The Limited Lifespan of Price Chopper Limited

In Saratoga Springs, the limited-parking, limited-variety Price Chopper located below the Market Center Apartments has reached the end of its lifespan, and effectively closes on April 16, 2022, just under two weeks shy of ten years. The limited selection, parking, and proximity to two larger Market 32 stores with expanded product offerings, which attracted what little traffic this store had, were cited as reasons for closing this location, according to a press release from the Golub Corporation.

Here are some pictures I took of the store last year, in August 2021.

This store and the Market Center Apartments complex was built to replace an older, pitched-roof Central Market-era store on site.

Unique tight-nesting Unarco M59TN shopping carts, though this one is slightly newer, from 2014. The rest of the fleet consists of Unarco M90ZXs, Technibilt 5640s, and for some odd reason, Market32-branded Versacart V-172L carts. It is not clear where these will end up, while the M90ZXs and 5640s will just end up being refurbished, and the Market32 Versacarts may be sent to another location.

Grand Union: A Preliminary Look

On this day, March 2, 2022, the following stores held their official grand openings:

• 50 Gorman Way #1, Peru, New York 12972
• 12 S. Main Street & Norton Place, Rutland, Vermont 05701
• 3836 Main Street, Warrensburg, New York 12885

The store we will be looking at will be the third store listed above.

Apparently the store still has temporary signage on the building. This is a sign of things to come heading inside.

2013 Technibilt 5141D, a Tops unit re-badged as Grand Union. The full sized carts in the background are Technibilt model 6240, manufactured 8/31/2013, also re-badged Tops units.

Decor is left over from Tops. The most likely explanation for this is C&S is trying to determine how the store will perform before making further investments in the converted stores. Same for the shopping carts.

Banner with a badly cut horizontal Grand Union logo with the slogan "WHERE THE RED DOT MEANS SAVINGS!"

Deli in the back right corner. The people seen in front of the Convenient Lunch Meats signage are offering Boar's Head samples.

2 for $4 special on Best Yet Bread Crumbs. Notice the badly cut Grand Union logo as well as the re-badged aisle marker in the background.

One of the full-sized 2013 Technibilt carts. Knowing how the carts got replaced after being converted to Tops the second time in other stores, I would not be surprised if these get replaced within the next few years.

Please forgive the blurriness; here is a stack of Grand Union branded baskets. The Grand Union logos on the baskets are decals.

And to conclude, some memorabilia:

Complementary small reusable bag with Grand Union branding. Also shown is a receipt with a large Grand Union logo.

Knowing what was shown here, it is most likely to be expected that the other conversions will look like this on opening day, and will only see changes in the future.

 

- Retail Regents

FLASHBACK: A Quick Look at Tops #702

 

In this edition of FLASH BACK, we go back to June 21, 2018 to visit a tiny Tops store with a stately 1990s look. Welcome to Bolton Landing, New York my fellow retail enthusiasts!

This 13,000 sq.ft. store as Grand Union was built in 1998 to replace a 30-year-old market (it is unclear if it was Grand Union or another supermarket) that caught fire in July 1997, opening June 25, 1998. In Adirondack fashion, this store went through the Grand Union > Tops > Grand Union Family Markets > Tops cycle. The pill sign is from its run as GU Family Markets. Curiously the exterior resembles the Schroon Lake location, but with one entrance on the front as opposed to two on the side.

Cart Tax: At the time of photographing this store, the store had Instore INS147s (donning Hannaford insignia as many Tops stores with these carts do) and a random Unarco M100Z I unjammed from some of the Instores. Can't remember if it was a 2005 or 2006, but it is yet another ambiguous Ahold cart. In the years since this store was photographed, they added a set of unspecified black shopping carts into the existing fleet.

Dollar Tree: Nothing's $1.00

As a result of rising prices, Dollar Tree is no longer a real dollar store, and nothing is $1.00. But has the appearance of their stores changed? Let's take a look into one of these:

As it would be false advertising to bear the $1.00 byline, it was removed, leaving some nasty scars. It would be safe to say other stores that had said byline will also don the same removal scars.

As a way of saving money on implementing a new decor package, they stuck new quotes over the existing "Million Dollar Brands!" and older "New Items Weekly" signage. I wonder what happened to stores with the red early 2000s decor package which prominently don the "Everything's $1.00" tagline.

Ain't this laughably bad? Rather than part with their only United, they put stickers on the sides but not the front (does that ring a bell anyone?), and even the filing job on the $1.00 was done poorly! I would hate to see what this would look like in stores that carry partial or full United fleets.

So, how are your Dollar Tree stores faring? Let us know in the comments!

- Retail Regents

From the Archives: Tops #587 and #569

Today's post covers the seventh and eighth soon-to-be Tops-to-Grand Union stores covered by the author of this blog.

Coverage of Tops #587 (Rome, NY) was done on May 21, 2018, and coverage of Tops #569 (Norwich, NY) was done on September 12, 2019.

 

Tops 587

This store was formerly an Ames department store. Tops sold this store to Penn Traffic in 2005, which operated this store as P&C Fresh from 2006 to 2010 when it became Tops for the second time. However, its time as Tops is to expire come January.

The brown checkered flooring seen here is from P&C.

Tops 569

This store and the shopping center was built on the site of the former headquarters of Victory Markets. This store was also sold to Penn Traffic and operated as a P&C Fresh.