their green Rehrigs as a means of further extending their lifespan. Unlike the old locking wheels, these ones have the additional security feature of locking at the exit if the cart bypasses the registers. The cart still has to be unlocked by store personnel like any other wheel-locking system.

Date Taken: August 1, 2020

At this point, the fluorescent lighting was replaced with LED retrofits. All the grid lighting has smooth diffusers that make it impossible to see the LED strips inside of them.

FLASHBACK: Are we at Tops or P&C?! - Cooperstown Tops

 

In this edition of FLASH BACK, we go back to September 26, 2018 to visit a store outside the Cooperstown city limits in the area of Hartwick Seminary.

This was a former P&C Foods, with a clocktower facade.

Cart Tax: Store's fleet is typical of many ex-P&C Foods locations, except for one style here.

Technibilt #5141 with a black handle insert.

Green ex-P&C Technibilt #5341

What's that on the handle? Let's see...

...this one is still labeled as P&C Foods! Several of these ex-P&C Unarcos still had handles bearing the P&C name. These Unarcos are dated 5-02. Now back to the store...

As Cooperstown is home to the Baseball Home of Fame, many Baseball team flags are suspended from the ceiling throughout the entire store. Unusually, Tops did not repaint the walls or put new decor in, indicating the signage was left over from P&C.

Seafood & Service Meats signage can be seen at left.

Frozen Foods, with sizeable coffin coolers.

The Copper City gets a Hannaford

In April 2019, work began on the construction of the Hannaford Supermarket located at the corner of West Chestnut and Turin Streets in Rome, New York. The store is located on the site of the former Rose Hospital and Walsh Day Hab Center, which relocated to 8234-36 Turin Rd. a year prior. The store opened on June 20, 2020.

All pictures taken on November 20, 2020.

Two-faced exterior with the left entrance used for employees and vendors only due to COVID concerns. A health ambassador was present in the main entrance which housed the cart bay, so no picture there.

Cart Tax: As this is a newer store, this location uses Instore carts (INS147 at top, IS2 at bottom).

Looking straight ahead, we start with the produce area, which has grey-washed woodgrain flooring and umbrella-styled displays on the ceilings.

Signage promotes "local" produce.

Meat department, with iconography of animals representing cuts of meat.

Service deli and "Hannaford Kitchen".

The deli also includes "fine cheese", from goats to sheep to cows.

Bakery area is along the back wall like the two aforementioned service departments. Off-camera to the right is the service area.

First half of the dairy area, with the typical farm fresh platitudes.

The remainder of dairy is along the left wall, with grey-washed wood paneling with more natural and organic platitudes.

HBA, with health quotes on the blue cube signage.

Hannaford Pharmacy signage, with "Pharmacy" in front of the Hannaford name, giving them a layered appearance.

HBA is split in two, with yellow tile in one section and blue tile in the other.

Kitchen Café, which is not in use due to their response to COVID.

Front end, with self-checkout bullpens and seven manned checkouts.

"Thanks for shopping Rome Hannaford". Check in later for another supermarket post!

- Retail Regents

Off the Beaten Path: Big M of Dolgeville, NY

Yes, this is another supermarket post. This one is on a side street off NY-167.

All photos (except the cart taxes) were taken on July 2, 2020.

Architecturally devoid trapezoidal facade

Produce area, which has wood-style flooring compared to the rest of the store. Also uses a Helvetica font.

Front of the store, which has checkered vinyl tile.

Up ahead is The Butcher Block, which like much of the decor, uses a bold Microgramma font much like the decor seen at Modern Market in Moravia, NY.

Deli area, represented by images of typical deli fare.

Dairy is primarily represented by Milk-Eggs-Cheese.

I have nothing more to say, so see you next time! Oh wait... cart tax!

Date Taken: March 20, 2017

All full-sized carts were Technibilt model 3342. This one still has its Technibilt sticker, which showed a date of 2/11/2014.

Date Taken: May 16, 2017

 

Date Taken: May 16, 2017

Forgot which one was a Technibilt and which one wasn't, though I'm pretty sure the grey one is a TB and the black one is an Instore.

Amended 11/20/2020 (cart tax)