Market 32 Debuts 1st Ground-up Store

The Golub Corp. has cut the ribbon on its first ground-up Market 32, in Sutton, Mass. The Green Building Initiative Green Globes-certified building is also the first supermarket in the community, according to the Schenectady, N.Y.-based grocery chain.

Employing 240 full- and part-time associates, the nearly 57,000-square-foot Sutton store is the fourth Market 32 location to open since the company revealed in November 2014 its plans to develop the new banner across the majority of its stores over the next seven to 10 years. The first three stores, in Clifton Park and Wilton, N.Y., and Pittsfield, Mass., were converted from Price Choppers and opened last summer.

"Market 32 is a reflection of what our customers have told us they want in a modern and convenient shopping experience," said CEO Jerry Golub. "Our Sutton Market 32 is a grocery store for this and future generations. While maintaining our focus on quality and value, we've added modern conveniences like a patisserie/café equipped with wi-fi; a drive-through pharmacy; a Chef's Table offering food demonstrations and sampling; a new, higher standard of service; and a host of wonderful signature items throughout the store."

Thoroughly Modern Market

Market 32 strives for a more modern look and feel than Price Chopper, although many of the differences are subtle. Featuring open space, soft earth tones, and product-focused displays, murals and lighting, the new banner highlights ready-to-eat foods; fresh, handcrafted, and locally grown, produced and manufactured products; and intuitive product/department adjacencies, like having greeting cards next to the floral department.

The Sutton store additionally offers a full-service in-store Starbucks; a unique Chef's Case that contains entrées and sides, giving shoppers the opportunity to customize their meal combinations; a fresh meat department carrying Chiappetti grass-fed beef, lamb and veal; an assortment of prepared, ready-to-cook and grab-and-go fruits and veggies in the produce department; a seafood department with extensive varieties of salmon; McKenzie All-Natural deli meats in the deli section; and an expanded cheese department with more than 300 varieties.

Several other conversions to Market 32 stores are currently underway across Golub's six-state footprint, and a groundbreaking ceremony for a new location will take place next month in Oxford, Conn.

The Golub Corp. owns and operates 135 Price Chopper and Market 32 grocery stores in New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Golub’s 22,000 employees collectively own more than 47 percent of the company’s privately held stock, making it one of the nation’s largest privately held corporations that is predominantly employee-owned.