Price Chopper/Market 32

[gu4ever]

Originally posted by TRJ22487


August 28th, 2009
Sorry about the night shot
This ancient Price Chopper is in Windsor, Vermont.
Look at how tiny it is!
Yes, the whole store is in the picture
An equally sized Family Dollar is the other anchor

That used to be a Grand Union!! :bigsmile:
I haven't been to this part of Vermont, but this location is on my list to visit. Thanks TRJ22487 for adding this photo, I can't wait to see this store in person now!!

[TRJ22487]

I knew that's what it used to be!
Well I didn't KNOW, but I was pretty sure
The reason?
The lighting situation. I bet they use the same lights
I figured the logo would have to be something that filled four lights
Therefore, I thought Grand Union.
Though the building looked more like an IGA would to me

[gu4ever]

Originally posted by TRJ22487
I knew that's what it used to be!
Well I didn't KNOW, but I was pretty sure
The reason?
The lighting situation. I bet they use the same lights
I figured the logo would have to be something that filled four lights
Therefore, I thought Grand Union.
Though the building looked more like an IGA would to me

[david121]

I miss Price Chopper. I'm currently in DC, and I went back to the one I worked at and it was pretty intresting to see how it has changed. Not too much, everyone is still working there, etc... good times. Makes me a bit sad too, since I dunno, it's funny when I go back home I get home sick.

[Marc82]

Originally posted by david121
I miss Price Chopper.

Not me, bro. Since I got fired from the company in March 2008 the store I used to work at in Southington, Connecticut has gotten worse and worse.

One of my friends still works there as a cart boy. He tells me one of the new rules they came up with. "It must be 85 degrees out to wear shorts." When he said that to me I was like "Is Kim (his supervisor) gonna stand outside with a thermometer and make sure its 85? Another new rule "Employees are not allowed to play with the prize machine on their break or their lunch." And they got rid of the prize machines. He got written up for "coming back from his lunch break 5 mins early."

[david121]

Ouch! I'm sorry to hear that you've gotten fired and the rules have gotten crazy there... I don't know how they got at the store where I worked at, but the store looked a little different. Been a few years since I quit and lived in the area for an extended period of time.

[Marc82]

PC is opening a 60,000 Square Foot Store in the former Shoprite on Washington Street in Middletown. This replaces plans to build one in Durham which was shot down by the Durham PZC. The store is expected to hire 200 workers, be open 24/7, and open in June.

http://middletownpress.com/articles/2010/01/13/news/doc4b4d4060add45224510444.txt

[BillyGr]

does any one know what the diffants between a super price choper and regular one

At one time (probably 1980's), they started using Super (or Supercenter) to designate their then-new and larger stores, offering more service departments and larger assortments.  Of course, the couple original ones of those that come to mind (Latham and Colonie) have both been replaced by the even larger Price Chopper Market Centers, so the term Super probably doesn't mean much anymore. 

I'd guess the ones that just have the Price Chopper without a qualifier (Super,Market center etc.) tend to be either the older stores (like those in city areas - a couple in Albany, Menands, Watervliet come to mind here) or other smaller stores that they've inherited (like the Windsor VT one in this post appears to be, or a couple other Grand Unions here in Chatham or Loudonville NY as additional examples).

[retailisking]

Here's the new Price Chopper in Lincoln, New Hampshire that used to be a Grand Union and P&C.  Price Chopper bought this P&C from Tops.

[gu4ever]

Nice pictures of the newly opened price chopper store, 24-hour shopping now available to that community.

[retailisking]

Price Chopper isn't ruling out buying bankrupt A&P's locations in the Hudson Valley.

http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/blog/2010/12/ap-bankruptcy-could-fuel-pc-growth.html

[john9231]

I love it, it's reasonable clean place to shop with an nice selection of food to choose. I would shop at Price Chopper, Food Basic and No Frills (I shop at No Frills the most, since it's pretty cheap!) nanny background check

[retailisking]

Interesting video interview with Neil Golub, Chairman and CEO of Price Chopper
http://industrytalk.progressivegrocer.com/neil-golub-chairman-and-ceo-price-chopper-supermarkets-part-1-of-2
http://industrytalk.progressivegrocer.com/neil-golub-chairman-and-ceo-price-chopper-supermarkets-part-2-of-2

[ynkeesfn82]

Now I'm not 'bout to start spreading rumors just because I work down the street at the Drust Family Shoprite, but I hear that The Queen Street Price Chopper in Southington, CT is going to close. I heard from two different vendors - one from Lays Potato Chips and one from Utz Potato Chips that Price Chopper is ordering less and less product. These guys deliver to all 4 supermarkets in Southington - the 3 major stores on Route 10 - Shoprite, Price Chopper, and Stop & Shop plus the 2 independent IGA Stores - Gnazzo's on Route 10 in Plainville and Tops on the corner of 322 & South End Road in the Plantsville section of Southington.

The Price Chopper building is a very large building at more than 95,000 Square Feet. No doubt the building is going to end up being divided up when a new tenant moves in. The building was originally built as KMART in 1973. A few years ago there were rumors Whole Foods wanted to open in Southington. I don't know if that is still the case or not. They can take over part of the building. Woman want a Christmas Tree Shop. A Whole Foods and a Christmas Tree Shop can share the building and there'd still be room for UPS to remain open. (UPS rents a small corner of Price Chopper. They have an outside entrance and an entrance from PC).

[AmesNewington]

What gives indication that they are closing, based on two potato chip vendors telling you they are delivering less product to the store? Did they slip out any confidential information from the company that they are closing? What does this mean for their other CT stores like Bristol, Newington, etc? It's sad. They started out pretty well. My family went all the way to Southington to shop when it opened. I suppose ShopRite has blown away the competition. You either have to be Stop and Shop, ShopRite, or an IGA/local store to survive around here. Anyone in between is pushed out.

I wish Kmart/Sears was in better financial standing. They need more CT Kmart locations and it would be interesting to see them take their old spot in Southington again. I can't see Whole Foods in there for some reason.

[ynkeesfn82]

Update on the rumor about Southington closing. I heard they are struggling to pay their rent.

[retailisking]

This individual store may be cash flow negative (I can easily see this being the case given the amount of sales volume needed to keep a 95,000 square foot store above water) but is it enough of a drain that the Golub Corporation is having trouble ponying up the monthly lease payments?  I have a hard time believing this.

[Scrabbleship]

This individual store may be cash flow negative (I can easily see this being the case given the amount of sales volume needed to keep a 95,000 square foot store above water) but is it enough of a drain that the Golub Corporation is having trouble ponying up the monthly lease payments?  I have a hard time believing this.

One of the great complaints people have about Price Chopper is that the chain isn't properly capitalized. If things get worse, who would want to buy them or enter some merger agreement? Given the geographic area, it's a pretty big pill to swallow.

[AmesNewington]

In my opinion, Price Chopper seems to be "all over the place", meaning they don't seem to know how to manage themselves. Their ads are very "busy" and are hard to read. Their locations also seem to be inconsistent with each other. Many are poorly managed and not many have had a remodel since they opened.

[BillyGr]

They do certainly have a variety of stores, both from some of them having existed for a long time and from purchasing others.

They seem to do things other chains don't (which may be easier being family owned, rather than a "public" company part of a large group). 
They have managed to keep quite a few older stores where they are both a benefit and hard (or impossible) to replace - especially in the Albany area (Delaware Ave, Madison Ave, Menands, Cohoes, Watervliet come to mind) - most of those are in areas without other markets, with a number of people who have limited travel options and in areas with little room to build or expand.

They have also managed to pick up quite a few "smaller" stores from others (like the NH one above, Chatham and Shaker Rd here in NY from GU during bankruptcy and probably others) - they are trying to expand the Chatham one (again, no other store in town) and keep the Shaker one even with several larger stores in close proximity.

They also moved into areas where other stores were closing, especially when those were the only stores in a town.

They are even in the process of building a new 20,000 Square Foot store in downtown Saratoga Springs (as part of an apartment building, and to replace an existing store of similar size), even though they have 2 other stores in 2 sifferent directions no more than 10 minutes away (this was mentioned above in 2008, but is now finally being built).

However, that certainly presents issues for advertising - if you put out a flier in (say) the Saratoga paper, do you only advertise a limited selection (only those items available in both the small city store and the bigger suburban ones) or do you advertise a bigger variety and have people unhappy when they go to the small store doesn't carry it?  The same issue I'm sure already occurs with the Albany stores.

With Southington - it is certainly possible they could close the store - they have done a (very) few of those (not closing due to opening a newer store, just outright closing in a particlar spot) - I can think of the one in South Hills Mall Poughkeepsie (now ShopRite), one south of North Adams on Rt 8 and I believe I remember seeing one in the Syracuse area with no obvious replacement (there may be others - those are the ones I can think of) - others situations (like the East Greenbush, Rensselaer (and there was a third quite small one in the plaza that now has Hannaford also) example above) were simply a combining/replacing of older stores.

One thing that seems a bit surprising is that they have stores in far Western Mass (Pittsfield, Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, N. Adams) and in the Worcester area, but have never pursued filling in the "gap", even when they could have (like with A&P pulling out of the Springfield areas a few years back, where they might have had a couple more "city" stores and also filled in some of the smaller towns?).

[retailisking]

One thing that seems a bit surprising is that they have stores in far Western Mass (Pittsfield, Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, N. Adams) and in the Worcester area, but have never pursued filling in the "gap", even when they could have (like with A&P pulling out of the Springfield areas a few years back, where they might have had a couple more "city" stores and also filled in some of the smaller towns?).

Do you think there's a "gentlemen's agreement" between the Golub and D'Amour (Big Y) families just as there is supposedly such an agreement between the Golub and Wegman families?

[ynkeesfn82]

This individual store may be cash flow negative (I can easily see this being the case given the amount of sales volume needed to keep a 95,000 square foot store above water) but is it enough of a drain that the Golub Corporation is having trouble ponying up the monthly lease payments?  I have a hard time believing this.

The latest I'm hearing now is the store will not be closing. Instead they will be walling off a large section of the store and leasing the space to someone else. How much? Who really knows. What I do know is that the Price Chopper that opened in Middletown a year or two ago is much smaller and I believe is only 60,000 square feet. If they go down to 60,000 square feet there will be 35,000 square feet available - the largest vacant spot on Queen Street. That seems like a good size for a Best Buy or PC Richards. Both would be good for Southington.

[AmesNewington]

Southington started out with too much you would not see in a regular supermarket in Connecticut. I suppose in 2004, they didn't have a problem with 60,000 sq. ft. because they leased part of it to Citizen's Bank, The UPS Store, and Payless Shoes. At the time, they also created many other extra departments like the elaborate kitchen shop they had and the demonstration station in back of the store. They also have a huge sushi department and had a wedding department as well, including a salad bar and buffet in the produce area by their cafe. To add to that, they had a beer room as well. I believe there are 20 registers at the store. Since then, they lost Payless and all the unneccessary departments and replaced them with either random merchandise/sale items, or left large empty spaces. They obviously shrunk their inventory and don't need all that space. The last time I was in that store was 2010, so I don't know what has happened in the past year.

They should remodel the store to make it look full again once they block off a section of it. Glad they are not closing, and it may be an opportunity for another chain on Queen Street.

[silvfx66]

They may end up closing some or all stores in CT if they are not successful  but they have a huge marketshare in the Captial district, they have a good share out towards syracuse and continue to expand into the southern tier of NY and up into the smaller towns of the adirondacks, as was referenced earlier quite often the only store in town.  They havent been around for 75 years without knowing how to run a business, stores close, stores opens, thats how you make money, you are willing to change when it is required.   I worked for them back in the 80's, most stores were modest but then Hannaford began invading their turf, they responded by building new stores and expanding into other locations. Its hard to sell enough stuff to justify a 95K Sft store espeically is the community cannot support such a size.

[BillyGr]

Do you think there's a "gentlemen's agreement" between the Golub and D'Amour (Big Y) families just as there is supposedly such an agreement between the Golub and Wegman families?

Always possible, though there is quite a bit of overlap in the two (Pittsfield/Lenox, North Adams, Great Barrington, Worcester and Spencer MA (plus now Lee with the new Big Y just opening), along with Torrington CT, that I can see.

However, there is a bit of "separation" (for examples, the Pittsfield Big Y is right in town, while the PC's in Pittsfield/Lenox are both on the edges [Lenox is within 1/4 mi of the southern Pittsfield line, while Pittsfield is on the eastern edge almost into Dalton], Great Barrington Big Y is on the south end of town while PC is on the north, N. Adams Big Y is right in town while the PC is to the west on Rt 2 [and the former 2nd location to the south of downtown on Rt 8]) - not sure if that's part of an agreement or just the time of building the various stores.

I do remember reading that the Worcester area stores were an aquired chain, so it may just have been a too good to pass up deal with no plans to connect (though the opportunity would have existed with A&P leaving).

[retailisking]

I do remember reading that the Worcester area stores were an aquired chain, so it may just have been a too good to pass up deal with no plans to connect (though the opportunity would have existed with A&P leaving).

Those are the former Big D stores which were acquired in 1995.  I remember thinking it was weird that PC would have a store in Framingham (which eventually closed.)  At the time Big D had the #1 market share in Worcester; I'm reasonably certain that is no longer the case.
http://subscribers.supermarketnews.com/mag/big_chain_sold/

[silvfx66]

New leadership at PC though its all still in the Golub Family 
http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2011/12/13/neil-golub-steps-down-as-ceo-cousin.html

[retailisking]

Jerry Golub has a lot on his plate; with ShopRite taking dead aim at PC's home territory the Golubs can't take anything for granted.

[Scrabbleship]

Jerry Golub has a lot on his plate; with ShopRite taking dead aim at PC's home territory the Golubs can't take anything for granted.

That and that the Northborough Wegmans might prove the infamous "gentleman's agreement" with them was bunk. I'd assume that they'd try to fill the hole between Syracuse and the Boston suburbs in due time and Wegmans entering Albany would knock Price Chopper down a few badly-needed pegs.

[retailisking]

Wegmans coming to the Capital District would definitively blow the gentleman's agreement urban myth to hell.  Certainly there's a lot of fervor for Wegmans to come there (as well as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods) judging from the comments section of any supermarket-related story in the Times Union.