Grand Union

[nysw3636]

Grand Union Millerton, NY is still open.

[nysw3636]

Well, 13 years after Grand Union built it, but never occupied it... the Poughkeepsie location across from Marist College will be a Ocean State Job Lot. Drove by it this morning and the sign is up. Not sure if it open yet....

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20131002/BUSINESS/310020011/

[BillyGr]

The first line was great - if you build it, 13 years later they will come!

I wonder how much of the building they'll use for the actual store?  They have a store in the old Grand Union here in Valatie, and they blocked off a bit of it (a few feet on the right side and also put a wall in front of what was the meat/seafood areas in the rear, both are stock storage areas), plus using the former pharmacy for an employee area.  This store was one of the newer ones that GU had, but I'd think that (based on what I remember from the few times in the Albany store that was open for 6 months and identical to the Poughkeepsie never opened one) that those stores are even somewhat larger than Valatie was.

Should be great (both for them & the students) with Marist across the street and other colleges nearby.

OSJL seems to like grocery stores in NY - the Ballston & Valatie (plus this) are GU, the Schenectady is a former PC/Price Rite and the Fishkill is an old A&P.  Clifton Park is part of the Joy Store/Toys for Joy (not sure what it may have been before that, though) - the Albany one is part of a plaza that last housed AJ Wright, though the space may partially be where the GU/Albany Public once sat - no idea on the Babylon location.

Well, 13 years after Grand Union built it, but never occupied it... the Poughkeepsie location across from Marist College will be a Ocean State Job Lot. Drove by it this morning and the sign is up. Not sure if it open yet....

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20131002/BUSINESS/310020011/

[nysw3636]

Here is another link about the former Grand Union building. It states that Job Lots is using 40,000 sq feet of the building. I am unsure of the total square footage...

http://www.wallacelawny.com/blog/2013/10/poughkeepsie-finally-gets-new-store-to-fill-unoccupied-building.shtml

[ynkeesfn82]

That's big for a Job Lot. The average store is around 30,000 Square Feet. The one in New Britain, Connecticut is around 40,000 Square Feet.

[RoleModel]

OSJL seems to like grocery stores in NY - the Ballston & Valatie (plus this) are GU, the Schenectady is a former PC/Price Rite and the Fishkill is an old A&P.  Clifton Park is part of the Joy Store/Toys for Joy (not sure what it may have been before that, though) - the Albany one is part of a plaza that last housed AJ Wright, though the space may partially be where the GU/Albany Public once sat - no idea on the Babylon location.

North Babylon was a former Finast/Edwards - it never made it to being S&S. It was a pool supply store for years before becoming OSJL.

To take it back towards the thread topic, when S&S bought GU locations 12 or 13 years ago, Stop & Shop decided to take a GU over in the neighboring community of Deer Park, and that's still open to this day.

[buzz86us]

anybody remember their last ditch effort to re-invent that lasted like 2 months? Weren't they called the Hot Dot or something like that.. I remember they opened in the old Ames Plaza in Palatine Bridge NY

[BillyGr]

anybody remember their last ditch effort to re-invent that lasted like 2 months? Weren't they called the Hot Dot or something like that.. I remember they opened in the old Ames Plaza in Palatine Bridge NY

Yes - they did those for a short time (I know there was one on the outskirts of Schenectady - I think technically in Rotterdam?).

Of course, the very last re-invention was the Mega Save - at least the one that opened for about 6 months in Albany (Central Ave just above Westgate - on the site of the former Caldor, but a new building - now Home Depot on the site which is also a totally new building).  That one looked just like the Poughkeepsie one that never did open (which is how we knew what it was supposed to have been) that is now opening as Ocean State.

[Caldor1999]

Albany Ny this was the only megasave store to open



Colonie NY March 2001


Loudonville NY December 2000


Beacon NY
March 2001


December 2002


Unknown Location july 1988


Distribution Center 1993


Unknown Locations

[BillyGr]

Colonie NY March 2001


Loudonville NY December 2000

I think these two are shots of the same store at different times - while it would be listed as a Loudonville address, Loundonville is part of the town of Colonie, so it may be listed that way also.

Beacon NY
March 2001


December 2002

Not sure if both of these are supposed to be the same store?  The second one is the Clifton Park location, as you can see the Crossings name on the plaza behind it - located at 9 & 146 - it's now a Kohl's.  The first one could be a different store that looks the same - the Beacon on the bags seems to be just them using odd bags, which they did a few times in later years - probably something that C&S had to get rid of.

Unknown Location july 1988

That's hard - it was a fairly common design - at least a few of them in this area.

Unknown Location


This one is kind of unusual - I wonder if they built it or remodeled it from someone else?  Probably later 1990's, based on the white building with green lettering.

[buzz86us]

anyone got a pic of the megasave logo?

[Scrabbleship]

The first one could be a different store that looks the same - the Beacon on the bags seems to be just them using odd bags, which they did a few times in later years - probably something that C&S had to get rid of.

Looking in the trunk, there is a huge clue: the whole bag reads "BEACON SUPERMARKET - 1028 BEACON ST - BROOKLINE". Your theory is right.

For the record, said market later went to Foodmaster (as "Johnnie's Fresh Market") and after Foodmaster shut down went to Whole Foods where it's the smallest location in the company.

[JimSawhill]

The first line was great - if you build it, 13 years later they will come!

I wonder how much of the building they'll use for the actual store?  They have a store in the old Grand Union here in Valatie, and they blocked off a bit of it (a few feet on the right side and also put a wall in front of what was the meat/seafood areas in the rear, both are stock storage areas), plus using the former pharmacy for an employee area.  This store was one of the newer ones that GU had, but I'd think that (based on what I remember from the few times in the Albany store that was open for 6 months and identical to the Poughkeepsie never opened one) that those stores are even somewhat larger than Valatie was.

Should be great (both for them & the students) with Marist across the street and other colleges nearby.

OSJL seems to like grocery stores in NY - the Ballston & Valatie (plus this) are GU, the Schenectady is a former PC/Price Rite and the Fishkill is an old A&P.  Clifton Park is part of the Joy Store/Toys for Joy (not sure what it may have been before that, though) - the Albany one is part of a plaza that last housed AJ Wright, though the space may partially be where the GU/Albany Public once sat - no idea on the Babylon location.

Well, 13 years after Grand Union built it, but never occupied it... the Poughkeepsie location across from Marist College will be a Ocean State Job Lot. Drove by it this morning and the sign is up. Not sure if it open yet....

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20131002/BUSINESS/310020011/

OSJL Manchester CT store was an old Finast. I used to work in that store when it was Edwards before it closed. I guess they like old stores, no expense to build new.

[amesman]

Unknown Location july 1988

This was East Greenbush, NY.. torn down for the Wal-Mart supercenter expansion.

[JimSawhill]

Unknown Location july 1988

This was East Greenbush, NY.. torn down for the Wal-Mart supercenter expansion.

What a beautiful store it was..Grand Union was in my town growing up...East Hartford, CT.

[buzz86us]

Albany Ny this was the only megasave store to open

Did MegaSave have its own logo like Hot Dot??

[BillyGr]

Did MegaSave have its own logo like Hot Dot??

Being as noted this was the only one to open, and it lasted around 6 months, I don't think so.  I seem to remember that they used signs inside that said Mega Save to denote sections that had larger packages (kind of like having mini "wholesale club" sections around the store - I assume that was the whole idea of the concept, to encourage people to do more shopping there rather than going to a BJ's or Sam's).

I guess you could also say the GU on the red dot was a "newer" logo, not specifically for this store (see the one green/white store that also has it) but I don't think it appeared on many locations.

[DefunctStoreKing]

are there any grand union brand grocery pics?

[BillyGr]

are there any grand union brand grocery pics?

Well, not quite a picture but something (somehow I wound up with these three very small magnets of GU items - probably something that was floating around in one of the stores when they were closing up).

[Zayre88]

Former Grand Union in South Burlington, Vermont:

[JJBers]

Former Grand Union in South Burlington, Vermont:

That's a nice looking Grand Union compared to the ones I've seen:

Northville, New York by JJBers, on Flickr

NY 22 by JJBers, on Flickr

[gu4ever]

Hi guys. Glad to see the forum is still here. It's been along time since I've been on.
Just thought I would share one of my favorite photos from Grand Union.
The beloved stain glass canopy over the checkouts. Oh the days of Clean, Fresh and good. . .
That made a GRAND UNION.  ;)

[jaredski09]

Former Grand Union in South Burlington, Vermont:

That's a nice looking Grand Union compared to the ones I've seen:

Northville, New York by JJBers, on Flickr

NY 22 by JJBers, on Flickr

The South Burlington, VT Grand Union was very old on the inside! I don’t think it was renovated since the 1980’s. It only got the red dot updates in the 90’s on their signage, door signage, and some other random signs. I was in the store the final days it was open around 2008 and it was pretty decrepit inside. One of the only reasons this Grand Union lasted so long because it’s in one of the largest populations in Vermont, has the biggest university in the state down the road, and only one other supermarket in that immediate area (Hannaford). Price Chopper replaced the Grand Union shortly after they closed, and they did a full renovation into Price Chopper. It’s a smaller Price Chopper, but there are little signs left that it was a Grand Union other than the outside front of the building.

It’s funny that Grand Union never really updated any of their stores in the Burlington, VT area. I think some of the last major updates they got were in the early 90’s. They really only were competing with Price Chopper which only had like 2 stores in the area for years, 2/3 P&C’s which they owned (also very old stores), A&P which had one store, Shaw’s which didn’t open in Vermont until the late 90’s, and Hannaford/Shop n Save/Martins which was their only real competition. I think Grand Union had a total of 5 stores in the Burlington VT area. You should have seen the Essex Junction Grand Union. That one was SUPER old. Like hadn’t been renovated since the 70’s old. They still had the orange Grand Union Sign when they closed in 2007. I went in the last year they were open and half the store was empty. It’s like they didn’t have enough products to fill the store. It wasn’t a big store either. Again, I think they only survived that long because Essex JCT technically didnt have a supermarket for a while and it’s like the third largest town in VT population wise. It’s only competition was A&P which was a few miles down the road which closed in 2004 I think and Hannaford which is also several miles down the road and in Essex Center. They had another Grand Union in Essex Center too which was semi newer and bigger, but that closed in 2003 and was replaced with Price Chopper in 2004. And they didn’t fully renovate that into a true Price Chooper until 2011. They opened a local supermarket near A&P in the 2008ish but it’s small. All of the Grand Unions were in plazas owned by Pomerleau Real Estate in the Burlington area (and most of Vermont) except for the Essex Junction and Shelburne Rd Burlington one. That was Pomerleau’s supermarket he worked with for years for his plazas. Now they mainly work with Price Chopper.

I think the closest Grand Union in the area that got renovated in the late 90s was in Berlin. They had the Green Grand Union sign and they called it a superstore I think. I think that one closed in the early 2000s and was replaced with Big Lots.

[gu4ever]

I remembered my password for the site finally.
Plus its great to see the site backup and running.
Just wanted to share the famous Grand Union stain glass canopy from over the checkouts.
This photo was taken by me back in 2009 at the Swanton, VT store.

Hope you guys are all doing well.
-Chuck

[Retail Regents]

I remembered my password for the site finally.
Plus its great to see the site backup and running.
Just wanted to share the famous Grand Union stain glass canopy from over the checkouts.
This photo was taken by me back in 2009 at the Swanton, VT store.

Hope you guys are all doing well.
-Chuck

It is quite surprising that any Grand Union store kept those lighted canopies for as long as they did like at that store. They normally got rid of them in the 1990s.

[Retail_247]

There was a Grand Union in Millerton, NY which didn't until 2017.

Sources claim that it was the last ever Grand Union store to be open.

[BillyGr]

There was a Grand Union in Millerton, NY which didn't until 2017.

Sources claim that it was the last ever Grand Union store to be open.

That one did stick around even after the other remaining ones got sold to Tops a few years earlier.  I guess they didn't think it would work with their other locations (even though they wound up with a couple Tops stores not too far away when they took over a few that had to be sold off with the merger of the parent companies of Stop & Shop and Hannaford - though that was a number of years later).

[Retail Regents]

Originally posted by nims57

Originally posted by gu4ever
The look of this store was pretty classic to Grand Union with the exception of the end walls on each side of the shingled roof line. I angled this photo so you can see how the bricks arch up and out then down to the windows bellow.

When was this style built? One of many former grocery stores now an Ace Hardware.

This design was the "new" classic look for them starting in the 1980's with new store openings and remodels.

An old Loopnet listing (since removed) showed this store was actually built in 1972. The one in Ringwood, NJ was also built that year and is now a Stop & Shop. There was also one in Sparta, NJ that had this exterior design and was later a Stop & Shop before becoming an Ocean State Job Lot itself.

[Retail Regents]

While I was checking out flickr.com I came across retro-space's photo stream. In this particular photo it's of a grocery store.... Of course I'm mainly familiar with the private label red-dot logo from the late 70's through 2000 of Grand Union, however I do have a few photo clips and articles from the 60's of the former logo image. Well I was totally shocked when I realized what I was really looking at....... A vintage Grand Union supermarket in color!
Take a look at the private label items on the checkout counter and also the vintage brown and beige striped floors, if you visit the Peru, NY store you can see this color/pattern of flooring still being used today in 2010!!
Thank you to retro-space for sharing this photo and here is a link to his stream on flickr.com.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33158682@N06/sets/72157623386354375/

Thanks to Bruce Neylon for sharing this photo of a now former Grand Union store in Florida.

Visited the Peru, NY location (as Tops) last year. They still have that flooring, along with that weird maroon-colored tile along the front end. The store is now Grand Union again so it is likely still there.