I Heart Mac & Cheese

 

Fantasy location in Hartford County

I just heard of I Heart Mac & Cheese from a sponsored Facebook post and it looks like a place I can relate to.  A similar place used to be in deWitt.  The closest locations are downstate and in Marion County in the Indiana Capital Region.  Just when you think you've heard it all.

deWitt - former Ruby Tuesdays/Stones, NY 5

Cortland - former Naples Pizza, NY 13

Syracuse (north side) - Destiny USA

Liverpool, COR Plaza, NY 31

Auburn - Fingerlakes Commons, NY 5 & US 20 and Clark St Rd

North Syracuse - former Hofmann Hot Haus/Salt City Dogs, US 11 (below)

New Hartford - Sangertown Square, NY 5 & 5A

Colonie - Colonie Centre, NY 5

Henrietta - former Calios, NY 252

Syracuse (west side) - former Subway, Onondaga Blvd.

Hartford (CT Capital Region) - former Pizza Hut (pictured above)

Syracuse (Fairmount) - former Big Boy/IHOP/Good Buddys Pub, West Genesee St

Needed an image of my own to edit

Kinney Drugs in the Capital Region + 4 in CNY + 1 in WNY + 1 in VT

Syracuse north side location

Kinney Drugs cover roughly a third of Upstate New York, but have yet to enter the Capital Region.  After hearing of the closing of two Walgreens stores in Albany County, and even some CVS ones, it got me thinking.  Kinney are unknown east of the Mohawk Valley, while CVS stores are few and far between until you get through the Finger Lakes.  The Albany paper says that the two that just closed are inner city and it would be inconvenient for seniors, the disabled, those without cars and who rely on CDTA.  The acquisition of many Rite Aids by Walgreens caused some overlapping and less profitable stores to close.  Kinney was formerly a franchise of Rexall, which is still a chain across the St Lawrence in Canada, while the brand is only at Dollar General in the US.  Kinney is the last chain based Upstate after Carls, Fays and Freddys were absorbed by large chains.  Kinney will never go the way of their competitors, staying here in the Northeast. Also threw in Vermont to boot, being the only other state to have Kinney to date.

Albany (downtown) - 17 N Pearl St (NY 32)

Albany (Pine Hills) - US 20 (former CVS as of September 2023)

Albany (NY 5) - 153 Central Ave (former CVS as of January 2023)

Menands - 444 N Broadway (NY 32)

Cohoes - 308 Ontario St (NY 470)

Albany (south end) - S Pearl St (NY 32)

Halfmoon - US 9

Colonie - former Barnes & Noble, Wolf Road

Albany (Beverwyck) - 581 Central Ave (NY 5)

Schenectady - 1044 State St. (NY 5)

Schenectady - 2009 Broadway (former CVS)

Guilderland - Crossgates Mall or Western Ave., US 20 (former CVS or Rite Aid/Goodwill)

Latham - 711 Troy-Schenectady Road (NY 7)

Manlius - former store (NY 92) (nobody touched it since it closed; as it just needs better promotion)

Canastota - former Rite Aid/Walgreens (NY 5 & 13)

Utica - former Rite Aid, Genesee St (former NY 5/8/12)

Syracuse - former Rite Aid/Walgreens (W Onondaga St.)

Pittsford - former Fays/Eckerd/Rite Aid (NY 31)

Burlington, VT - 158 Cherry St (previously Grand Union and Eckerd)

All former Walgreens and/or Rite Aid unless indicated.  Last five are in CNY, WNY, or VT.

Price Chopper - Tops Merger

 

Syracuse east side location

I never expected Price Chopper and Market 32 to join forces with Tops.  While it would bring one chain to an area where the other isn't, in others they can overlap, including Central New York and the North Country.  The other concern is the union as Tops are under UFCW while Price Chopper aren't.  Both chains have points programs for saving money on gas and bus passes (Tops in Syracuse for Centro; Price Chopper in Albany for CDTA).  This could also be a gamechanger for common competitor Wegmans finally coming to the Capital Region if they ever do.  New management may put an end to the Golub and Wegmans families' agreement to not enter each others backyards.

Next year, both chains are supposed to have milestone anniversaries.  Price Chopper (founded as Central Market in 1932 in Schenectady) is thirty years older than Tops, native to Western New York.

Price Chopper stores in Oneida (Tops is down NY 5 in Sherrill), Oswego, and Fulton are former Tops stores.  Tops stores in and around the Adirondacks and Catskills were Grand Union in the past as I've posted here years before.  The Hoosick Falls, Corinth and West Coxsackie stores are some of the closest to Albany.  Down the river in the mid-Hudson Valley, former sister chain Stop and Shop sold some stores to Tops and have customers save on gift cards for four gas chains to save Tops bringing their own across the state (no Tops there or back in Syracuse when I lived down that way).

If in some communities both are too close to one another such as in Watertown, one might close (although are no plans to), so it could go to a competitor like Lidl or ShopRite in the Tri-State as they closed some stores since I moved but they're union as well.

I just hope I'll still be able to save thousands like I have been doing the past several years at Tops and that the bus pass discount will continue for those of use who don't have access to a car.

From the onset, things will still look the same to everyone. Wakeferns sister chains ShopRite and PriceRite operate differently, one union and other other not respectively. Tops and Price Choppers programmes might not be interchangeable and will continue to be managed from their sides of the state as before while the main office will be at the eastern end of the I-90 Thruway corridor.

Destiny USA

 

Carousel entrance

The pandemic has affected malls across the country and Destiny USA (née Carousel Centre) is no exception.  JCPenney, Michaels, and Lord & Taylor have just left and Best Buy are next.  Smaller stores have also closed.  It may be some time before anyone takes a gamble on opening here as more people were shopping online even before last year.  It would be nice to have these come in someday:

von Maur

Bloomingdales (sister to Macys)

Boscovs (in sister mall Sangertown Square in former Sears in New Hartford)

Zara

Ultimate Athletics (even though there's Dicks in the Canyon section)

IKEA (they usually stick to big areas in the US)

Amazon 4-Star (Amazon Fresh was considered, but pulled out)

Altar'd

Åland

California Pizza Kitchen

I Heart Mac & Cheese

Ross Dress for Less (although Burlington are already down cellar)

Shoe Carnival

Long John Silvers

Primark (Irish chains international name that I heard of from the UK)*

Whealthy (healthalicious chain new to the Northeast)*

Newbury Comics (New England chain that I went to in Boston on hols once or twice)*

*Recently opened in or coming soon to sister mall Crossgates Mall on US 20 in Guilderland in Albany County according to ABC 10/Fox 23.  Will go further with each at a later time.

Dedicated to the memory of Robert Congel.