‘Record’ 4 Market 32 Stores Open in New York’s Capital Region
Price Chopper/Market 32 opened four new Market 32 stores on June 14 in the Capital Region: in the city of Albany (709 Central Avenue) and the towns of Colonie (1730 Central Avenue), Niskayuna (2333 Nott Street East) and North Greenbush (102 Van Rensselaer Square). The four new locations bring the number of Market 32 stores to 46 throughout the grocery store chain’s six-state footprint.
“This is a momentous day for the company,” noted Blaine Bringhurst, Price Chopper/Market 32 president. “In the more than 90 years we’ve been serving our customers and communities, we’ve never opened four stores simultaneously. Doing it here – right where we started in the Capital Region – makes it even more special. We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate with our customers in our hometown region.”
Market 32 stores provide a modern look and feel, with open spaces, soft earth-tone décor, product-focused displays and murals, and improved lighting. The brand emphasizes convenient, ready-to-eat foods; fresh, handcrafted and locally grown, produced and manufactured products; and intuitive product/department adjacencies such as greeting cards next to the floral department; craft beer next to salty snacks. Among the banner’s highlights are expanded floral, produce, meat, seafood, bakery, del, and prepared food departments.
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The Price Chopper stores in Westgate and Colonie Plazas closed the evening of Thursday, June 13 as teammates moved to the new Market 32 stores. The four locations employ 659 teammates in both full- and part-time roles; 330 are new hires to the company.
The new Market 32 in Albany, led by store manager Brian Rivers, measures nearly 65,000 square feet and includes a floral department with a consultation area, a fresh sushi department, a café seating area, and an expanded variety of produce and Hispanic and Asian products.
The nearly 70,000-square-foot Market 32 in Colonie is managed by Damian Dylewski and also boasts an expanded floral department and café seating and a larger selection of Hispanic and Asian products. The location’s enhanced Kosher Store within – the only kosher market between Orange County and Montreal – features a bigger food service/deli counter with authentic New York City-style bagel sandwiches, more grab-and-go meals, kosher sushi, a kosher bakery, and kosher take-and-bake pizza. The Kosher Store will continue to operate under the supervision of the Vaad HaKashruth of the Capital District. (Due to the timing of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, the official grand opening of The Kosher Store will occur on Friday, June 21).
The new Niskayuna Market 32, headed by store manager Russ Dyer, measures nearly 60,000 square feet and has a large floral department with a wedding/occasion consultation area, authentic New York City-style boiled and baked bagels, scratch breads and doughnuts, a fresh sushi department, a café seating area, and an expanded variety of produce and Hispanic and Asian products..
North Greenbush’s new nearly 70,000-square-foot Market 32 is led by store manager Jason Gabree and features a floral department with a consultation area, authentic New York City-style boiled and baked bagels, a fresh sushi department, scratch breads and doughnuts in the bakery department, and an emphasis on locally grown, produced and manufactured items.
On both Friday, June 14, and Saturday, June 15, customers at all four locations enjoyed 5% savings off their grocery purchases. Also on those same days, Price Chopper/Market 32 donated 5% of sales from the locations to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern NY, and the following youth sports programs in each of the stores’ surrounding communities: Westland Hills Baseball and Softball, Colonie Little League, Niskayuna Baseball League and Southern Rensselaer County Baseball Association at East Greenbush Inc.
“We are continuing to make significant investments in the local community with these new locations, and we remain committed to supporting our hometown neighborhoods,” added Bringhurst. “We are grateful to our partners and teammates for working extraordinarily hard to transform all four stores in such a short time. We are proud to be the region’s hometown grocer.”
Based in Schenectady, N.Y., Price Chopper/Market 32 operates 130 Price Chopper and Market 32 supermarkets and one Market Bistro, employing 16,000 teammates in New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Parent company Northeast Grocery Inc. (NGI) is No. 49 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. NGI was also named among PG’s 2024 Top Regional Grocers.
