Great American

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

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GreatAmericanBagBoy
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Re: Great American

Post by GreatAmericanBagBoy »

Thanks for the pic, NYSW. Great pic of a classic GA store from the era of the mid-80s makeover, with the brown trim. Love it!
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: Great American

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Gloversville, NY-began life as a Loblaws and was most recently a call center. Closed in 1995.
Gloversville NY Great American.jpg
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nysw3636
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Re: Great American

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GreatAmericanBagBoy wrote:NYSW, i have to believe I am wrong. No way was VM supplying anything west of Onondaga county, especially way out in the Buffalo area. Maybe the Waterville store was an ex-Victory, or a special deal, of else I am entirely wrong.

I do know VM supplied area nursing homes and small general stores with grocery goods. Sometimes delivered in a pick up truck owned by VM. Not sure if that was a direct operation or served via charge accounts at the local store. #424 in Norwich held accounts for area nursing and boarding homes and did make deliveries via pick up truck to some spots. But I am not sure if there was a dedicated food service division.
I now know what you were referring to GABB. Victory Markets, Inc supplied independent grocers with the " Food King " and " Village Markets " names. Also, I've updated the list of locations.
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nysw3636
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Re: Great American

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A closed Great American, 261 North Main Street, Liberty this morning. The other Great American in Liberty is now partly a Sears Center.
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nysw3636
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Re: Great American

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Another angle of Liberty store.It was "Gary's Great American".
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nysw3636
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Re: Great American

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Former Great American in Ellenville, Route 209, this morning.
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nysw3636
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Re: Great American

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nysw3636 wrote:I'm trying to figure out exactly when Victory Markets introduced the Great American name...1974 is the earliest I've found...
Just an update to this thread (been a while). An article I have from 11-7-1976 says "The switch to Great American stores is made where competition is fierce. The program was tested in Port Jervis in October 1973. That showed the idea worked". In this article, it says that Monticello and Liberty Victory Markets in Sullivan County in NY were converted to Great American Food Stores.
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nysw3636
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Re: Great American

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The former Great American building in Hancock, NY is no longer. It is now a park. The former Slater's Great American in Cairo, NY is no longer. It has been demolished and being built as a new Hannaford.
GreatAmericanBagBoy
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Re: Great American

Post by GreatAmericanBagBoy »

The Sherburne GA is now the Big M or whatever. The New Berlin store was demolished and is now the site of a Stewart's Shoppe.

The sole remaining Great American's in Chenango County are Greene, Afton, and Bainbridge. There are also Great American stores operating in Sidney, Unadilla, and I think West Winfield or Richfield Springs. Last I knew they were supplied by C&S out of Vermont.
Ampersand
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Re: Great American

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I think the Great American in Canajoharie is still standing being used as storage or something. The flood kinda hurt it though.. so it might just be a decrepit building.
Ampersand
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Re: Great American

Post by Ampersand »

TW-Upstate NY wrote:Gloversville, NY-began life as a Loblaws and was most recently a call center. Closed in 1995.
Gloversville NY Great American.jpg
I worked at the call center I had no idea it was ever a Loblaws though... was it relocated from somewhere else? I kinda recall seeing the corpse of another loblaws besides this one and the one by the arterial in Gloversville that I think is now a bingo hall or something like that.
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: Great American

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

The one that became the call center was the "new" store that opened in early 1975 and was the replacement for the (now) decrepit one on E. Fulton St. as you enter the city. The downtown store stayed open until very early 1977 when it was sold to a small Utica, NY based chain called Chicago Markets. That chain was subsequently sold to Victory Markets of Norwich, NY and became Great American in 1987 and eventually closing in 1995. After that, it became a customer service (call) center for Frontier Communications (the local telephone company) and that too closed and I can't recall the year off hand. Another company bought the building and set up shop as a call center also and closed only after a few months of operation; this was maybe 3-5 years ago. It sits vacant today. As an aside, the Family Dollar which sits adjacent to this building is (was) a colonial A+P which closed in late 1981.
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