Price Rite

PriceRite Limited-Assortment Stores Trademark

PriceRite, based in Wethersfield, Connecticut, is a chain of limited-assortment supermarkets found in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. As of October 2012, there were 50 PriceRite supermarkets in the rapidly growing chain, which opened six supermarkets in 2009, and four in 2010. New Jersey-based Wakefern Food Corporation (the cooperative that supplies ShopRite Supermarkets) created PriceRite, and owns, operates, or franchises all PriceRite stores.

Similar to other limited-assortment chains Aldi or Save-A-Lot, PriceRite offers drastically fewer SKUs (stock-keeping units) than its sibling ShopRite stores. PriceRite stores operate on the same principles as their competition; however, they are a bit bigger (averaging 35,000 sq ft (3,300 m²)) and concentrate on offering a larger “fresh food” selection.

This is the PriceRite Grocery Depot in Azusa, California, near Los Angeles

PriceRite also emphasizes the fact that its stores are American-owned, by incorporating the phrase "An American Company" into the PriceRite trademark. This is presumably to highlight the fact that much of PriceRite's competition is owned by European Union-based entities (Aldi is German-owned, Bottom Dollar Food is Belgian-owned, and Food Basics USA is operated by A&P, which is majority-owned by Germany's Tengelmann Group).

Due to the generic nature of the name "PriceRite", and the unfamiliarity with the brand outside the Northeast, Wakefern has also begun distributing PriceRite-branded merchandise, such as health-and-beauty, paper products, and foodstuffs to other retail outlets, such as dollar stores, mom-and-pop pharmacies, and corner stores, and other supermarkets such as Gristedes Operating Corp., which owns Gristedes Supermarkets in New York City. (Gristedes stores are supplied by Wakefern Food Corporation.) Due to Gristedes' partnership with amazon.com, selected PriceRite-branded products also are available for sale on amazon.com.

Because of its cooperative structure, Wakefern has been very careful not to cannibalize sales of its member-owned ShopRite stores by opening PriceRite stores in overlapping trade areas—thus, most PriceRites are in New England or Pennsylvania, outside ShopRite's core regions, though locations of both sister chains can be within miles of each other. Two stores in California are operated under a franchise agreement with Wakefern.

On May 22, 2013, the company opened a PriceRite store in Danbury, Connecticut.

History of PriceRite Limited Assortment Stores

It was 1995 when The Wakefern Food Corporation opened its first limited-assortment concept store in West Springfield, Massachusetts. After failing to successfully enter the warehouse club concept with their PriceRite Warehouse Club (see below), Wakefern assigned the PriceRite name to its newest prototype: a limited-assortment, deep-discount supermarket meant to do battle with the no-frills operators which were successfully spreading across North America (Aldi, Food Basics, Save-a-Lot.)

In the years since the first PriceRite opened, the concept has been tweaked to emphasize the size and freshness of the perishable departments in comparison to its competition. Newer stores, such as the PriceRite of Brockton, MA (at over 40,000 sq ft (4,000 m²)) are also larger than most of the earlier stores. Wakefern has also used the concept as a replacement for under-performing ShopRite stores or in regions where the PriceRite concept was thought to be more successful. As a result, underperforming ShopRite supermarkets in places such as York, Pennsylvania and Wethersfield, Connecticut have been converted to very successful PriceRite stores, keeping jobs and a supermarket in these towns. A PriceRite in Torrington, Connecticut sat as a darkened ShopRite store for almost 10 years before re-opening as a PriceRite.

In 2005, one PriceRite was also opened in Azusa, California, in partnership with K.V.Mart Co., which is an independent supermarket operator in southern California. The Azusa PriceRite store has been branded "PriceRite Grocery Depot". Another PriceRite has since opened in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawaiian Gardens.

On March 30, 2008, the first "PriceRite Marketplace" store was opened in Providence, Rhode Island, at a former Shaw's. This store is 55,000 sq ft (5,100 m²), and features additional departments such as a full deli, seafood department, as well as a Cafe Bustelo-branded cafe in the store. Other non-standard features in the Providence PriceRite include a fresh-roasted peanut stand, and fresh mozzarella cheese made in the store. The Providence store has a large focus on ethnic items, with an entire aisle of Goya products and an aisle of Italian items including fresh pasta and specialty cheeses. These selections reflect that the store is in the Eagle Square shopping center on the western border of Federal Hill.

PriceRite Warehouse Clubs

During the 1980s and early 1990s, many American supermarket chains experimented with opening their own warehouse clubs to compete with the new clubs that were invading their trade areas and stealing their business. SuperValu had Max-Club, Meijer had SourceClub, and H-E-B had its Bodega clubs. Meanwhile, Wakefern began PriceRite. Wakefern defined PriceRite as a “mini-club”, and at under 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m²)., promoted it as a convenient alternative to the massive conventional clubs.

The PriceRite logo is the same as a former ShopRite logo, only instead of the graphic of a shopping carriage with circles inside, there was a flatbed cart with square boxes on it to symbolize the wholesale nature of PriceRite. (This saved costs on new sign-frames for the stores, since they all were previously a ShopRite and already had round sign-frames)

PriceRite MiniClubs were opened in buildings that had previously housed ailing or outdated ShopRite stores and had been simply retrofitted with warehouse-type shelving. Thus, they lacked size, and didn't have enough of a following to attract shoppers away from the true warehouse competition (BJ's Wholesale Club, Pace Warehouse Club, and Price Club), which won over the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas.

Wakefern members operated PriceRite mini-clubs, including those in Rockaway Township and Toms River, New Jersey. The last PriceRite club closed in 1994.

See also

• ShopRite (United States)
• Wakefern Food Corporation

External links

• PriceRite (United States)