Price Chopper holds grand opening festivities for new Market 32s

Stores open in former ShopRite locations in Albany, Colonie, Niskayuna and North Greenbush

COLONIE and ALBANY – Not even falling rain could dampen spirits at the June 14 grand opening celebrations of Price Chopper’s four new Market 32 stores in Colonie, Albany, East Greenbush and Niskayuna.  The newly branded stores are located on the sites of four out of five former ShopRite stores whose leases and fixtures were acquired by Price Chopper/Market 32 in a real estate deal last Fall. The fifth location in Slingerlands and just down the road from the Slingerlands Price Chopper, remains vacant.

At the Colonie store, just a few minutes before 9:30 a.m. and as the ribbon in front of the store’s entrance was cut, Zone Director Dale Norton gave a whoop of “Store 52 Colonie!”.  “The store is proud to be part of the community and serving everyone in it,” Norton said.

Village of Colonie Mayor Jim Rubino and Town of Colonie Supervisor Peter Crummey attended the ribbon cutting ceremony. “I’m thrilled to be here to recognize this building with another champion in our community that is a provider of food and job opportunities,” Crummey said. On opening day, according to a company statement, the four locations will employ 659 full and part-time “teammates”, of which 330 are new hires.

The Colonie ribbon cutting ceremony, complete with three man color guard and the singing of the Star Bangled Banner, was just one of four celebrations taking place all at once for the first time in company history.

Company President Blaine Bringhurst, who Spotlight caught up with at the Albany store on Central Avenue while he traveled among celebrations, said the four grand openings were going “really well.”  He said given the stores’ locations and traffic patterns, he expects the stores will bring more customers to Price Chopper.  The stores’ sizes range between 60,000 and 70,000 square feet.

Bringhurst said while all the stores are there to serve customers, each one is unique.  “Each store serves different bases and clientele,” Bringhurst said. For example, he said the Albany store has more Hispanic, Latino and Asian shoppers than Niskayuna or North Greenbush so it has an expanded Goya section and offers a variety of produce, such as root vegetables that caters to those consumers’ tastes.  He said shoppers in Niskayuna and North Greenbush buy a lot of organic products.

Bringhurst claimed bragging rights that Price Chopper has been serving the Capital District for over 90 years, is local to this area and “provides the best service a consumer can get.”

Albany shopper Milton Gaddy, who has lived in Albany for more than 70 years, said he “had to come to the grand opening.”  “I love grand openings,” he said.  “Everything is fresh, bright, exciting, clean and smells good.  You get the best of the best.  So when I woke up this morning and heard the grand opening announced on the news, I said, ‘let me go on up there.’”

In a June 11 press release, the company said, “The transformed locations represent the completion of the company’s award-winning purchase of the leases and assets of the former Capital Region ShopRite locations..”  However, one location –the former ShopRite in Slingerlands – was left out of the celebration and remains vacant.  Bringhurst said they are still working on it.  When asked by Spotlight whether Price Chopper would be willing to rent the space to another supermarket, Bringhurst said, “we are still working on all the options.”

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