Middleburgh gets a second chance at having a supermarket

To conclude the August 6, 2022 trip, we visit a newer supermarket building across from the antique store shown in yesterday's post.

This newer supermarket called Valley Market opened on January 26, 2018. While the business is owned by Geanine Eisel, wife of Prattsville Great American owner Jim Eisel, the 16,000-square-foot building is leased from developers Carver Laraway and Jim Becker.

Cart Tax: Arguably the store's low point is its decrepit Tote Cart shopping carts with handle inserts that do not fit this style of cart and many of them lack child seat flaps.

The produce section is on the right hand side of the store, with a bright green paint scheme. Also the LED lighting in this store emits a warm glow compared to most businesses that use that awful cold daylight lighting.

The first aisle is home to condiments and dairy.

The bakery department is along the back right wall.

Moving along the back wall, we take a look at the meat department. Past this section is the beer cooler.

The store has 10 aisles. This aisle is home to frozen foods, bread, peanut butter, and popcorn.

Store has five registers in total, with 1 and 3 being open. The restroooms are additionally along the front wall.

A Grand Union With No Groceries

As part of the August 6, 2022 block, our next stop is to a store that somehow managed to get repurposed.

This, my friends, is the former Grand Union in Middleburgh, New York. The interior was destroyed from heavy winds and floodwaters as a result of Hurricane Irene in 2011. The store did not reopen, though it is not clear what the fate of this store would have been even if it was not destroyed.

For whatever reason, it was repurposed with minimal conversion to an antique store, affectionately titled "A Shop With No Name."

Apparently the former exit door has become an entry door while the second entry door was blocked off. Also the service desk is fully enclosed.

Random ex-Dollar Tree Technibilt #1336 in the store, for some reason labeled "not for sale". Is there any Dollar Tree that even uses these?

Two of the three aisle signs have remained intact. It appears these are from the mid-2000s "Family Markets" era.

Some department signs, such as "Butcher's Block" (rear) and "The Big Freezer" (left) have remained intact all these years.

Wadler Bros. Home Center

In the 100th post on the Retail Regents Blog, I felt it would be better posted on another large hardware store. Let's head down to Fleischmanns, NY shall we?

This massive store is located off New York Route 28 outside of Fleischmanns. The business has served the area since 1959, but this building and accompanying buildings are certainly much newer. Wadler Bros Inc. is a True Value member.

Cart Tax: Apart from the ever-so-popular basket-holding carts manufactured by Versacart Systems, this store has full-sized shopping carts from the defunct chain Rickel. These were manufactured by Unarco Industries in May 1997.

The service desk in the front. Note the pendant lights with schoolhouse glass shades. Also note the baskets (a very tiny percentage of which were also from Rickel, not shown) and the blue M&M floor display.

Aisles in the front are home to paints and stains.

The entire right side of the building is home to building materials, especially lumber.

Coming back around, we see aisles for hardware, building materials, plumbing, and home storage.

Heading further to the left side of the store, there are more plumbing aisles, plus the lawn & garden materials closer to the front.

Circling back through, we walk through one of the cleaning aisles, which like many aisles in the middle of the store has motion-activated LED strips that illuminate when one walks into the aisle.

A Look Inside Freshtown Marketplace

Opened: 2009

Cooperative: Allegiance Retail Services
Location: 36 Bridge Street, Margaretville, NY

Photographed: August 6, 2022

This grocery store in Margaretville was a A&P until 2009 when it was became the Freshtown Marketplace you see here. The store was damaged by flooding during Hurricane Irene in 2011, and was restored. Allegiance has another Freshtown in Amenia, NY.

Contrast that with the adjacent CVS, which was completely destroyed by the flooding, and was completely rebuilt from scratch. They would briefly relocate to 785 Main Street while this location would be rebuilt.

The produce section is located in the very front of the store, to the right of the registers.

Snacks and beer line the right-most aisle.

Inside Buckingham Market and Home Center (Constantia, New York)

This post takes us back to June 4, 2021 to a supermarket and home center owned by the same family, and located across from each other.

Both this and the home center were acquired from the Vella family in January 2018.

These Technibilt shopping carts are the standard carts used in both the supermarket and the home center. It is rather odd to see a newer-looking 6240 without a lower rack. It is possible these are refurbished. These were brought in when the Vella family owned the stores.

Older carts not for customer use include these older Unarco and United Steel & Wire units.

Inside the store, it appears the Buckingham family whitewashed the store, stripping it of its unique sea green color scheme.

The only remnants of the sea green color scheme are the trim on some of the fixtures and floor tile.

The home center shares the parking lot with the supermarket, and is placed 180 degrees from it.

Inside the store is Do It Best's typical decor package.

Inside The Eclectic Chic (Oneida, New York)

Today's post takes us inside The Eclectic Chic - a large antique store located inside the former Herb Philipson's sporting goods store in the Glenwood Shopping Center in Oneida, New York.

All photos taken on 4 August 2021.

This store was originally a Price Chopper from 1989 to 2005 when they moved into the former Tops across Route 5. And as for Electic Chic themselves, they moved here from a building in Oneida Castle.

This was most likely where the service desk was when Price Chopper was located here.

Service department, which was most likely seafood based on its placement in the back left portion of the store. Speaking of which, it is most interesting how much of the space The Eclectic Chic opened up that was closed off by Herb Philipson's.

Another former service area in the back right corner of the store. This was most likely the placement of the bakery section.

Cart Tax: These were the shopping carts used by Herb Philipson's - painted tan.

Image of the vestibule lined with antiques to conclude this post.