Plans for Schenectady grocery store still on track

[Retail Regents]

The city plans to put a grocery store on the site of the former Mohawk Auto Center property on State Street.

https://dailygazette.com/2022/12/06/plans-for-schenectady-grocery-store-still-on-track/

[TheFugitive]

Interesting line from the article.

would eventually be purchased for $950,000 with federal coronavirus-relief funding

So....building a grocery store is improving the COVID situation HOW, exactly?

[BillyGr]

Interesting line from the article.

would eventually be purchased for $950,000 with federal coronavirus-relief funding

So....building a grocery store is improving the COVID situation HOW, exactly?

You put a new store in an area that doesn't have one currently.

Those in that area are now not spending as much time travelling (likely on a bus) to get groceries - so they have less chance of being exposed to Covid.

Others in surrounding areas have a few less people shopping in their stores (since they now have a new one locally), so those people have less chance of being exposed while shopping.

Probably not a big difference overall, but those are things they may have used to be able to be funded that way.

[TheFugitive]

To me that just seems like an awfully creative way to get your hands on nearly $1 million of other peoples' money to build a new store.  I take it no grocery chain wants to be there unless somebody else picks-up that expense?  We have some rough neighborhoods here in Pittsburgh where local government has repeatedly tried (and failed) to kickstart local grocery stores.

[BillyGr]

To me that just seems like an awfully creative way to get your hands on nearly $1 million of other peoples' money to build a new store.  I take it no grocery chain wants to be there unless somebody else picks-up that expense?  We have some rough neighborhoods here in Pittsburgh where local government has repeatedly tried (and failed) to kickstart local grocery stores.

I'd suspect so, even though the Price Chopper chain has their headquarters within the city, and probably not more than a mile from this spot. 

That building is fairly recent (10 years or so), and they chose to put it there vs. moving to one of the more suburban areas.

They have also opted to renovate some older and smaller city type stores (at least a couple within Albany, may be some in Schenectady as well but I am less familiar with that area in terms of actual stores) to their new Market 32 model, which is something many chains have opted out of over the years.

The article also mentions the co-op group looking for a spot on Liberty (I believe), which is also not too far away in the city.  That group is connected to one that already has a store in Albany that was replaced with an expanded store a few years ago as well, though it is more on the edge of the city there.