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.