Gone are the days when grocery store shoppers are only looking for the best deals on identical products. Price Chopper’s executives are readying the company for a new market and targeting Latham as the “standard bearer” all other stores must measure up to.
Renovations are giving the Latham Price Chopper more than a fresh look and new layout, because prepared foods, a casual dinning experience and specialty food choices will soon present “chopper shoppers” with a top notch experience, according to Neil Golub, executive chairman of the Golub Corp. board. The local businessman has seen his fair share of grocery store trends and advancements, but a recent boom of local competition has created a new range of options for consumers. What has not changed, he said, is his company’s commitment to the area it calls home.
As the Capital District has attracted high-tech companies and grown, Golub said, other grocery stores have become attracted to the area. ShopRite and Trader Joe’s have both come to the area in recent years, and Wal-Mart is building a new, “neighborhood market” store in Niskayuna. The Latham store will act like a “laboratory” for Price Chopper, he said, and do things competitors aren’t.
“We intend to be in this business a long time,” Golub said. “You have to run like hell to stand still sometimes. We have the skill to take this experience to a whole new level.”
Golub offered The Spotlight a one-on-one tour of the partially renovated Latham store on Friday, Sept. 13, which he expects to see fully blossom by the end of the year.
“This will be our most spectacular store,” Golub said. “We want this store to be the standard by which all other stores in the area will be judged. This meant to be a statement to bring this community a pretty incredible store.”
Completely closing the grocery store and reopening later wasn’t an option, he said, so the store is being redone section by section as the vision is realized.
Holding a cup of Central Market brand coffee, he explained the first new section of the store, which used to be part of a department store. The total expanded Price Chopper is now 90,000 square feet.
“We are going to have here, what I call, a theme park of casual dinning,” he said. “The store is going to feature 16 different venues for casual dinning. There is no other store that I know of that is like it in terms of what we are doing. All of these dinning venues are going to be remarkable in their presentation of the foods that we offer.”
A stone fired pizza oven is featured in the open area of the new market. Golub said the company spent around four years looking at the pizza offering from across the country. He said the newer, thin-crust pizza has been getting rave reviews. A more traditional, thick-crust pizza will still be served.
To the right of the pizzeria is a Ben and Bill’s Deli, which is featured at a few other Price Chopper locations. Old World Provisions, a fourth-generation family business based in Albany supplies the meat. Golub commented on the variety of fresh pickles and smoked fish.
There is only a piece of the “full, complete Italian Market” and Golub promised it will be “something spectacular” featuring things such as a variety of hams and “huge barrels” of olives.
An eating area for 130 people will supplement the new prepared food offerings. There will also be a seasonal eating area outside to hold around 60 people.
Some of the prepared food offerings will include a soup station, salad area, rotisserie chickens, ribs, burgers, seafood and fish fry, subs and international burritos that can be ordered in various styles, such as Asian.
“We picked the most popular causal dining foods in America,” Golub said.
A cooking school dedicated to Rachael Ray will be up and running when the store is completed, too. An unusual offering Golub would only tease is there will be some sort of “Disney attractions” at the store.
Golub said it’s the “store of the decade” for the company. Since 1968, he has designed stores for the company and around every 10 years he said a major change is made in what stores look like. The plan is to incorporate elements of the Latham store at other locations.
Even with his focus on store offerings, he most often hears about his work outside of the aisles.
“The most common comment that people will make to me is thank you for what you do in the community,” he said. “My wife and myself, and our company, take our community very seriously.”