Price Chopper (Northeastern United States)

Golub Corporation
d/b/a Price Chopper Supermarkets, Inc.

File:Price Chopper Logo.png
Company type	Private, Employee-owned
Industry	Retail
Founded	1933 (Schenectady, New York) 1973 (as Price Chopper)
Founder	Ben & Bill Golub
Headquarters	Schenectady, New York
Number of locations	119
Key people	Neil Golub, President & CEO
Products	Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, sushi, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor
Revenue	$3.3 billion USD (2009)
Number of employees	24,000
Website	www.pricechopper.com

For other stores with this name, see Price Chopper.

Price Chopper Supermarkets is a chain of supermarkets headquartered in Schenectady, New York. The chain began operating as Central Markets in Schenectady, New York in 1933 and changed its name to Price Chopper in 1973. It is presently owned by the Golub Corporation and run by Lewis and Neil Golub. On June 2, 2010 Price Chopper dedicated its new headquarters, on Nott Street, in Downtown Schenectady.

History

In 1933, Joseph E. Grosberg, together with Russian Jewish immigrants Bernard and William Golub, partners in the Grosberg-Golub Corporation, opened their first Central Markets in Schenectady, New York. It was a success and they continued to open many more stores in the region. In 1943, the Golub brothers bought out Joseph Grosberg and formed the present parent company, the Golub Corporation. In 1951, they were one of the first grocery chains in the country to issue the well-known S&H Green Trading Stamps.

In the fall of 1973, Central Markets changed their operating strategy. They dropped the Green Stamps, slashed their prices, and to reflect this new strategy changed the stores' name to Price Chopper. (The name Central Market is now used as their upscale house brand, as well as for the floral departments.) Since then Price Chopper has continued to grow, opening new stores and upgrading old ones.

Store Modernization Project (1980s-1990s)

Price Chopper was an early innovator in the conversion of conventional stores to superstores and combination (food and drug) units, as well as operating stores that are open 24 hours a day. The first Price Chopper Super Center opened in the early 1980s in Latham, New York, followed by an even larger unit constructed in Queensbury, in 1986. The Super Centers, which were state of the art by 1980s standards, often featured full-service meat, seafood, and bakery departments, as well as pharmacies and banks (features new to supermarkets at the time). These units were also known for their unconventional layouts with aisles facing horizontally, or away from the cash registers, rather than the traditional vertical arrangement with the aisles facing the cash register area. Very few Price Chopper stores still retain this layout today; examples are the locations in Binghamton, New York and Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

In 1993, Price Chopper launched an updated version of the Super Center format with their South Hills Mall store (#2—store closed on July 15, 2006 and was converted into a ShopRite) in Poughkeepsie, New York when the chain entered the Mid-Hudson Valley. The updated concept had a greater emphasis on take-out/ready meals, some featuring food courts with Price Chopper's own in-house branded concepts, including Roasters (rotisserie), Bella Roma (pizza), Coyote Joe's (tacos), and the Bagel Factory. Under the newer prototype, the aisles were also placed back in the traditional vertical arrangement at the request of many customers finding the former layout quite confusing.

Expansion into New England

Prior to 1990, Price Chopper was barely a player in the New England market, with only about a half dozen outlets in Massachusetts and Vermont; they acquired the now-defunct Giant Value supermarket chain in the late 1970s, which accounted for most of their New England locations at the time. However, beginning in the early 1990s, the chain began an aggressive expansion eastward into the New England region, primarily focusing on further growth in Vermont and Massachusetts. Today the chain operates about 40 stores in this region and continues to grow.

In 1990, Price Chopper acquired many stores in Vermont from Syracuse-based P&C Food Markets. (The FTC was requiring P&C to sell off several stores at the time because of its parent company's decision to increase its ownership stake in Grand Union) Throughout the 1990s, Price Chopper made an attempt to either modernize, expand, or construct replacement stores for many of the acquired P&C locations.

In 1995, Price Chopper acquired The Wonder Market Companies' twelve Big D stores in the Worcester, Massachusetts area, rebranding them or replacing them with Price Chopper stores.

In 1999, Price Chopper opened its first New Hampshire store in West Lebanon, and in 2006, its second location - a 74,000-square-foot (6,900 m²) Market Center - in Keene. A third location, in Lebanon in a former P&C Foods store, opened in 2009. Price Chopper opened its fourth location at the site of the former P&C Foods in Lincoln in May 2010.

In the last decade, Price Chopper has also expanded rapidly into Connecticut (primarily in the Hartford suburbs) where it now operates eight stores. During grand opening of Windsor store #221, Price Chopper raised the most they ever have for their non-profit organization. In 2010, Price Chopper opened their newest Connecticut store in Middletown.

Attempt at convenience retailing

In 2002, Price Chopper exited the convenience store business by leasing out its remaining convenience locations to Petroleum Marketing, a Getty operator. Price Chopper had attempted to enter the convenience store business during the 1980s by opening smaller stores with gas under the "Mini Chopper" trade name, but was largely unsuccessful. It was perhaps quite difficult for Price Chopper to emerge as a successful convenience retailer with Stewart's Shops, based in Saratoga Springs, New York, already having such an overwhelmingly dominant position in the convenience store business throughout large portions of Price Chopper's market area.

Growing Greener Initiative

With the opening of its newest store located in Colonie Plaza in Colonie, New York on June 2, 2009, Price Chopper has made substantial investments to incorporate various green and energy-saving initiatives throughout the store. Green features include a 400 kW United Technologies Corp. natural gas fuel cell which will provide a significant amount of power (60% as quoted by Price Chopper) for the store. Abundant skylighting and an addressable lighting controls system from Encelium Technologies allow the store to dim lighting when enough daylight is present. Occupancy sensors covering nearly the entire layout of the store including all offices, backrooms, and loading docks ensure lights are automatically switched off or significantly dimmed when vacant for a certain period of time. Even aisle ways and other areas of the main sales floor are dimmed unless that aisle or section is occupied. See the Times Union article on the Colonie Price Chopper going for LEED Gold certification: [1]

Louis Golub died in October 2009.

Slogans

• You know you're doing better. (1980s)
• We're not just in your neighborhood, we're your neighbor. (1985; 2010)
• We Do More (1980s; early 2000s)
• Sharing more than a store. (1980s–1990s)
• For people who love food. (1997–2000)
• For people who love food... and savings! (2000–2001)
• We Know Meat! (2000–present)
• For people who love food... and low prices! (2002)
• Best in Fresh (2007–present)

Brands

Price Chopper has three corporate-exclusive private label brands: Price Chopper (main brand used on most food products), Price Chopper Naturals (some organic products), and Central Market Classics (upscale brand, used on higher-end foods). Other brands are sourced from Topco Associates, LLC, including TopCare (health and beauty products), Full Circle (other organic products not covered by the Price Chopper Naturals brand), Clear Value (value-priced brand, often made using cheaper ingredients), Academix (office and school supplies), Electrix (light bulbs, extension cords, batteries, etc.), and Domestix (cleaning products, storage solutions, etc.)

Locations

Price Chopper store in Syracuse, NY

Price Chopper currently operates over 125 stores in Upstate New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Its locations are all serviced from the same warehouse in Rotterdam, New York. Price Chopper's primary market is still the Capital District of New York, where about one-third of its store base is located. Other major markets for Price Chopper include Utica, Syracuse, Binghamton, and the Mid-Hudson Valley in New York, as well as Scranton, Pennsylvania, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Burlington, Vermont. Price Chopper primarily competes with Hannaford, Shaw's, and Stop & Shop in the eastern portion of its trading area, while facing competition from Wegmans, and Tops Markets (currently under change from Penn Traffic storefronts) in the west, and ShopRite, Stop & Shop and Pathmark in the south.

The Golub Corporation, a leading employer in the Capital District of New York, is 55% employee-owned, with the other 45% remaining in the hands of the Golub family. President and CEO Neil Golub is a well-known philanthropist in the region. Price Chopper's charitable arm, the Golub Foundation, sponsors many special events such as the Empire State Plaza's annual Independence Day celebration in Albany, New York.

On November 7, 2006 it was announced that Price Chopper may buy the Buffalo, New York based Tops Supermarket chain from Ahold USA or a significant amount of their stores. [2] This never happened, although in 2010, Price Chopper instead would purchase six stores from Tops that used to be P&C Foods.

The former Waterbury, CT location closed in June of 2008 and the location was purchased by rival chain ShopRite. This marked a step back for the Price Chopper chain in a highly competitive area where another chain grocery store, Shaw's of Waterbury, also closed in September 2007. All of Price Chopper's remaining stores in Connecticut have so far been successful despite being a relatively new name to the region.

Ben and Bill's

In late 2005, renovations on the eight year-old Slingerlands store (#159) began. Plans for the renovation included the opening of a New York-style sandwich shop to be named "Ben and Bill's" after the founders of the company. If the sandwich shop is successful at the Slingerlands store, it will be incorporated into stores throughout the chain. The Sandwich Shop is now open, selling a variety of pre-packaged products, such as typical New York City pastries, along with sandwiches and deli items. It stands next to the store's regular deli and is themed to look like a traditional New York City delicatessen. The second Ben and Bill's opened July '08 in the Saratoga Springs (#158) store, and a third location opened in September '09 in Burlington, VT's newly remodeled Shelburne Road store (#165).

Market share by region

Price Chopper holds a strong position in several of the markets in which it operates, including Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY, Worcester, MA, and Utica-Rome, NY.

Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY (Capital Region)

1.) Price Chopper - 36.0%

2.) Hannaford - 21.1%

3.) Stewart's Shops - 12.7%

4.) Wal-Mart Supercenters - 10.9%

5.) BJ's Wholesale Club - 5.6%

(Source: Supermarket News, October 17, 2005)

Worcester, MA

1.) Price Chopper - 19.5%*

2.) Shaw's - 18.7%

3.) Stop & Shop - 18.2%

4.) Hannaford - 11.9%

(Source: Supermarket News, October 17, 2005)

* Figure was combined with Big D/Wonder Markets which was acquired by Price Chopper

Utica-Rome, NY

1.) Wal-Mart Supercenters - 26.1%

2.) Hannaford - 26.0%

3.) Price Chopper - 17.6%

4.) Tops Markets - (P&C) - 9.8%

(Source: Supermarket News, October 17, 2005)

*Since this study was conducted, Tops had exited the Utica market until recently and sold three of its units to Hannaford

Burlington, VT

1.) Hannaford - 48.9%

2.) Shaw's - 18.4%

3.) Costco - 12.6%

4.) Price Chopper - 11.6%

5.) Grand Union- 5.5%

(Source: Supermarket News, October 17, 2005)

*Since this study was conducted, Grand Union's sole store in the Burlington market has been converted to Price Chopper, giving Price Chopper three stores in the area.

Poughkeepsie, NY

1.) Wakefern (ShopRite) - 21.9%

2.) Stop & Shop - 20.0%

3.) Hannaford - 13.7%

4.) Wal-Mart Supercenters - 8.4%

5.) Price Chopper - 6.7%

(Source: Supermarket News, October 17, 2005)

Syracuse, NY

1.) Wegmans - 37%

2.) Tops Markets (P&C) - 20% Now

3.) Price Chopper - 12%

(Source: MMR, June 13, 2005, "Top 100 Markets")

External links

• Price Chopper Website
• Hoovers Fact Sheet for Golub Corporation
• Golub Corp. listing at Forbes.com America's Largest Private Companies (retrieved July 11, 2009).
• Former locations