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| Former Utica store back in the '60s! |
The merger of Tops and Price Chopper is a done deal, and things will look like they always have except for a dozen stores that have to be spun off. Grand Union will resurface after a decade of dormancy. A number of rural locations around the Catskills and Adirondacks were sold to Tops, while others like Hamilton closed just as Price Chopper opened nearby (it's a small college town). C&S still own the name and will be a franchise, but will run differently than Big M, which has individual deals across Upstate New York and Northeast Pennsylvania in outlying communities such as the Finger Lakes and Twin Tiers. As for Grand Union, some people in CNY think it died out four decades ago, and closer to Albany, two, as Corinth and West Coxsackie are more on the outskirts of the area.
GU Markets, LLC are registered in New Hartford (which is why I chose there to base the article), although there is currently no Tops there (Hannaford took over most of those locations since then), yet there is a Price Chopper that became one of the first with the Market 32 name outside the Capital Region/518 area code and New England. Across Oneida County, the Rome and Sherrill stores will become Grand Union, the first since the early '90s. Even the red dot I grew up with is coming back (not the kind kitty chases!). I went to Grand Union when visiting family in Albany County, then when I was going to school down the Hudson in Dutchess County. Now a new generation will come to know a brand whose legacy dates as far as back as the Victorian age in Lackawanna Valley and celebrates its sesqui-centennial (Price Chopper and Tops have their own milestone anniversaries in 2022). Now when I go to Rome and Cortland in the new year, I'll have to try and eke out a stop to go and see an old friend (the old Cortland store became P&C in 1990), although it means the loss of Tops in these and other smaller towns, while both Tops and Price Chopper remain in counties where they can be far enough apart (although they're both within a mile or two of each other in Clay on NY 31). Meanwhile, Grand Union is just one reboot that almost no one had ever expected.
There could still be more stores opened while staying a small chain compared to the others:
Syracuse (Westvale) - former P&C/Tops, NY 5 (pictured below)
Syracuse (south side) - former P&C/Tops/A&P, Valley Plaza, US 11
Mattydale - former kmart, US 11
Hyde Park - former store, later Amish Market, US 9
Schenectady - former store, later ALDI, NY 5 & 7
Ithaca - former Tops, NY 13/34/96
Troy - former Lansingburgh Price Chopper, US 4
Palatine Bridge - former Ames, NY 5
Cortlandt Manor - US 9*
Binghamton (Nimmonsburg) - former store/Giant (local chain, not Ahold Delhaize one)/Weis, US 11 (would also give UFCW Local #1 an outpost in Broome County)
Binghamton (Southside East) - former Weis/Giant (as of 3/3/24), NY 7
Greene - former BK5 Great American, old NY 12?
Sidney - former BK5 Great American, NY 23
Montague, NJ - NJ 23*
Wayne, NJ - CR 504* (tri-state town had Grand Unions former HQ)
Slingerlands - NY 85*
Albany - NY 5*
Colonie - NY 5*
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| It'd be the first in Syracuse since the early '80s. A real one used to be near here. |
*former ShopRite (last three in NY Capital Region which have closed late 2023 [chain left before in late '80s, which I didn't notice then, being loyal to Grand Union!])
