Hamilton Square Price Chopper to close and remodel as Market 32

The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair

Changes in store: Manager Steve Gumbs discusses the dramatic changes planned for the Hamilton Square Price Chopper, which will close Jan. 23 and reopen in the spring as a Market 32.

GUILDERLAND — Price Chopper in Hamilton Square, at the corner of routes 20 and 155 in Guilderland, will soon get a complete remodel. It will close at 6 p.m. on Jan. 23 and will reopen three or four months later as a “Market 32,” said Mona Golub, vice president of Public Relations and Customer Services for Price Chopper.

The name Market 32 comes from the year that the chain was founded by brothers Ben and Bill Golub — 1932.

Mona Golub, granddaughter of Bill Golub, speaks often of “the Market 32 experience,” which she says will be “warmly contemporary and comfortable to shop.”

All current employees have been offered positions, throughout the construction, at other local stores.

The chain, headquartered in Schenectady, has 136 stores across six states, and plans to convert half of those to Market 32 stores within the next four years. Stores in Clifton Park; Wilton; and Pittsfield, Massachusetts have already been remodeled and renamed.

The store will continue its popular gas program, and coupons with a value up to 99 cents will still be doubled.

Asked about a popular service — frying or otherwise preparing fresh fish on request, at no additional charge — Golub said this will continue. “It’s amazing to me that, we’ve been doing that for more than 20 years now, and nobody else has even thought to start it or to try. You pick in the case what fish or seafood you want, and we’ll fry it fresh for you. Or boil lobsters. At no extra charge.”

Things that will change include:

— The store’s four outer walls will not increase in size, but the “shoppers’ footprint,” or the usable space inside the store will be larger, said store manager Steve Gumbs recently. This will be achieved by pushing back interior walls and attic spaces currently used for storage, to make more room for displays;            

— Fresh food of all kinds, including produce, bakery, prepared foods, seafood, deli, cheese, meat, and dairy, will line the entire perimeter of the store, Golub said;

— The whole entrance, which she said is currently “funky” and “awkward at best,” is going to change;

— Employees, whom the chain refers to as “teammates,” will be trained to have increased interaction with customers and to show greater product knowledge and provide improved customer service; and

— Golub said that a great deal of thought is being given to “intuitive adjacencies,” or what kinds of products should be next to which others. For instance, she said, craft beers will be next to salty snacks, and greeting cards next to the floral department.

She gave another example: “So if you come in to buy dinner to go, you want to be able to grab a smoked brisket from the smoker, and a bag of salad, and maybe a bag of rolls, and be on your way. You’ll be able to find those things together.”

She mentioned that Market Bistro in Latham — which she said is 100,000 square feet and features 15 restaurants under the roof — has been a “laboratory of ideas” for the company, and that it is incorporating the most popular items from that store into other Market 32 stores including the one at Hamilton Square. “We will be adding sushi and customized salads, as well as catalytic pizza, and smoking brisket and ribs and chicken.”

The store will be adding a pharmacy, store manager Gumbs said, although the layout of the store and parking lot did not allow for a drive-through window.

Some products will be removed to make room for others, Golub said. “Non-food products” that the Hamilton Square store will no longer sell include, she said, tobacco, shoe polish, hardware, and children’s toys.

The store currently stocks some products on the shelves “that just eat up real estate for us,” said Gumbs. Asked for an example, he said, “Maybe a really big can of beets.” Golub said, “It’s discipline on our part” that will allow the company to create more open space within the existing confines of the store’s outer walls.

Are they worried about losing customers to other grocery chains or independent food markets during the transition?

“Well, we certainly don’t relish inconveniencing our customers,” Golub said, “but we do have two stores that are close by.” She was referring to the one at 1706 Western Ave., near Crossgates Mall, and the one at 1892 Central Ave., near the corner of Route 155.

Throughout the construction process, she said, the chain will send targeted promotional offers to shoppers who regularly use the Hamilton Square store, as a means of encouraging to continue to patronize other Price Chopper stores in the meantime.

Asked if the new name means that prices at the new store will be higher, Golub said no, that they will still be low, but that low prices will no longer be the main focus of the “Market 32 experience.” The name, she said, is “indiscriminate by design.”

The eventual plan, Golub said, is to make over all 136 stores, but “how long that will take, given rising construction and materials costs, and financial investment in other business, is hard to determine.” But the company’s long-term plan, she said, is to “run a chain of Market 32 stores.”

How about other nearby stores? Will their business be hurt by the temporary loss of the anchor store?

James Prechtl, the owner of Supplement Central in Hamilton Square, which sells nutritional and workout supplements as well as vitamins and herbal products, said, “Not really. We’re more of a destination, plus we rely more on Vent Fitness.”

More Guilderland News

  • Project applicant David Zhang was before the Guilderland Planning Board at its March 13 meeting with a proposal to reconfigure 1975 Western Ave.

  • To encourage affordable housing and also to protect the town’s water quality and quantify, the draft says, the town board is proposing a six-month moratorium on subdivisions of five or more lots; apartment complexes of 25 or more units; and residential care facilities of 50 or more units.

  • Superintendent Marie Wiles told the board members at their March 12 meeting, that, by creating a third Comprehensive Skills section next year, “The hope is spreading those students out over three sections, recognizing the wide range of age levels that are served there, [ages] 14 to 22, will give us a lot more opportunity to meet those individual needs, customize the programs for those students as they age through the program and their journey here.”

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