[ProudPantry]

Hi,Its been a lot of years, but I believe that you may be correct about the location of the Patmark. It!s funny, First National did every thing they could to make that store work. They tried several formats, Super Finast ( First Nationals short lived low price banner) Finast Big Buys( a concept that worked well in New England for a time) and again as Finast. The store layed closed with moderen equiptment at a time when other area Finast that were doing well
in Woodbridge and Elizabeth had old Safeway equiptment.
On more then one occasion my Dad who was a Store Manager was told that he was going to Menlo Park to head up a New Concept store, only to never hear any thing else about it.

was the SuperFinast concept supposed to be a precursor to Edwards or was it trying to be a Pantry Pride type store since the first time they tried the original format failed?

It's so odd that though Finast was unsuccessful at the MPM store it's successor in intrest Stop&Shop (Finast-Edwards-Stop&Shop) NOW has TWO stores in the Area (Edison) and Pathmark also has 2 stores in the area as well. LONG since both chains left the center. (now a relatively upscale fashion-oriented mall)

[rich]

Super Finast was a format used in the 60s. Those stores did not give S&H green stamps. It would have been similar in concpet to Food Fair's Pantry Pride, Acme's Super Saver, etc. They dropped the "Super" when all of the stores dropped stamps.

Edwards was a byproduct of the merger with Pick-n-Pay in the late 70s--Pick-n-Pay owned the Edwards name. Edwards had been a wholesale grocer in Cleveland that went back to the 19th century and Edwards was Pick-n-Pay's principal house brand before that merchandise reverted to the use of Finast for everything.

[maynesG]

Actualy your are only partialy correct ,in the NewYork Division of Finast they had stopped giving S&H Green stamps years before the Super Finast concept was rolled out. I know I lved it. It was simply an attempt to copmpete with Shop Rite the areas price leader. They lowered the prices on 4,000 prices in twenty or so stores Dumont, Hackensack, Woodbridge,
Ocean Avenue in Jersey City , Bloomfield , Closter, New City, and Pearl River come to mind.
Just like the W.E.O. experiment at A&P it was short lived. Finast inherited safeways contract and had the highest wages in the market. unlike some of thier other competitors at the time, they ran clean well stock stores that had fairly decent customer service( you could tell you were in a Food Fair because the store smelled like a dirty mop}.They also had older stores with heavy rents. Two months into the program, up went the prices and down went the Super Signs'
The other format that they used in MenloPark was Big Buys this was verry succesful in New England and Finast used this concept in former Woolcostores that they had purchased and selected stores in New York ,Bridgeport comes to mind,
Full service store large format , limited advertising, less assortment , then a regular Finast and realy cheap prices. High volume, family packs in the meat department. So sucessful that in the areas shat they ran them , they put their own profitable units out of business. ThusBig Buys went the way of SuperFinast. And Yes it was a complete bust in Menlo Park . That town hated that store

[maynesG]

Super Finast was a format used in the 60s. Those stores did not give S&H green stamps. It would have been similar in concpet to Food Fair's Pantry Pride, Acme's Super Saver, etc. They dropped the "Super" when all of the stores dropped stamps.

Edwards was a byproduct of the merger with Pick-n-Pay in the late 70s--Pick-n-Pay owned the Edwards name. Edwards had been a wholesale grocer in Cleveland that went back to the 19th century and Edwards was Pick-n-Pay's principal house brand before that merchandise reverted to the use of Finast for everything.

[maynesG]

Hi, Your history of Finast in New Jersey is almost correct. Safeway sold to Finast. Finast became part of Pick & Pay. Finast sold all of the stores in New Jersey to Mayfair Food Town .Mayfair sold their whol;e opperation back to Finast which included most of the original stores, plus all of the Food Fair stores that Mayfair had purchased , plus all of the Foodtowns in Long Island. The company at this point realised that the Finast name in New Jersey meant verry littlle to the average consumer, Thus the Edwards name was used and the stores in Ny and connecticut followed. Even stranger Stop & Shop who failed in New Jersey before Finast retreated from the state, is the brand that Ahold now uses with mixed results in the area.

[ProudPantry]

Hi, Your history of Finast in New Jersey is almost correct. Safeway sold to Finast. Finast became part of Pick & Pay. Finast sold all of the stores in New Jersey to Mayfair Food Town .Mayfair sold their whol;e opperation back to Finast which included most of the original stores, plus all of the Food Fair stores that Mayfair had purchased , plus all of the Foodtowns in Long Island. The company at this point realised that the Finast name in New Jersey meant verry littlle to the average consumer, Thus the Edwards name was used and the stores in Ny and connecticut followed. Even stranger Stop & Shop who failed in New Jersey before Finast retreated from the state, is the brand that Ahold now uses with mixed results in the area.

Hi
ProudPantry again.
I did not forget about the Finast/Mayfair Foodtown connection (having been a customer of those stores and other non-Mayfair-owned Foodtowns for many years) I was actually referring to the lineage of the Finast chain as a whole. please forgive me if I come across as a "know it all" but I must humbly correct you on the Finast to Edwards chronology. I actually have old Supermarket News articles that I have in my bottom drawer from around 1992-94 that documented that Finast had slowly rolled out the Edwards stores in other areas of the Northeast BEFORE It bought Mayfair. and AFAIK It was Stop& Shop that bought the Long Island Foodtown stores (Melmarkets) before Ahold (Edwards parent) bought S&S (96)

[maynesG]

Hi, You have done nothing to be forgiven for ! You are rigth about Finast using the Edwards name in some New England stores prior to the Mayfair transaction. Their stores were dying for over a twenty year period and the company under Madison Funds, Pick & Pay and Ahold tried every thing under the stars to turn it around. Truth be told the only place Finast was the top dog was in Connecticut, and Westchester County.
Yes Ahold owned Finast when Mayfair sold their Long Island stores to Finast. But perhaps my memory has taken a vacation with out the rest of me on this subject and Stop & Shop did buy them , only to have them rebranded as Finast latter on.
In any case if I have offended you or caused you to feel bad in any way, Please forgive me. Thanks!
Gerry

[maynesG]

Hi, It seems that perhaps my memory did go on vacation with out me, so I took the time to do a little research on the90!s with Finast in New Jersey. According to Cruise Close Outs checking both the Finast and MayFair Foodtown sections here is the time line.
1993 Finast Stores in West Chester and Putnam Counties
are converted to The Edwards Banner, This does not include
Long Island or Connecticut stores wich remained Finast.
1995 Mayfair Foodtown is purchased by Ahold and these stores
and are branded as Edwards. later that same year Mel Markets
on Long Island ( many of them former Finast locations)
are purchased by Ahold in a seperate deal and become Finast
1996 Ahold converts the Finast stores in Long Island and
to Edwards

Thanks Gerry

[rich]

The Edwards name began to be used in the early 1980s--first for warehouse format stores in Ohio that were outside of Finast/Pick-n-Pay's base in Cleveland. Shortly afterward, they started using the name in Boston, a market that Finast had exited either just before or just after Pick-n-Pay made their acquisition. I would assume that these were former Finast stores. They used a price-sensitive, but not warehouse format in Boston. At that time, Finast used a high-low pricing model in its other New England stores.

[maynesG]

Hi
Yes Finast did use the Edwards name in Mass after they had closed the Sommervile division.In a typical First National
move, They had kept a hand full of profitable stores in the state, these became Edwards. Ihad left the company prior to this and went to work for Quaker oats and Acme. My Dad was still with them as aStore manager and always had refered to this as the Sommervile masacare.

[Jared]

I remember Finast well, straight till 96 97. Edwards was not around here on long island that long at all, maybe to the 2000 foiled merger with pathmark? Then all edwards and foodtowns became stopnshop (the Mel White foodtowns used to be good stores). Over the past 5 years, a lot of these former Melfood town locations have been closed or sold off by Stopsnshop.

[RoleModel]

I remember Finast well, straight till 96 97. Edwards was not around here on long island that long at all, maybe to the 2000 foiled merger with pathmark? Then all edwards and foodtowns became stopnshop (the Mel White foodtowns used to be good stores). Over the past 5 years, a lot of these former Melfood town locations have been closed or sold off by Stopsnshop.

Lake Grove's closed (Toys and Babies R Us replaced it), Port Jeff's closed (with Uncle Giuseppe's replacing it next year)...what else was Foodtown in Suffolk?

Also, in my opinion, Edwards seemed to be much better before S&S took them over (I remember there being a cafe in the Farmingville and Holbrook locations which Edwards opened around '97-ish). It isn't until the past few years that Stop and Shop's been getting better.

[Jared]

I remember the OLD Finast in patchogue before it moved over into medford, and that store is now replaced also.

[nysw3636]

I remember Edwards in Poughkeepsie, NY before it was turned into a Stop and Shop around 2000. Stop and Shop eventually tore down the old Caldor and built a Super Stop and Shop. Was this Edwards most northern store in New York?

BDK

[maynesG]

Hi, The Finast in Millerton Ny near the Conn,. border was as far North as Finast went in the 60!s. ( In thr 1930!s First national had a store in Patterson Ny) Do you remember the original Finast/Safeway in Poukeepsie that the new store replaced ? A classice 1950!s white brick
Barrel roofed store with a tower.