Price Chopper

Price Chopper is a chain of supermarkets operating in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, operated by the Golub Corporation. Headquartered in Schenectady, New York, it owns the chains Market 32 and Price Chopper Supermarkets. The company opened its first supermarkets in New York's Capital District in 1932, and changed its name from Central Market to Price Chopper in 1973. On June 2, 2010 Price Chopper dedicated its new headquarters, on Nott Street, in Downtown Schenectady. They operate 131 locations as of 2023. 
== History ==
=== Early Years(1927-1979) ===
In 1927, William Golub and his brother, Bernard, took over the wholesale grocery that their father, Lewis Golub, had opened in 1908 after emigrating from Russia. In 1932, Joseph E. Grosberg, together with Russian Jewish immigrants Bernard and William Golub, partners in the Grosberg-Golub Corporation, opened their first supermarket (initially called Public Service Market) in Green Island, New York, followed by stores in Watervliet and Schenectady. They gave all three stores the name Central Market. The concept was a success and they continued to open many more stores in the region. In 1943, the Golub brothers bought out Joseph Grosberg's share of the company and formed the present parent company, the Golub Corporation. In 1951, they were one of the first grocery chains in the country to issue the well-known S&H Green Trading Stamps.
thumb|220x220px|A smaller Price Chopper in Lake George, New York.
In the fall of 1973, Central Market changed its operating strategy. The chain dropped Green Stamps, slashed prices, and to reflect this new strategy re-branded to the name "Price Chopper" (The name "Central Market" is now used as their upscale house brand, as well as for the floral departments). Price Chopper experienced continuing growth throughout the 1970s, opening new stores and upgrading old ones.
=== Store Modernization and Expansion(1980-1989) ===
Price Chopper was an early innovator in the conversion of conventional stores to superstores and combination (food and drug) units, as well as operating stores that are open 24 hours a day. The first stores of this type opened in the late 1970s in Oneonta, NY followed by another in the early 1980s in Latham, New York, and then an even larger unit constructed in Queensbury, in 1986. The Super Centers, which were state of the art by 1980s standards, often featured full-service meat, seafood, and bakery departments, as well as pharmacies and banks (features new to supermarkets at the time). These units were also known for their unconventional layouts with aisles facing horizontally, or away from the cash registers, rather than the traditional vertical arrangement with the aisles facing the cash register area. This layout is generally nonexistent today.
thumb|220x220px|A Price Chopper in Norwich, New York.
In the late 1980s Price Chopper changed its corporate logo from an ax chopping into a Liberty Dollar to a generic coin after criticism from women's groups, accusing Price Chopper of promoting violence against women due to the ax being embedded in Lady Liberty’s skull.
=== Expansion into New England(1990-2008) ===
Prior to 1990, Price Chopper was barely a player in the New England market, with only about a half dozen outlets in Massachusetts and Vermont; they acquired the now-defunct Giant Value supermarket chain during the late 1970s, which accounted for most of their New England locations at the time. However, beginning in the early 1990s, the chain began an aggressive expansion eastward into the New England region, primarily focusing on further growth in Vermont and Massachusetts. Today the chain operates about 40 stores throughout four of the New England states.
In 1990, Price Chopper acquired many stores in Vermont from Syracuse-based P&C Food Markets, whom the FTC was requiring to sell off several stores at the time because of its parent company's decision to increase its ownership stake in Grand Union. Throughout the 1990s, Price Chopper made an attempt to either modernize, expand, or construct replacement stores for many of the acquired P&C locations. Today, Price Chopper has a presence in most of Vermont's larger cities and towns.
In 1995, Price Chopper acquired the Wonder Market Companies' twelve Big D stores in the Worcester, Massachusetts area, rebranding them or replacing them with Price Chopper stores. In 2012, Price Chopper expanded its presence in this region by opening two new stores, in Hopkinton and Gardner. In addition to its store base in Central Massachusetts, Price Chopper also has three stores in the Berkshires, but there are no stores in the greater Springfield area or other towns in the Pioneer Valley, despite being located between these two regions.
In 1999, Price Chopper opened its first New Hampshire store in West Lebanon, and in 2006, its second location—a 74,000-square-foot (6,900 m2) Market Center—in Keene. A third location, in Lebanon in a former P&C Foods store, opened in 2009. Price Chopper opened its fourth New Hampshire store, also a former P&C Foods, in Lincoln in May 2010, expanding its footprint to the White Mountains.
In the last decade, Price Chopper has also expanded rapidly into Connecticut (primarily in the Hartford suburbs) where it now operates ten stores. During the grand opening of Windsor store #221, Price Chopper raised the most money they had ever had for their non-profit organization. In 2010, Price Chopper opened a store in Middletown. Another location opened in Storrs, near the main campus of UConn, on June 6, 2014.
In 2002, Price Chopper exited the convenience store business by leasing out its remaining convenience locations to Petroleum Marketing, a Getty operator. Price Chopper had attempted to enter the convenience store business during the 1980s by opening smaller stores with gas (and sometimes without to utilize older smaller storefronts where a larger store was not possible) under the "Mini Chopper" trade name, but was largely unsuccessful.
In June 2009, Price Chopper established a three-year partnership with Sunoco for their Fuel Advantage program, where customers earned 10 cents off every gallon of gas for every 100 dollars spent on groceries (formerly 50 dollars until the first renewal in 2012); the partnership was renewed in May 2012 for another three years, and again in 2015.
=== Growing greener, Market Bistro, and Market 32(2009-2019) ===
thumb|220x220px|The Price Chopper in the Colonie Plaza, in Colonie, New York.
With the opening of its newest store located in Colonie Plaza in Colonie, New York on June 2, 2009, Price Chopper has made investments to incorporate various green and energy-saving initiatives throughout the store. Green features include a 400 kW United Technologies Corp. natural gas fuel cell which provides a significant amount of power (60% as quoted by Price Chopper) for the store. Abundant skylighting and an addressable lighting control system from Encelium Technologies both allow the store to dim its lighting when enough daylight is present. Occupancy sensors covering nearly the entire layout of the store including all offices, backrooms, and loading docks ensure the lights are automatically switched off or significantly dimmed when vacant for a certain period of time. Even aisle ways and other areas of the main sales floor are dimmed unless that aisle or section is occupied.
thumb|220x220px|The Price Chopper in Latham, New York, currently branded as a Market Bistro.
In March 2014, after over 15 months of renovations, Price Chopper completed its remodel of its 25-year-old Latham, New York store and rebranded the store as Market Bistro, featuring an expanded food court featuring hamburgers, a Ben & Bill's, stone-fired pizza, an ice cream shop, Chef's Grill, as well as an expanded 24-hour drive through pharmacy, an on-site clinic, and a cooking school.
On November 11, 2014, CEO Jerry Golub, along with Executive Chairman of the Board Neil Golub and the company's COO Scott Grimmett, announced that the chain would be changing its name to Market 32, a nod to the year of the company's founding (1932) by brothers Ben and Bill Golub. Jerry Golub stated that the name change reflects Price Chopper's continuing advancement in the industry, and reflects that the company is more of an upscale grocer and less of a discount retailer as the name Price Chopper suggests. Changes to branding, product labels, loyalty cards, company uniforms, as well as store modernizations, are to be rolled out over the coming months and years at a cost of more than $300 million. More than half of the company's 135 stores will be remodeled and rebranded within 5 years, by 2019. The entire process may take up to 9 years. At least one-third of the $300 million is to be invested in stores in the NY Capital Region.
thumb|220x220px|A Market32 location in East Greenbush, New York, originally a Price Chopper.
On June 17, 2015, Price Chopper announced that they will be phasing out the sale of tobacco products in all 135 of its Price Chopper and Market 32 stores, joining competitors ShopRite, Wegmans, and CVS/pharmacy.
=== 2020s ===
On February 8, 2021, Price Chopper Supermarkets/Market 32 and Tops Markets announced plans to merge. The new parent company will be headquartered in Schenectady, New York. The Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets businesses will retain main offices in Schenectady and Williamsville and will continue to be managed locally by their respective leaders. The merger was completed November 8, 2021 and the combined company is called Northeast Grocery. In November of 2023, Price Chopper Supermarkets/Market 32 bought the five former Shoprite locations in the Capital Region and is converting 2 locations to Market 32's (East Greenbush and Niskayuna), planned on moving the Albany (Central Ave) and Colonie locations to the former Shoprite locations in their respective cities and convert them to Market 32. They subleased the other Shoprite (Slingerlands). In March of 2024 Price Chopper Supermarkets/Market 32 announced they would be closing the Clay and Scranton locations on April 19, 2024 due to low demand.
=== Locations ===
Price Chopper operates 131 stores in Upstate New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Its locations are all serviced from the same warehouse in Rotterdam, New York. Price Chopper's primary market is still the Capital District of New York, where about one-third of its store base is located. Other major markets for Price Chopper include Utica, Syracuse, Binghamton, and the Mid-Hudson Valley in New York, as well as Throop (Scranton) and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Hartford, Connecticut; Worcester, Massachusetts; and Burlington, Vermont. Price Chopper primarily competes with Hannaford, Shaw's, and Stop & Shop in the eastern portion of its trading area, while facing competition from Wegmans, and Tops Markets(under change from Penn Traffic storefronts) in the west, and ShopRite and Stop & Shop in the south.
The former Waterbury, Connecticut location closed in June 2008 and the location was purchased by rival chain ShopRite. This marked a step back for the Price Chopper chain in a highly-competitive area where another chain grocery store, Shaw's of Waterbury, also closed in September 2007 as part of that chain's exit from the state. All of Price Chopper's remaining stores in Connecticut have so far been successful despite being a relatively-new name to the region.
On November 7, 2006 it was announced that Price Chopper may buy the Buffalo, New York based Tops Supermarket chain from Ahold USA or a significant amount of their stores. This never happened, although in 2010, Price Chopper instead would purchase six stores from Tops that used to be P&C Foods.
=== Ben and Bill's ===
In late 2005, renovations on the eight-year-old Slingerlands store (#159) began. Plans for the renovation included the opening of a New York-style sandwich shop named "Ben and Bill's" after the founders of the company. The Sandwich Shop sells a variety of pre-packaged products, such as typical New York City pastries, along with sandwiches and deli items. It stands next to the store's regular deli and is themed to look like a traditional New York City delicatessen. The sandwich shop was a huge success at the Slingerlands store and has since been rolled out to four locations. The second Ben and Bill's opened in July 2008 in the Saratoga Springs (#158) store, a third location opened in September 2009 in Burlington, Vermont's (#165) store. In March 2014, a fourth location opened in Price Chopper's flagship store, the newly remodeled and rebranded Market Bistro (#138) store in Latham New York.
== Slogans ==
* "You know you're doing better." (1980s)
* "We're not just in your neighborhood, we're your neighbor." (1985; 2010)
* "We Do More" (1980s; early 2000s)
* "Sharing more than a store." (1980s–1990s)
* "For people who love food." (1997–2000)
* "For people who love food... and savings!" (2000–2001)
* "We Know Meat!" (2000–present)
* "For people who love food... and low prices!" (2002)
* "Not cooking tonight... we're grilling tonight!" Summer House of BBQ campaign (2007–2015)
* "Best in Fresh and Low Prices" (2007–2015)
* "That's Price Chopper value."
* "Price Chopper fresher ways to save."
== Ownership ==
Currently, 100% of all voting common shares of The Golub Corporation are controlled by a select few members of the Golub family. Golub is one of the leading employers in the Capital District of New York. Former CEO and current Chairman Neil Golub is a well-known philanthropist in the region. Price Chopper's charitable arm, the Golub Foundation, sponsors many special events such as the Empire State Plaza's annual Independence Day celebration in Albany, New York.
== Brands and campaigns ==
Price Chopper has four private label brands: PICS by Price Chopper (main brand being phased in, replacing Price Chopper brand), Price Chopper (main brand used on most food products, being phased out with the transition to Market 32), Price Chopper Naturals (some organic products, being phased out), and Central Market Classics (upscale brand, used on higher-end foods and currently phased out). Other brands are sourced from Topco Associates, including TopCare (health and beauty products), Full Circle (natural and organic products), Valu Time (value-priced brand, often made using cheaper ingredients), and Simply Done (paper products, cleaning products, storage solutions, etc.)
From 2007 to 2015, the company had used a summer campaign to promote its fresh meats and produce, known simply as "Price Chopper House of BBQ." Accompanying this campaign, the company used the slogan "not cooking tonight... we’re grilling tonight" in jingles. The campaign mainly featured jazz musician Melvin Sparks until his death in 2011. For 2016, the House of BBQ was dropped from advertising in favor of a new campaign called "Summertime: Savor Every Moment."
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