East Coast Supermarket Chain Price Chopper Renaming Itself Market 32

Supermarket chain Price Chopper announced plans today to rebrand and rename its stores Market 32.

Shoppers in six states used to making a quick run to the local Price Chopper will soon be frequenting a new supermarket, as the company behind the supermarket chain unveiled plans to rebrand and rename the stores Market 32.

The Golub Corporation, the parent company to the East Coast Price Chopper chain, announced a $300 million investment in rebranding half of its 135-store chain in the next five years. The full conversion is expected to be complete in about nine years.

The first phase of the plan, which calls for modernizing the stores and offering new services and products, starts with the conversion of three stores in New York and Massachusetts this year and continues with 10 to 15 stores over the next 18 months.

According to a Golub press release [PDF], the new stores will have expanded food service options, an enhanced product mix and a re-emphasis on customer service.

The new brand will continue to incorporate the same brand products, weekly features, special promotions, coupons, AdvantageEdge card savings and Price Chopper Fuel AdvantageEdge program currently used at Price Chopper stores.

“Market 32 represented the next leap forward for our company,” Neil Golub, executive chairman of Price Chopper’s board, says in a news release. “We have evolved from the Public Service Market to Central Market to Price Chopper by responding to consumers’ changing needs over time and Market 32 is the next natural progression for us.”

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that the only store that will not be converted under the new brand is the company’s Market Bistro location that opened this year near Albany.

That specific store features more than a dozen eateries and products sourced from around the country. Some of these elements are expected to be used in the new Market 32 concept.

Price Chopper currently operates in upstate New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The chain is unrelated to the 50 Price Chopper stores operated in Kansas and Missouri, which are owned by Associated Wholesale Grocers.

The Golub Corporation unveils new banner and ambitious plan to convert current fleet of stores [Price Chopper]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist