Shaws

Shaws in Sturbridge, MA in the autumn

JJBers from Willimantic, Connecticut, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 With Grand Unions portfolio down to a handful, their one store outside New York is in Rutland, VT. It could be next to go, and it would most likely go to Shaws so it could stay union, as I pointed out in a previous post. Across Lake Champlain is a bigger challenge, with a closed store in Warrensburg and a remaining one in Peru close to Plattsburgh, Burlington, and the border. Shaws could start to expand a little west of New England. Albertsons are no stranger to New York, having owned Save-a-Lot and Acme, still in the Tri-State, but otherwise left Upstate decades ago, while Supervalu had been here themselves as well as with Shop 'n Save in WNY and the chains acquired through the merger with Albertsons. I've gone to Jewel-Osco and Dominicks in Chicago, Star Market in Boston, and Shoppers near Washington. Here are where Shaws could go (*still Grand Union for now):

Peru - US 9*; former Tops

Rutland - US 4*; former Tops

Albany - NY 5; former Price Chopper; Westgate Shopping Ctr

Warrensburg - US 9; former Tops and Grand Union (pictured below)

Troy (Lansingburgh) - US 4; former Price Chopper

Slingerlands - NY 85; former ShopRite

AI of future Warrensburg Shaws

The Return of Rite Aid

 

Former Canastota store with logo added

    Just when you thought Rite Aid were dead and gone, it turns out they are an online-only entity, now under new management. I got a tip on Facebook, and they now will fill prescriptions virtually, and provide health-care information. Instead of new stores, they have partnered with over two-thousand labs across the country. However, the site is hard to manoeuvre and I can only get jab labs in Scranton, PA, where the original chain began as Thrift D Drugs. I did see Quest Diagnostics, however; my closest one of which is near where Rite Aid used to be blocks from home, but at Quests old location a mile away, they couldn't accommodate my particular needs, so I go to a competitor for that instead. As for scripts, Rite Aid said you could look for your old one from a couple years ago if it wasn't binned, or just ring your new chemist to transfer it  once Rite Aid are set up to be a ghost pharmacy, if you like, competing with Amazon, Express Scripts, and Rex MD. While it can be convenient for both busy people and those who can't get out too much or at all, the post is not always convenient or safe, and it's just part of a growing trend of shifting business online. Rite Aid scripts were eventually acquired by nearby area  Walgreens, CVS/pharmacy (if not through Target), or indies, while customers could simply choose to move them to another chain, online, or a local pharmacy in their area. These competitors would have signs saying they welcome Rite Aid customers either way so they have a new place to pick up meds.
    By the time Rite Aid enter their sixty-fifth year this fall, everything should be in place. Like other shuttered chains that came back as e-tailers like Wards, it's just not the Rite Aid that we grew up with.

UFCW Local One

The now-closed Grand Union in Freedom Plaza in Rome

FotoPhest, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (my username there)

    Business closings and labor disputes continue to make the news in this uncertain economy. I've covered the new decline of Grand Union, and now I can count the number of stores on just one hand. ShopRites second exit from the Capital Region a few years back led to Market 32 buying four out of five of those stores. The bigger challenge is finding replacements for Grand Union in other parts of the state since they already left the immediate Albany area a generation ago, with rural locations going to Tops, and a few switching back after the merger with Price Chopper. What's more elusive is getting a chain or two that are affiliated with UFCW. For much of Upstate, UFCW Local One, based in Oriskany out in the Mohawk Valley, are the regional bureau. ShopRite, Tops, Stop & Shop, indie Chanatrys in Utica, P&C (when I was there and with the two left now) and Grand Union (the name refers to the country) are union shops. Some of them have past and present sister chains that are not union, like Price Chopper/ Market 32. To think the Capital District of all places no longer has one that is. Trader Joes employees started their own, but it's been more uphill for them. If Grand Union in Rutland, VT were next to leave, Shaws could get it since it's a smaller state, as I pointed out earlier. Shaws don't operate west of New England, however, but maybe they could expand, and it could be a future post since Albertsons were never in New York themselves, yet were part of Supervalu, which used to own Save-a-Lot and had a store in Voorheesville in rural Albany County in the '80s.

    In some small towns, it may be easier for a non-union chain like ALDI or Weis to take over the vacancy. It's hard enough to get anyone to do so, since they can sit empty for even decades. UFCW members should be able to have their benefits protected since not everyone can move when they want to stay in their field and they get their cards (I prefer that term to pink slip).