Food Club: 80 Years On

Ft Knox tin of Food Club Brand Chefs Blend Coffee from the '50s (saw an even older one on Pinterest)

 Food Club brand used to be sold all over CNY at P&C, Big M, Great American/Victory Markets (an Instagram post from an '80s account taken in Otsego County got me going) and Hometown Markets. I wrote about Topcos arrival in the area in 1993 years before when Penn Traffic retired Commander Foods (which P&C had since the '60s at least if I'm not mistaken). While their other brands remain at Tops, Price Chopper, Grand Union and other chains in limited form, Food Club has been elusive here in recent memory. When Tops took over Penn Traffic in 2010, C&S acquired Big M and brought in Best Yet. As with many generics, some products level up to the brand names, while others not so much (you know how it is). It was founded in 1945 by the end of WWII as the economy was to rebound again.

Food Clubs site only lists Long Islands King Kullen and Weis Markets in the Southern Tier/Twin Tiers (to a lesser extent since they have their own store brands of most staples) as the only chains in the state that carry it today. Non-profit indie Brady Market on Syracuses near west side in the former Nojaim Bros (which carried it in the old days as the last surviving Hometown Market, Nojaims having just closed the Marcellus store and buried two family members) is the last holdout here, although it's likely Piggly Wiggly in Watertown of all places could have it too since the Midwestern locations do (the North Country store used to be P&C, then Tops, and is part of that division via the Great Lakes).

If the non-profit store in Uticas West End Bargain Grocery doesn't have a private label partner, I suppose they could also get a deal. Don't know if Topco will offer Food Club à la carte like with the sister brands. Wegmans discontinued their soft drinks (the seltzer and sparkling water remain), and Food Club could replace them, yet I remember Wegmans WPop ('90s branding) being streets ahead of the other generics (you probably don't get that in Consumer Reports, but sometimes on random websites now). A few Food Club items wound up on the bargain shelf at one Tops store, likely because of common manufacturing facilities. Then it could happen that the current P&C Fresh could carry Food Club since P&C and Grand Union are both in Cortland and have Best Yet (along with a small place in Homer), while Ithaca just has P&C and not the other in generations unless they or Weis buy the former Tops across town. I have less trouble getting the even rarer Hy-Top, which is at Chanatrys in Utica (Bargains only full-sized locally-owned competitor) and Shop 'n Save (that's one for another day).

It would take someone starting their own place and getting all Topco to bring Food Club back to our backyard more often, but it could be down to warehouses/wholesalers. It goes to show how something can be on every corner one day and piecemeal or gone the next. Their social media tries to glamourise their products as a far cry from the austere or even plain text bargain label products of the '70s and '80s. These days, any generics will do as people try to stretch their dollars wherever they can.