1920s to 1980s: Early years In 1927, William Golub and his brother, Bernard, took over the wholesale grocery that their father, Lewis Golub, had opened in 1908 after emigrating from Russia. In 1932,
Joseph E. Grosberg, together with Russian Jewish immigrants Bernard and William Golub, partners in the Grosberg-Golub Corporation, opened the partnership's first supermarket (initially called Public Service Market) in
Green Island, New York, followed by stores in Cohoes,
Watervliet and Schenectady. They gave all four stores the name Central Market. The concept was a success and they continued to open many more stores in the region. In 1943, the Golub brothers bought out Joseph Grosberg's share of the company and formed the present parent company, the Golub Corporation. In 1951, it was 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 Market changed its operating strategy. The chain dropped Green Stamps, slashed prices and, to reflect this new strategy, it re-branded to the name "Price Chopper." (The name "Central Market" is now used as an upscale house brand, as well as for the floral department.) Price Chopper experienced continuing growth throughout the 1970s, opening new stores and upgrading old ones.
1980s–1990s: Store modernization and expansion 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 opened in the late 1970s in
Oneonta, New York. Another opened in the early 1980s in
Latham, New York, and then an even-larger unit was constructed in
Queensbury, New York 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. Few Price Chopper stores still retain this layout today. In the late 1980s, Price Chopper changed its corporate
logo featuring an axe cutting into a coin. In 1993, Price Chopper launched an updated version of the Super Center format with a
South Hills Mall store in
Poughkeepsie. (This store closed on July 15, 2006, and was converted into a
ShopRite.) This was Price Chopper's first store in the
Mid-Hudson Valley market. The updated concept had a greater emphasis on take-out and ready-to-eat meals, some featuring food courts with Price Chopper's own in-house branded concepts, including Roasters (rotisserie chicken; no relation to
Kenny Rogers Roasters), Bella Roma (pizza), Coyote Joe's (tacos and burritos), 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 who found the former layout confusing.
1990s–2000s: Expansion into New England Prior to 1990, Price Chopper was barely a player in the
New England states, with only about a half dozen outlets in
Massachusetts and
Vermont. The chain acquired the now-defunct Giant Value supermarkets during the late 1970s, which accounted for most of the 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 throughout four of the New England states. In 1990, Price Chopper acquired many stores in Vermont from Syracuse-based
P&C Food Markets, which the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was requiring it to sell 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. Today, Price Chopper has a presence in most of Vermont's larger cities and towns. 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 2012, Price Chopper expanded its presence in this region by opening two new stores, in
Hopkinton and
Gardner. In addition to its store base in Central Massachusetts, Price Chopper also has three stores in the
Berkshires, but there are no stores in the greater
Springfield area or other towns in the
Pioneer Valley despite being located between these two regions. In 1999, Price Chopper opened its first
New Hampshire store in
West Lebanon, and in 2006, its second location, a Market Center—in
Keene. A third location, in
Lebanon in a former P&C Foods store, opened in 2009. Price Chopper opened its fourth New Hampshire store, also a former P&C Foods, in
Lincoln in May 2010, expanding its footprint to the
White Mountains. In the 2010s, Price Chopper also expanded rapidly into
Connecticut, primarily in the
Hartford suburbs, where it now operates nine stores. During the grand opening of
Windsor, Connecticut store #221, Price Chopper raised the most money in company history for its non-profit organization. In 2010, Price Chopper opened a store in
Middletown. Another location opened in
Storrs, near the main campus of
UConn, on June 6, 2014. 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, mostly with gas pumps but sometimes without, to utilize older, smaller storefronts where a larger store was not possible. They operated under the "Mini Chopper" trade name, still using the logo of an axe cutting into a coin. But they were largely unsuccessful. In June 2009, Price Chopper established a three-year partnership with
Sunoco for the company's "Fuel Advantage" program, where customers earned 10 cents off every gallon of gas In March 2014, after over 15 months of renovations, Price Chopper completed its remodel of its 25-year-old
Latham, New York store and rebranded the store as Market Bistro, including an expanded
food court featuring hamburgers, a Ben & Bill's sandwich counter, stone-fired pizza, an ice cream shop, Chef's Grill, as well as an expanded 24-hour drive-through pharmacy, an on-site clinic, and a cooking school. On November 11, 2014, CEO Jerry Golub, along with Executive Chairman of the Board Neil Golub and the company's
COO Scott Grimmett, announced that the chain would be changing its name to "Market 32" a nod to the year of the company's founding (1932) by brothers Ben and Bill Golub. Jerry Golub stated that the name change reflects Price Chopper's continuing advancements, and reflects that the company is now more of an upscale grocer and less of a discount retailer, as the name Price Chopper suggests. Changes to branding, product labels, loyalty cards, company uniforms, as well as store modernizations, are to be rolled-out over the coming years at a cost of more than $300 million. More than half of the company's 135 stores will be remodeled and rebranded. At least one-third of the $300 million is to be invested in stores in the New York Capital Region. On June 17, 2015, Price Chopper announced that it would be phasing out the sale of
tobacco products in all 135 of its Price Chopper and Market 32 stores, joining competitors
Shoprite,
Wegmans, and
CVS/pharmacy.
2020s On February 8, 2021, Price Chopper Supermarkets/Market 32 and
Tops Friendly Markets announced plans to merge. The new parent company will be headquartered in Schenectady, New York. The Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Markets businesses will retain main offices in Schenectady and Williamsville and will continue to be managed locally by their respective leaders. The merger was completed November 8, 2021 and the combined company is called
Northeast Grocery. On November 28, 2023, it was revealed that Price Chopper had purchased all 5 of the former ShopRites in the Capital Region. The Niskayuna and North Greenbush locations will be converted to Market 32 while the Slingerlands location will be subleased. The Price Chopper locations at Westgate Plaza and Colonie Plaza will relocate to the former ShopRites in Albany and Colonie as Market 32s. == Locations ==