Price Chopper/Market 32

[retailisking]

this price chopper is in St. Johnsbury Vermont. It opened 11 years ago and is 50,000 square feet.

It opened in June 1995 and is 45,000 square feet, if this article is correct.  Did it expand after opening?
http://www.vermontbiz.com/article/may/little-guy-gets-break-nek

[retailisking]

The highly litigious Golubs have ShopRite in their sights - but there's talk of a settlement.  Frankly if I were ShopRite I'd tell the Golubs to pound sand, but maybe settling is worth the savings in time and hassle.

http://blog.timesunion.com/business/price-chopper-shoprite-working-to-settle-lawsuit/52288/

[AmesNewington]

I was just at the Price Chopper in Newington, CT. They appear to be doing a bit of remodeling. For now, they are just rearranging aisles. I notice they are overhauling their natural foods dept, which is rather large. I'm not sure if they will be doing anything major. Most likely, just redecorating. The store is about 7 years old. It still looks new, but has the same arrangement it has had since it opened in 2005. It needs a new look. Management here has been a revolving door ever since they opened. One manager would come in and let it get rundown and then another would come in and fix it up, only for it to get rundown again. This latest manager has seemed to keep things orderly and clean so far. There has been about 6 or 7 managers here in the past 7 years (I've lost count actually). This is the only other general grocery store option in Newington besides Stop and Shop, so I hope they can remain active here in town. I would have still loved a ShopRite in Newington where Shaws was. 

[Joeg]

The Vernon PC is also remodeling.

[ynkeesfn82]

So is Southington.

[AmesNewington]

What are they doing specifically at Vernon and Southington right now?

[Joeg]

They are moving things around, got rid of the coffee grinder area, and moving shelving.  In Vernon thats what they are doing, I don't know what they are doing in Southington, probably the same thing.

Don' forget, these stores are kinda old, and have not had a remodel since they open.  Hoping Newington is next.

[AmesNewington]

They are moving things around, got rid of the coffee grinder area, and moving shelving.  In Vernon thats what they are doing, I don't know what they are doing in Southington, probably the same thing.

Don' forget, these stores are kinda old, and have not had a remodel since they open.  Hoping Newington is next.

Thanks for the update. Yes, structure wise, Newington is new (Southington and Vernon were partially existing dept stores) because they completely demolished Ames in Newington for PC. But it certainly is worn in certain aspects of the interior. Hopefully, they will revamp the whole store.

[ynkeesfn82]

They're remodeling the Bristol, Connecticut PC too. Right now the store is a maze. Very hard to find things and shelves all over the place. BTW, the stores in Bristol and Southington have been open 8 years this week. They opened the week of Monday January 19, 2004. Southington was originally built in the 1970s as KMART. They closed in 2002 or 2003. Bristol was originally WT Grants then became Caldor. That became KMART which closed at the same time the Southington store closed.

[AmesNewington]

At least they are not closing Southington like it was rumored. We need competition to remain in this area. We can't only have Stop and Shop and ShopRite. I hope they will give the PC stores a whole new look. It will be interesting to see what happens. I always love it when stores remodel.

[Joeg]

Lets hope the Grand Re-Opening ads are great.  Kinda wish PC would open more stores in CT.  I think they are opening from the ground up store in Gardner MA.

[silvfx66]

On average a grocery store will "remodel" about every 7 years, of course there are many exceptions to this rule (see most A&P's).  At the very least they will reorgainize the layouts, new signage, uniforms etc.  There is always something in the food industry that prompts changes.  I remember when I started in the business back in the early 80's with one aisle of frozen food, now many stores have two or three.  A pharmacy is almost a requirement and produce needs an organic section and lots of space for salad bags. The one constant is change in retail.

[AmesNewington]

On average a grocery store will "remodel" about every 7 years, of course there are many exceptions to this rule (see most A&P's).  At the very least they will reorgainize the layouts, new signage, uniforms etc.  There is always something in the food industry that prompts changes.  I remember when I started in the business back in the early 80's with one aisle of frozen food, now many stores have two or three.  A pharmacy is almost a requirement and produce needs an organic section and lots of space for salad bags. The one constant is change in retail.

It's funny you mention A&P as an "exception to the rule". They never really ever put much thought in to updating their stores. In CT alone, they may have done about 2 remodels of their most profitable stores in a 20 year period. The Newington store was very old and dingy back in the late 80/early 90s, and it was finally remodeled in 1994, including an exterior remodel (with parts of the old building unchanged). After that, all they ever did was rearrange aisles every so often and when A&P decided to add on "A&P" to the Super Foodmart name in 2001, they just replaced aisle markings and signage with black plastic boards and glued an A&P sign over the Super Foodmart sign. Even the well known West Hartford Waldbaums was remodeled in 1993 and wasn't renovated until 2007. Same with most of the Foodmart stores. Two success stories were Berlin and Rocky Hill. Berlin was moved across the plaza to a new concept store in 1996 and Rocky Hill was done over completely in 1999. I can see why A&P didn't make it around here.

[Joeg]

I remember starting in the business back in the 70's!! When a store size was luckly around 28-30,000 sq feet.

[silvfx66]

whats interesting is to see the few Price Chopper stores left that were once Central Markets, Watervliet and Cohoes for example, they are like time capsules in a way, neither have expanded and yet they have to keep up with the buying habits of today's customer.  Of course both are neighborhood stores like Madison Ave and Delaware Ave in Albany, very small yet somehow they supply almost everything you need. 

[retailisking]

The highly litigious Golubs have ShopRite in their sights - but there's talk of a settlement.  Frankly if I were ShopRite I'd tell the Golubs to pound sand, but maybe settling is worth the savings in time and hassle.

http://blog.timesunion.com/business/price-chopper-shoprite-working-to-settle-lawsuit/52288/

The lawsuit has been dropped "with prejudice." In other words, they had no case but want to save face...
http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2012/02/23/price-chopper-drops-trademark-lawsuit.html

[ynkeesfn82]

Price Chopper's Grand Re-opening in Southington is next week.

[AmesNewington]

Price Chopper's Grand Re-opening in Southington is next week.

Can you possibly get a few pictures? Or at least explain what they did to Southington. I don't know if they are doing anything further to Newington other than rearranging. The only part that is still in disarray is the natural food section. So maybe there is still some ways to go.

[Joeg]

It also seems Vernon PC Grand Re-Opening is next week also.

Also, what is Xtraoridanary Savings that they are talking about in next weeks ads beginning on March 4th??

[AmesNewington]

What did they do to the Vernon store? Just rearranging?

[ynkeesfn82]

Can you possibly get a few pictures? Or at least explain what they did to Southington. I don't know if they are doing anything further to Newington other than rearranging. The only part that is still in disarray is the natural food section. So maybe there is still some ways to go.

In both Southington and Bristol they did re-arranging. But they also took the floral department in both stores and moved it from "the middle" over to the back corner of the store where the beer used to be. Both had these refrigerated "beer caves" and they moved the floral department there. They moved the beer as well. They also seemed to have de-cluttered the stores as well. And in Southington they moved the self-checkouts. They used to be down at the far end of the store near where the UPS store is. Now they're down by the exit door in front of Citzen's Bank.

[retailisking]

Interesting profile of Mona Golub in the TU
http://blog.timesunion.com/womenatwork/on-the-cover-mona-golub/956/

[Bdubs]

If anyone has been in the Middletown, CT PC, they are making an attempt to remodel them similar to that store set up.  That's a beautiful store inside.  Huge.

[Joeg]

Yes, Middletown CT is a nice store.  I Hope that the grand re-openings ads are good.

[retailisking]

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/industry-intelligence/id34980/price-chopper-introduces-xtreme-values-to-central-conn-/

[BillyGr]

whats interesting is to see the few Price Chopper stores left that were once Central Markets, Watervliet and Cohoes for example, they are like time capsules in a way, neither have expanded and yet they have to keep up with the buying habits of today's customer.  Of course both are neighborhood stores like Madison Ave and Delaware Ave in Albany, very small yet somehow they supply almost everything you need. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46740689

Watervliet may get a replacement - there has been talk of demolishing St. Patricks church/rectory/school on Route 2, which closed during the consolidation of area churches and one proposed replacement for the site would be Price Chopper (since the church sits back from the road and has quite a bit of property, especially for a city area). 

Of course, there is quite a bit of argument from those in the area against demolishing the church, given it's age and design.

[silvfx66]

the current Price Chopper in Watervliet dates back at least 50 years, I remember it as a Central Market, they did an addition at one point an turned the aisles, it is still pretty small compared to today's stores. 

[Joeg]

How is the "Xtreme Values/Savings" promotion going in CT?? Wentto the Vernon CT PC today and it looks like they went with
a more "discount" image.

[Joeg]

Does anyone know if the Middletown CT PC is going to get Xtreme Values??

[retailisking]

Apparently PC is feeling the heat in its home market (*cough*ShopRite*cough*); they're scaling back their Fuel AdvantEdge gas discount program in order to lower their retail prices. Not surprisingly there are some outraged customers, but this was probably necessary.

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2012/04/25/price-chopper-changing-fuel-advantedge-discount