The Niskayuna Co-op Supermarket is planning to spruce up its store through a round of renovations that should be completed just in time for its 69th anniversary.
Donald Bisgrove, general manager for Niskayuna Co-op, said the store really hasn’t had any improvements since 2003 when a complete renovation of the store was done. The estimated cost to complete all the improvements is $200,000, which is hoped to start in April and be complete by the following spring. All the improvements are planned to be done at night or during off hours, so regular store hours would remain.
“In retailing you need to keep your stuff up to date,” Bisgrove said, “things change in eight years and things get tired and old looking.”
The flooring is the biggest issue at the market, he said, because of original work done in 1947. Now, he said the foundation for the floor is a little uneven. Outside of his office there were two different samples of flooring in place that employees were actively testing as they walked up and down the stairs. Also, he said the store is looking at new signage inside the store with new wall decor and some new lighting.
“We are not going to get real elaborate because everything basically is new,” he said.
The store is also looking at changing its register stands where customers check out, even though the current ones were purchased eight years ago. Bisgrove said the stands they’re eyeing are shorter and take up less space.
The style of new store isn’t going to have a contemporary appearance, but will include some “farm stand” styled elements. Bisgrove said it would help “perk the place up” with a new look alongside the wood paneled flooring.
The new ShopRite located across the street didn’t spur the changes, said Bisgrove.
“We started back a few years ago before ShopRite even talked about coming,” Bisgrove said. “We were getting over $10 million in sales and one of the biggest issues was parking, so we started looking at options for more customer parking.”
He said if the market were able to secure additional parking the store would look to expand out into the adjacent lot. Bisgrove had thought about putting a community room into the store and an area for cooking and other activities, but that is on hold for now.
“We had lots of good ideas and then we boiled down to what’s really practical,” he said. “From that we boiled it down to, let’s look at what we have and what we can work with. We did a survey of all of our members … and they basically liked what we had.”
Membership costs have remained at the same price since the 1940s, which is $5, he added. There are also exclusive coupons and savings sent to members.
“Since there aren’t as many independent stores out there the local market has gotten smaller,” he said. “It is getting a lot better.”
The desire to buy local and the popularity of farmers markets has helped the store attract new customers to the alternative market. Bisgrove said the produce can be purchased more locally in recent years.
Ben Wallach, marketing director for the Co-op said, “We can help them and they can help us … it is a part of sustainable agriculture, because we need to support local farmers.”
Bisgrove said there are a lot of “unusual” items at the Co-op that usually aren’t in chain supermarkets.
“I think the big thing is that we realize that our customers own us, so we are totally in tune to what customers ask us,” Bisgrove said. “We are not driven by any company out there that comes in and says we want so much shelf space … we don’t sell one inch of shelf space.”
What is on the shelves will continue to be what customers want, he said, because the customers have decided what the store sells.
Although most people might not know it, Nov. 10 isn’t the actual anniversary of the market.
“That came out of many years ago when I really didn’t know when the anniversary was,” Bisgrove said. “Thirty-six years ago when I came here they had a Meet the Manager week that week and I thought it was such a nice deal that we just called that our anniversary from then on.”
Now, it is just celebrated two weekends before Thanksgiving, said Bisgrove.
He puts the real anniversary falling on March 24 or sometime near the end of that month.
“We don’t know when it is,” he laughed.
