Penn Traffic's P&C Banner to Return to New York's Mohawk Valley
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- After emerging a second time from the shadow of bankruptcy, the Penn Traffic Co., based here, appears to be re-establishing itself in New York's Mohawk Valley by opening a P&C in a 50,000-square-foot former Tops Market in Rome, N.Y.
The Tops store will close on March 4 and reopen as a P&C the following week, Penn Traffic spokesman Marc Jampole told the Utica, N.Y. Observer-Dispatch. After a further two months of remodeling while the store remains open, it will be converted into a P&C Fresh Market, which includes a wide variety of fresh and frozen meats and seafood, frozen foods, bakery items, produce, and prepared meals, said Jampole.
He added that the company will offer jobs to the 67 Tops employees currently working at the store, and expects to hire more associates when the store reopens.
P&C's last store in Rome, which measured 55,000 square feet, closed in late 2003 after less than a year and a half in business, a few months after Penn Traffic filed for bankruptcy, the second time it had done so in four years. The company also closed locations in Herkimer, Little Falls, New Hartford, and Oneida in 2003.
Penn Traffic emerged from its second bankruptcy in April 2005. The company, which currently operates nearby stores in Camden, Lowville, and Sherrill, wouldn't comment on whether it would open more locations in the area.
"Everyone at P&C and Penn Traffic is very excited and happy about our return to Rome, where we operated supermarkets for more than 30 years," noted Penn Traffic president and c.e.o. Bob Chapman in a statement.
The Rome location was one of 31 in the state that Williamsville, N.Y.-based Tops, an Ahold USA banner, put up for sale last summer, after deciding to concentrate on its core western New York market.
The first P&C Fresh Market stores opened in 2002 in Fayetteville, a suburb of Syracuse, and the company operates just a handful of those stores, according to Jampole.
Penn Traffic operates 110 supermarkets in Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
The Tops store will close on March 4 and reopen as a P&C the following week, Penn Traffic spokesman Marc Jampole told the Utica, N.Y. Observer-Dispatch. After a further two months of remodeling while the store remains open, it will be converted into a P&C Fresh Market, which includes a wide variety of fresh and frozen meats and seafood, frozen foods, bakery items, produce, and prepared meals, said Jampole.
He added that the company will offer jobs to the 67 Tops employees currently working at the store, and expects to hire more associates when the store reopens.
P&C's last store in Rome, which measured 55,000 square feet, closed in late 2003 after less than a year and a half in business, a few months after Penn Traffic filed for bankruptcy, the second time it had done so in four years. The company also closed locations in Herkimer, Little Falls, New Hartford, and Oneida in 2003.
Penn Traffic emerged from its second bankruptcy in April 2005. The company, which currently operates nearby stores in Camden, Lowville, and Sherrill, wouldn't comment on whether it would open more locations in the area.
"Everyone at P&C and Penn Traffic is very excited and happy about our return to Rome, where we operated supermarkets for more than 30 years," noted Penn Traffic president and c.e.o. Bob Chapman in a statement.
The Rome location was one of 31 in the state that Williamsville, N.Y.-based Tops, an Ahold USA banner, put up for sale last summer, after deciding to concentrate on its core western New York market.
The first P&C Fresh Market stores opened in 2002 in Fayetteville, a suburb of Syracuse, and the company operates just a handful of those stores, according to Jampole.
Penn Traffic operates 110 supermarkets in Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.