Schenectady, NY-based Price Chopper/Market 32 has agreed to purchase five Albany-area ShopRite stores and gas stations, after parent company Wakefern Food Corp. announced that it would be shuttering those units in October. The reason for the closures: underperformance. The five Capital Region units are owned by Wakefern subsidiary ShopRite Supermarkets (SRS). The stores, located in Albany, Colonie, Niskayuna, Slingerlands and North Greenbush, NY, had all closed by December 9. SRS opened its first store in the region (Niskayuna) in 2011.
In a letter to its suppliers Wakefern said: “When we entered this marketplace, we did so with an intent to provide an exceptional shopping experience to the customers. Today, due to changing market conditions and the influx of food retailers in the area, we are unable to maintain the level of sales needed to keep operating these locations. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to close the stores.”
About six weeks later, Price Chopper/Market 32, the supermarket share of market leader in the region, stepped up and announced that it had acquired the leases, store equipment and fixtures for all the closed locations. The stores that eventually reopen will be branded as Market 32 units, the company’s upscale format. They will not continue to operate gas stations.
The regional chain, which is owned by Northeast Grocers, Inc (which also operates Tops Markets), said it is still evaluating all its options, and confirmed that it plans to convert the current ShopRite stores in Niskayuna and North Greenbush into Market 32s. The Slingerlands location, which sits directly across the street from an existing Market 32, will be marketed for sublease. As for the Albany and Colonie locations, which are not too far from other existing Market 32 units, discussions with those landlords are continuing at presstime. The retailer said that all current associates will be prioritized in staffing whichever of the locations are ultimately occupied.
“Our Market 32 brand has been extremely well received, and this gives us an excellent opportunity to expand our footprint in the Capital Region, provide our customers with the shopping experience they are looking for and our teammates with career growth opportunities right here in our hometown,” noted Blaine Bringhurst, president of Price Chopper which was founded by the Golub family in 1932 “Price Chopper/Market 32 is excited at the prospect of growing scale right here in New York’s Capital Region, where we’ve been serving customers for more than 90 years. We have always been and will remain an employer of choice for our valued teammates. We are here to stay and will continue to invest in modernizing our stores, providing opportunities to our workforce, delivering an exceptional shopping experience to our customers, and supporting the community around us.”
Currently, Price Chopper/Market 32 operates 130 Price Chopper and Market 32 grocery stores and one Market Bistro, employing 18,000 associates in New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.