It’s now a little harder to find a parking spot at the former St. James Square in Niskayuna.
Now ShopRite Square, the plaza has been revitalized, along with a 55,000-square foot building that sat vacant since 2004 at the heart of Niskayuna off Balltown Road. Two other grocery stores have previously left the site, with Farm Fresh closing after six months and Grand Union leaving in 2001, but the $12 million endeavor is a bet ShopRite is standing behind.
Store representatives for months have touted the market as a “neighborhood” store and sought input from residents. The company looked at the community to fill its 350 jobs at the new store too.
Niskayuna Supervisor Joe Landry said the lines were stretching out the door and police were directing traffic during the opening on Sunday, Oct. 2. The new location is the 30th ShopRite supermarket to open and the first in the Capital District. Several months of anticipation led to a bustling opening day.
“It might have been the best opening they have had for any of their stores,” Landry said.
Tom Urtz, vice president of Human Resources and Community Affairs for ShopRite, said the opening day turnout did exceed expectations.
“The response was much better than we anticipated … the people seemed very pleased and overall very patient. All things considered, it was a very busy day, but a very positive experience,” Urtz said. “There was a lot of energy in the building, a lot of enthusiasm, especially from the people that came very early to shop.”
He said since the store opened he has received a lot of positive comments from people and added that shoppers were pleased with store employees.
“They really, really like the people that are working here,” he said.
One of the features touted by the supermarket is the Health and Wellness Center, which includes an onsite registered dietitian, Sarada Bernstein.
“We really want to be the destination for health and wellness, a resource for any questions you might have about cooking tips to recipes to individual counseling,” Bernstein said. “It is really whatever the customer needs.”
Cooking demonstrations are held weekly at the center, which features a healthy recipe and might include different food choices people are “hesitant to make on their own,” Bernstein said. Also, she said the previous store she worked at in Kingston did a lot of community outreach, which can be offered locally if requests are made.
“We could even come in and do a hands-on demo,” she said.
A feature Bernstein touted was the 84 feet of shelves offering gluten free choices, which is separated from the rest of the food items.
“If they need a gluten free bread … it doesn’t make much sense to have it integrated,” she said. “We are really like a one stop for people with gluten sensitivity and it is a growing population.”
Urtz said ShopRite has been out in the community since Niska Day and held more than 100 different meetings with various community members to find out what they wanted from the supermarket. This helped the store focus on certain items and local offerings, such as offering Villa Italia baked goods.
“We did food tastings in people’s homes … anything to get our foods in front of customers and then understand from them what they are looking for in their local store,” Urtz said. “We wouldn’t be able to get that information if we didn’t go out and talk to the consumers.”
The store also has a cheese department with its own full-time staff ready to custom cut more than 100 cheeses, but the total selection includes more than 250 varieties, said Augie Reyes, director of deli and prepared foods. The “cheese shop” is his favorite aspect of the store.
It is hard to miss the huge cheese log dangling next the cheese department, which is around 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide.
“It took 12 of us to actually get it up there,” Reyes said. “What we’re going to be doing eventually is … guess the weight contests, so all the customers can come and try to guess the weight. We’re offering different types of prizes.”
Visiting the grill station, customers will be able to order a variety of cook-to-order selections and two Culinary Institute of America graduates were hired to serve up breakfast, lunch or dinner.
ShopRite also has its own fishery staffed with onsite U.S. Department of Commerce inspectors to ensure the quality of the seafood, which allows the supermarket to accommodate special orders to fulfill unique seafood requests.