A&P

[retailisking]

Here's a rare bit of good news for A&P: they'll actually OPEN a Super Fresh (or is it Pathmark?) in Philadelphia in September:
http://supermarketnews.com/retail_financial/ap_philadelphia_store_0715/

This development appears to indicate that A&P remains committed to staying in the Philadelphia market despite a sharp loss of market share in the Delaware Valley in the past year.

[shore72]

It was just announced that 2 of the local Super Fresh stores have been sold to the Mrs. Green's natural market chain. Looks like this is their first entry into this market-here is their current store list:
http://www.mrsgreens.com/ret_store_locator.asp?storeID=7PDT21H24MS92L1E0G03N0ET9VG99J57

This article gives more details:
http://best-met.com/news/mrs-greens-emerges-from-apsuper-fresh-store-closings/

There aren't many Super Fresh stores left locally; I couldn't really remember whether they were still in Chestertown. The Cambridge store is very nice, or was the last time I shopped there some years ago. Large and well laid out. I have my doubts how well a natural foods store will do down there, though. Just not that kinda town, in my opinion.

[nysw3636]

Hearing word that A&P Lagrangeville,NY is on the chopping block. I've seen nothing posted, nor printed, and I hate rumors, but makes sense being that the newer A&P in Hopewell Junction is only 4 miles south of there...

[Scrabbleship]

Hearing word that A&P Lagrangeville,NY is on the chopping block. I've seen nothing posted, nor printed, and I hate rumors, but makes sense being that the newer A&P in Hopewell Junction is only 4 miles south of there...

I would not be shocked to see if the Hannaford a couple miles away is killing it. I still would not be shocked to see it end up in someone else's hands, probably ShopRite or Price Chopper.

The Mrs. Green's gambit in the Baltimore/DC area will fall flat on its face. All those locations are much better suited for ShopRite if anything and it is telling that a good chunk of those locations grossed as much in a quarter what the average Mrs. Green's grosses in a year. The lone DC location would have been much better off going to Harris Teeter as everyone thought it should have, even as a mini store.

[MikeRa]

A&P has confirmed that the Northern Liberties store in Philadelphia, PA they have will not open as Pathmark, but will open as superfresh

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20110720_Northern_Liberties_market_to_open_as_a_Super_Fresh.html

http://supermarketnews.com/news/ap_store_0720/

[shore72]

Cambridge, MD, which is the SuperFresh town I'm most familiar with, is rural/lower-middle class. The other stores in town are WalMart & Food Lion. In recent years Acme & Fresh Pride have left town. In the 90s Metro built a beautiful new store, which closed within a year or so and is vacant to this day. To me, this is a price-conscious market. There has been a trend of bringing in higher-end housing & retail but the economy has made that difficult. Interesting, too, are the neighbors to that Super Fresh/Mrs. Greens store-the shopping center boasts a Kmart that has been boarded-up since sometime in the 90s; an offtrack betting parlor; the county liquor dispensery, and some government offices. Actually, what might do best given the demographics would be a Sav-a-Lot (which they don't have nearby).

[Caldor1999]

looks like there closing the one in Armonk NY kinda glad i use to work at this store such bad management and the people who worked there i swear are insane i can tell you so many stores about that place

http://northcastlenow.com/armonk_close/

[retailisking]

Apparently the landlord tried to pursue expansion of the A&P but was met with roadblocks over not having the requisite number of parking spaces.  The hue and cry over having a chain pharmacy come to town is amusing given that these same people apparently had no trouble with chain supermarket A&P in their midst.  With A&P's long-term future far from certain, who can blame the landlord for going with a solvent tenant?  And it's not as though there's no lack of interest in supermarkets locating in town, including at the long-delayed Armonk Square project.  Maybe the imminent departure of A&P will light a fire under the powers at be in town to see the project through to fruition.

[retailisking]

The former Super Fresh supermarkets in the mid-Atlantic that were sold to ShopRite, Shoppers Food Mart and Fresh & Green's are open and the ratings are in.  The bottom line: ShopRite and Shoppers have their acts together; Fresh & Green's, not so much...
http://best-met.com/column/taking-stock-the-dos-and-donts-of-opening-former-super-fresh-units/

[shore72]

Thanks, that's another very interesting article! Until a couple weeks ago I had no idea that Fresh & Greens had even officially taken over the nearest store. We have a weekly newspaper in our county. The nearest F&G store is about a half hour away from our county line, so this isn't a real strong market for them. Yet, they bought a half page ad a couple weeks ago which simple announced that "Fresh & Greens" was now in our area...and that was it, no location, nothing else of interest. I wasn't even sure myself...I knew about "Mrs. Greens" but didn't expect this name. I even wondered if the local Sav A Lot might have changed names! Best Yet as a store brand, huh? I last saw that in some of the former IGA stores when they went with SuperValu (IIRC). Not that the products are bad, but I expected more. Super Fresh had the reputation as being somewhat "premium" compared to much of the competition.

[Scrabbleship]

Thanks, that's another very interesting article! Until a couple weeks ago I had no idea that Fresh & Greens had even officially taken over the nearest store. We have a weekly newspaper in our county. The nearest F&G store is about a half hour away from our county line, so this isn't a real strong market for them. Yet, they bought a half page ad a couple weeks ago which simple announced that "Fresh & Greens" was now in our area...and that was it, no location, nothing else of interest. I wasn't even sure myself...I knew about "Mrs. Greens" but didn't expect this name. I even wondered if the local Sav A Lot might have changed names! Best Yet as a store brand, huh? I last saw that in some of the former IGA stores when they went with SuperValu (IIRC). Not that the products are bad, but I expected more. Super Fresh had the reputation as being somewhat "premium" compared to much of the competition.

I think that Fresh & Green's was a knee-jerk reaction to learning that Mrs. Green's would not work anywhere they bought stores in Maryland or in Spring Valley, DC due to demographics in the former and there being 3 Whole Foods within 3 miles with the latter.

The last I saw Best Yet as a store brand was with the remaining Grand Union locations in New York several years back and I'm sure at this point they've converted to the typical Topco assortment. All of this screams of being a stop-gap with ShopRite taking over most of the locations in due time.

[Caldor1999]

Apparently the landlord tried to pursue expansion of the A&P but was met with roadblocks over not having the requisite number of parking spaces.  The hue and cry over having a chain pharmacy come to town is amusing given that these same people apparently had no trouble with chain supermarket A&P in their midst.  With A&P's long-term future far from certain, who can blame the landlord for going with a solvent tenant?  And it's not as though there's no lack of interest in supermarkets locating in town, including at the long-delayed Armonk Square project.  Maybe the imminent departure of A&P will light a fire under the powers at be in town to see the project through to fruition.

i dont see why they are making a huge deal about it there is a large stop & shop near by and in Mount Kisco they have a large a&p and a shop rite also i worked at this A&P for a year and so much stuff went on with the employes from sexual harassment to stealing to making threats and these employes get away with it too.  im glad i don't work there anymore and im happy that its getting shutdown half of the people who work there don't deserve to work at all.

also i got my car keyed by a employe there cause i made a comment about her eating a stick of butter 

[retailisking]

The last I saw Best Yet as a store brand was with the remaining Grand Union locations in New York several years back and I'm sure at this point they've converted to the typical Topco assortment. All of this screams of being a stop-gap with ShopRite taking over most of the locations in due time.

Best Yet is C&S's house brand, so I would assume it's still be used at Grand Union.  As for Fresh & Green's, I tend to agree with Metzger in that they might not get a second chance to make a first impression and will fold their tent quite quickly.  ShopRite is the obvious successor, and if the Shoppers launch is successful don't count them out, either.

[Scrabbleship]

The last I saw Best Yet as a store brand was with the remaining Grand Union locations in New York several years back and I'm sure at this point they've converted to the typical Topco assortment. All of this screams of being a stop-gap with ShopRite taking over most of the locations in due time.

Best Yet is C&S's house brand, so I would assume it's still be used at Grand Union.  As for Fresh & Green's, I tend to agree with Metzger in that they might not get a second chance to make a first impression and will fold their tent quite quickly.  ShopRite is the obvious successor, and if the Shoppers launch is successful don't count them out, either.

Don't a ton of the C&S-heavy stores dip from both? I know Johnnie's Foodmaster in the Boston suburbs does for one.

I see ShopRite getting all but the Baltimore stores & Spring Valley. Outside of a UFCW fit, I can't see why Harris Teeter wouldn't want them.

[retailisking]

C&S is a Topco member-owner, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Topco-family merchandise at stores supplied by them.  Price Chopper (another member-owner) sells Topco's Full Circle organic line and I remember seeing Topco stuff at Victory in Derry, NH prior to the Hannaford takeover.  Johnnie's Foodmaster indeed sells Best Yet food products and Top Care HBA products.

[RoleModel]

C&S is a Topco member-owner, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Topco-family merchandise at stores supplied by them.  Price Chopper (another member-owner) sells Topco's Full Circle organic line and I remember seeing Topco stuff at Victory in Derry, NH prior to the Hannaford takeover.  Johnnie's Foodmaster indeed sells Best Yet food products and Top Care HBA products.

Best Yet Markets, a small chain on Long Island, sells (quite obviously) the Best Yet store brand and Full Circle as well.

[Scrabbleship]

 Johnnie's Foodmaster indeed sells Best Yet food products and Top Care HBA products.

I also remember seeing a ton of Topco's ValuTime products at Foodmaster too, a ton more than the other Topco chains that use ValuTime which I'm familiar with.

[retailisking]

A&P is losing money at an ever-increasing pace...who knows how a judge will view the supermarket chain's steadily deteriorating financial condition in bankruptcy in going-concern terms...
http://supermarketnews.com/news/ap_monthly_loss_0930/

[retailisking]

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_19220108
   
Our Berkshires: A&P's influence in Great Barrington
Bernard A. Drew, Special to The Eagle
Posted: 10/29/2011 12:15:10 AM EDT
   
Updated: 10/29/2011 08:54:41 AM EDT

Saturday October 29, 2011

GREAT BARRINGTON

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. started out in the hides and leather district of Fulton Street, New York City, a new venture of partners George Huntington Hartford and George Gilman. It took its official name in 1869, and set its eyes on a broader market. A&P advertised in the Pittsfield Sun for Nov. 13, 1872, for agents for its teas imported from China and Japan, for example. By 1880, it had its own-label baking powder and, soon, Eight O'Clock Breakfast Coffee. In 1881 it boasted 100 stores. In 1887 it took in $1 million in sales. By 1929, it had more than 15,000 stores.

I'm spouting this stuff because I have just read Marc Levinson's book "The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America" (2011). If you think Wal-Mart has new ideas about wringing every last cent from its wholesalers, read this.

Hartford's sons John A. (the outgoing promoter and front man) and George I. (the shy and fiscally tight office manager) took the company on its meteoric rise, though they were gone when it made its meteoric plummet. The company specialized initially in small-town mom-and-pops. It never bought real estate, it only rented, according to Levinson, and this caused it to struggle in the transition to suburban shopping centers that came into vogue after World War II.

I can chart Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea in Great Barrington. It opened one of its A&P Economy stores in 1915 at 27 Railroad
St., in the Hubbell Building, sandwiched between Midas Gauthier's hairdressing parlor and George A. Lester's pool room.

Andrew L. Hubbell had built the two-story Italianate commercial structure of French brick in 1897. He was a tenant for a time, then F.W. Wickham's harness business moved in, then A&P. Harry and Shifra Deykin later operated Barrington Furniture there from 1949 to 1963, followed by Berkshire Gas & Equipment. Phyllis and Sherwin Fink's Gatsby's was there from 1975 until just a few years ago.

At about the same time, an A&P franchise opened in the three-story brick Harvey F. Shufelt Block in Housatonic village, at the corner near the underpass. That A&P closed in the early 1940s. Pleasant Street Market was a later fixture in the same building and the DelGrande market is there now. By the 1930s, A&P had a store in Stockbridge, where Joseph A. Vincent managed the meat department.

"Fancy Fresh Killed Christmas Turkeys" were 48 cents a pound, the stores advertised in 1927, a "Sensationally Low Price."

The chain had an impact on mom-and-pop competitors. Besides siphoning trade, it took away employees. C.C. McAuliffe, "15 years employed at Garfield's market, has completed his duties there and tomorrow will take a position in the A&P market on Main Street," in Great Barrington the Springfield Republican said June 17, 1929. The store was then in the Whiting Block, one time home to Paul's Restaurant and Village Hardware, today home to Tom's Toys.

A&P gave Clifford C. Yunker a 25-year plaque in 1960 for his service with the firm. At that time he was manager of the Great Barrington store. Yunker had started out as a grocery clerk in the Canaan A&P and moved to Great Barrington when the store was in the Main Street storefront. He became manager in 1938, and took over responsibility for the A&P in Sheffield until it closed, when he returned to Great Barrington.

The Great Barrington store moved in 1940 to the former Harper's Garage at the corner of Bridge and Main streets, which was rebuilt with 7,879 square feet of commercial space. Managers were John Wood, groceries; Albert Kolvusz, meat; Edwin Loomis, produce; and Paul Kowalski, fish. Self-service, with basket carriages, was the latest thing. Wheaties sold an 8-ounce package for 10 cents; Carnation evaporated milk, 7 cents; B&M beans, 28-ounce can, 13 cents; tender cooked ham, 25 cents a pound.

A&P in 1949 considered buying property on Main Street, where Berkshire Bank is today, for a store site. Instead it did a $50,000 remodel on its existing space in 1954 and purchased adjacent land from Wheeler & Taylor, the site of the Old Stone Store, for a parking lot that held 105 cars. The remodeled store had a track system to shuttle customers' groceries outside. The shopper could pull her car up to the building and the grocery bags were loaded in.

The store was remodeled again in 1962. But the site was inadequate to meet competition. In 1972, A&P was anxious to move to the new Plaza shopping center north of town but was beaten out by Shopwell. So A&P looked at another Stockbridge Road tract, behind today's Mavis Tire, as a possible site for a shopping center. The chain decided there wouldn't be enough business to justify the venture. The store closed in June 1975.

Wheeler & Taylor bought the downtown A&P building in 1976 then sold it to Pittsfield Cooperative Bank, which put up a new branch office.

I never went to this A&P. The Co-op Bank, though, is a regular stop. Wish they would give out Plaid Stamps.

Bernard A. Drew is a regular Eagle contributor.

[nysw3636]

From a couple of employees of A&P I know, " We're hearing Kroger is interested"!!! Not trying to start a rumor, just relaying what they said.

[retailisking]

I heard Kroger rumors about Shaw's, too, and we know where that talk ended up...anyway, I don't think Kroger is a fan of buying fixer-uppers; they acquire market leaders or buy units in markets where they already operate.

[Scrabbleship]

From a couple of employees of A&P I know, " We're hearing Kroger is interested"!!! Not trying to start a rumor, just relaying what they said.

If Kroger was interested, leaving Baltimore (and nominally DC) may have been slightly foolish.

Yes, Kroger usually doesn't buy fixer-uppers, however the allure of being in New York and Philly may outweigh the fixer-upper nature. The Northeast is a huge hole for Kroger, why wouldn't they want to be a player in the #1 market?

[jamesway_95]

It's really kind of sad, what has happened to A&P over the years. The one in my hometown closed not that long ago.

[RoleModel]

Well, uh, apparently A&P is planning to exit bankruptcy:

http://blogs.wsj.com/privateequity/2011/11/03/yucaipa-keeps-ap-in-its-grocery-basket/

Huh.

[AmesNewington]

Well, uh, apparently A&P is planning to exit bankruptcy:

http://blogs.wsj.com/privateequity/2011/11/03/yucaipa-keeps-ap-in-its-grocery-basket/

Huh.

That's beyond surprising. I thought they continued to lose money. After they closed some of their great locations that made them money, like West Hartford and Branford, CT, it's a shame it is too late to bring them back. They decreased their presence way too much since last year. They will need to continue to maintain themselves beyond next year and become a competitor once again or it won't mean much.

[retailisking]

If Kroger was interested, leaving Baltimore (and nominally DC) may have been slightly foolish.

Yes, Kroger usually doesn't buy fixer-uppers, however the allure of being in New York and Philly may outweigh the fixer-upper nature. The Northeast is a huge hole for Kroger, why wouldn't they want to be a player in the #1 market?

Because Kroger likes to be #1 or a strong #2 in their markets.  In Philly A&P has fallen to #3 (and presumably continues to fall) behind Giant/Carlisle, which will continue to grow after Safeway (Genuardi's) exits.  Don't know what their market share is in New York, but I would suspect that whatever position they're in is under siege with two very strong competitors in Stop & Shop and ShopRite.

[retailisking]

The future of the flooded-out A&P Fresh Market is up in the air; they poured millions of dollars into a renovation just last year after a previous flood...at least one commenter says that this store will not reopen.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20111104/NJNEWS/311040022/Pequannock-waits-on-A-P-s-decision-to-reopen-in-shopping-center-after-latest-flood

[retailisking]

A&P would emerge as a privately-owned company next year if its reorganization plan is approved.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-14/a-p-files-bankruptcy-exit-plan-based-on-yucaipa-goldman-sachs-financing.html

Meanwhile, negotiations with the union have taken an ugly turn.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Contract_talks_deteriorate_as_grocery_chain_bankruptcy_filing_nears.html

Is Burkle planning a reprise of Grand Union's liquidation?

http://supermarketnews.com/retail_financial/burkle_anp_value_1114/

[Scrabbleship]

Because Kroger likes to be #1 or a strong #2 in their markets.  In Philly A&P has fallen to #3 (and presumably continues to fall) behind Giant/Carlisle, which will continue to grow after Safeway (Genuardi's) exits.  Don't know what their market share is in New York, but I would suspect that whatever position they're in is under siege with two very strong competitors in Stop & Shop and ShopRite.

If Giant-Carlisle has rebounded that much to be #3 without anything in New Jersey or Delaware and nearly nothing in Philly proper, that'd make the Superfresh/Pathmark combo a good #4. I'd assume that Acme and ShopRite are #1/#2 with not much of a gap.

[retailisking]

I'm conflating market shares of the eight-county Greater Philadelphia market with the fifteen-county Delaware Valley, which obviously skews market shares due to differing penetration of the various chains.  ACME maintains a small lead over ShopRite in Greater Philadelphia, while the rankings are reversed in the Del Val.  I agree that A&P would be #4 under these scenarios.