New location list: Albany through 1960

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Groceteria
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New location list: Albany through 1960

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BillyGr
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Re: New location list: Albany through 1960

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Interesting list. While I'm not old enough to go back to 1960 (as far as this goes) a couple things that may help:

The 307 Central location was still a store (and known as Trading Port) into at least the 1980's, so I'd suspect that Trading Post was a misprint (and very well could be for other locations as well, as I remember hearing that Trading Port had other locations at some point).

The 111 North Pearl location of Grand Cash Market is today a local performing arts group (Capital Rep) which, per their site moved into an abandoned Grand Cash Market in 1981.

The Western ones you had questions on do seem odd. If you look at the map in the 1235 Western link, it shows a CVS across the street - that CVS is listed as 1170 on the CVS site.
The building marked as 1235 was later a ShopRite grocery store (1980's, in their first foray into the greater Albany area) and now houses a RiteAid (added on to the building by then Fays) and several small food places (subs, Boston Market etc.) and a couple other small storefronts.
One that didn't make the list was 1475 Western Ave (Stuyvesant Plaza), which opened in 1959 with Acme as their grocery store (later a Grand Union) - perhaps they didn't get it in in time for the 1960 directory, or perhaps that is just outside the Albany area (might be listed under Guilderland)?

That WGY Food Stores was interesting, as most in the area would think of WGY as a radio station, but that was in Schenectady.

Finally - the two Menands locations with the Troy Road addresses bring up Troy Road in East Greenbush - not sure if that is an error in the mapping or what. That area in EG has a lot of buildings, and might have had a small store or two at one point, but no idea, though A&P DID have a larger supermarket in later years (until the chain left most of the area, probably early 1980's) at the corner of Troy Road (Rt 4) and Columbia Turnpike (9&20).
That Clinton Heights (under Rensselaer) listing though is probably right, as there is a small store (I think) still there now - more like a deli/convenience store today, but as far back as I remember it has been some kind of food sales, and the housing in that area dates back far enough to make sense.
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Re: New location list: Albany through 1960

Post by Groceteria »

Thanks for the info.

My assumption is that Troy Road in Menands is now Broadway, but the numbering has probably changed.

The WGY stores were named after the radio station in Schenectady. A friend of mine there sent me this some time back, which is why it jumped out at me: http://hoxsie.org/2013/02/26/wgy_food_stores/

I'm pretty much with you that "Trading Port" was the name for all the stores and there were just typos in some cases that were perpetuated over several years of city directories.

I hope to get up there soon and complete Albany and Schenectady; I'll have to visit the actual library building to get more info than Y have now. Since I'm a librarian, this does not worry me :)
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Re: New location list: Albany through 1960

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On that Stuyvesant Plaza store Billy Gr mentioned, yes it did open as an Acme in I'm going to say 1959. I found an article from 1962 a while ago which said that Acme sold the store to Golub Corp. which operated the Central Market chain and which we all know as Price Chopper today. The article implied they were going to operate that location so I'm presuming they may have in turn sold it to Grand Union later on. Also, Acme had plans for a few other locations in the greater Albany area and even one or two under development at the time of the sale and ended up selling those as well. To my knowledge, that location was their one and only foray into the Capitol region proper. They got about as far east in New York state with a cluster of four stores in the Gloversville/Johnstown/Amsterdam area and even they were all gone by the early 70's. About Loblaws, they never had a store in Albany but much like Acme they had plans for more stores in Albany itself which never came to pass. They did get as far as nearby Schenectady where they had four locations and those were gone by I'm going to say 1976. P+C also to my knowledge never got into Albany proper. They got their foothold into the area by buying a small Schenectady based chain called Save-Way markets. This was either late 60's/early 70's because the stores were rebannered as P+C Foods sometime in 1972. I also see you have locations listed for King's. Is that related in any way to the King's chain today in NJ?
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Re: New location list: Albany through 1960

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TW-Upstate NY wrote:On that Stuyvesant Plaza store Billy Gr mentioned, yes it did open as an Acme in I'm going to say 1959. I found an article from 1962 a while ago which said that Acme sold the store to Golub Corp. which operated the Central Market chain and which we all know as Price Chopper today. The article implied they were going to operate that location so I'm presuming they may have in turn sold it to Grand Union later on. Also, Acme had plans for a few other locations in the greater Albany area and even one or two under development at the time of the sale and ended up selling those as well. To my knowledge, that location was their one and only foray into the Capitol region proper. They got about as far east in New York state with a cluster of four stores in the Gloversville/Johnstown/Amsterdam area and even they were all gone by the early 70's. About Loblaws, they never had a store in Albany but much like Acme they had plans for more stores in Albany itself which never came to pass. They did get as far as nearby Schenectady where they had four locations and those were gone by I'm going to say 1976. P+C also to my knowledge never got into Albany proper. They got their foothold into the area by buying a small Schenectady based chain called Save-Way markets. This was either late 60's/early 70's because the stores were rebannered as P+C Foods sometime in 1972. I also see you have locations listed for King's. Is that related in any way to the King's chain today in NJ?
I did see that listing for Central Market in Stuyvesant Plaza (I think on Wikipedia) but wasn't sure if it was true or not. Although it makes sense, since the listing also mentioned GU not moving in there until the mid 70's (and, with the listing on here showing one at 1235 Western, which may or may not be the building just below the SUNY entrance that later had ShopRite it would make sense - if GU moved into the plaza, ShopRite coming along new in the area and taking the property and (probably) building a new building there would fit with their time in the area).

Didn't realize that Loblaw's had gotten into the area closer to Albany, but of course the famous Johnstown/Gloversville store that was only torn down in the last year for Stewarts after being abandoned for so many years is one that many would remember.

As to P&C - While I do not remember them here either, there was (back in the early 1990's) a hint over in Wynantskill that one did exist there. There was a park & ride sign which indicated that the parking was at the P&C, and I vaguely remember there being a building that sat a bit back from Route 66 that was vacant (now demolished and there is a CVS/bank closer to the road on that property).
Though that might not be surprising, since the very same town still had an A&P store until April of 1997 - a decade plus after the rest of the A&P chain had vanished from the greater Capital District area!

One other thought - you mention King's - I'd also wonder if there was any connection to the King's discount stores, one of which for many years occupied the building at 711 Central (listed here earlier as Albany Public before they moved to Westgate) that was later the OTB Teletheater and then removed a couple years ago to be replaced by the new ShopRite further back from Central?
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Re: New location list: Albany through 1960

Post by Groceteria »

BillyGr wrote:One other thought - you mention King's - I'd also wonder if there was any connection to the King's discount stores, one of which for many years occupied the building at 711 Central (listed here earlier as Albany Public before they moved to Westgate) that was later the OTB Teletheater and then removed a couple years ago to be replaced by the new ShopRite further back from Central?
I would be very surprised if there were any connection at all. The King's grocery stores in 1930 were most likely just a very small and short-lived group of stores probably owned and operated by someone whose last name was King.
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Re: New location list: Albany through 1960

Post by rich »

Loblaw also seemed to have big plans in their Western territory. buying a chain in Youngstown that covered NE Ohio outside of Cleveland and opening some stores on the fringes of the Cleveland area. The sold all that off in 61 or 62. They must have hit a wall in terms of capital or profitability in the very early 60s.
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Re: New location list: Albany through 1960

Post by Ampersand »

I could swear there was a third site for Loblaws that was used as a bingo hall in its later life in the Johnstown gloversville area it had like a 70s style segmented sign and it was a brick building..
The Price Chopper in the Johnstown/Pyramid mall started life as a Loblaws
There was the Loblaws that was demolished to make way for Stewarts
Then there was the one that was occupied by Frontier for a while
In my mind there was another... just can't put my finger on where it was
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: New location list: Albany through 1960

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

You just named the three locations right there. The one occupied by Frontier downtown was the replacement store for the E. Fulton St. store which is where the new Stewart's was built. The downtown store opened in early 1975 and Loblaws sold it to Chicago Markets out of Utica and they operated there until I think April of 1987 when Great American came in and they remained there until sometime in 1995. Frontier took it over at some point afterwards and they left sometime in the early 2000's. Another company set up a call center operation there and lasted maybe six months or so if that long. That was probably 6-7 years ago and the building has been vacant ever since. There was another location in Amsterdam which opened in 1972 and remained a supermarket in one form or another until late 1988 at which time it stayed vacant for a time and was eventually subdivided. I remember a Dollar General and Rent-A-Center being there at some point. An auction house set up shop there for a while and now Harbor Freight is in part of the building with the rest being vacant again.
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