Why was A&P so committed to being in Connecticut?

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retail_person_247
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Why was A&P so committed to being in Connecticut?

Post by retail_person_247 »

Anyone else notice how A&P somehow seemed committed to being in Connecticut?

The left the New England market in the mid to late 90's (where many of there stores were few and far between anyway), except for Connecticut.

A&P had stores in the state up until they went out of business as a whole in 2015.

When A&P started to bring their Canadian Food Basics brand to the U.S., there was a store in CT. (although, I believe that the store closed before 2015.)

A&P, at the time, were the owners of The Food Emporium, a New York chain that only had stores in New York. However, there was one store, that wasn't in the state of New York (not including the Kohl's Food Emporium stores that closed long before 2015), and that said store was located in New Canaan, CT. I believe that the store stayed open up until 2015 as well.

A&P also had a few liquor stores in the state.

I feel like I should also mention that at one point Waldbaum's & PathMark also had stores in Connecticut. The PathMark stores were closed years before the A&P acquisition and most of them were converted to "PathMark Super Drug" (a short lived drugstore concept by PathMark) before closure.

Waldbaum's acquired FoodMart (A local CT chain) and all stores in CT were branded as "Waldbaum's FoodMart", which were later rebranded as "A&P Super FoodMart"
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rich
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Re: Why was A&P so committed to being in Connecticut?

Post by rich »

Connecticut has a number of distinct submarkets--Hartford and New Haven, for example, are very different places, but the state is relatively affluent and despite very little population growth different parts have attracted new chains over time: For example, Shop-Rite has returned to the Hartford area and Springfield's Big Y has entered, as well.

If anything, A&P had less of a foot print in the old days in most of CT than they did elsewhere. The chain that was everywhere in CT was First National which had stores in virtually every town of any size into the 70s. First National was in every sizable business area in Greater Hartford in the 50s and 60s, where as A&P had many fewer stores. First National also extended into the NYC area--first in Westchester County and then more broadly when they bought Safeway's stores, which were not very successful for them. First National was more successful in CT than elsewhere in New England during its later years and that was the core of the stores they brought into the acquisition by Ahold and consolidation with Stop & Shop. First National aside, much of CT was very competitive for many years----local operators like those affiliated with Shop-Rite and those supplied by Sweet Life (later Supervalu), the local Popular Markets chain which was in parts of Central CT and the Springfield, Mass area, Stop & Shop, Food Fair, and Grand Union.

Waldbaum's was based on Long Island. Food Mart was based in the Springfield, Mass area--they had stores near Hartford by the early 60s, but built their footprint mostly by taking over former Grand Unions in Central CT. A&P bought Waldbaum's and got the Food Mart stores as part of that.

New Canaan is an affluent suburb of NYC, so it made sense for Food Emporium---A&P converted a number of stores to that format.

A&P shrank down to mostly being in Greater NYC (plus Philly), and CT was part of that. It was the same for Pathmark, before A&P bought them. If anything, the core of A&P's long-term commitment was NYC and vicinity. Their later competition was very local (multiple co-ops) and they were the one surviving major chain to be all over the area. You could ask the question of why they were able to persist there--it's an expensive place to operate and logistically complicated.
BillyGr
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Re: Why was A&P so committed to being in Connecticut?

Post by BillyGr »

retail_person_247 wrote: 12 Jun 2022 21:55 Anyone else notice how A&P somehow seemed committed to being in Connecticut?

The left the New England market in the mid to late 90's (where many of there stores were few and far between anyway), except for Connecticut.

A&P had stores in the state up until they went out of business as a whole in 2015.
Just to note - I found information that indicates that their last VT & NH stores were closed in 2003, and there were still some in MA later than those. Didn't find a date for those closing, but probably a couple years afterwards (so, maybe 2005 or so).

They also closed many CT stores in 2010 with their first Bankruptcy, so by the final closings they were down to just 5 stores (exclusive of liquor stores), and as Rich says they were all in towns quite close to NYC, making them more part of metro NYC than CT specifically.

So, they did stay in CT longer overall than the rest of NE, but more in the parts that are NYC oriented than anything.
Steve Landry
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Re: Why was A&P so committed to being in Connecticut?

Post by Steve Landry »

rich wrote: 15 Jun 2022 19:21 Connecticut has a number of distinct submarkets--Hartford and New Haven, for example, are very different places, but the state is relatively affluent and despite very little population growth different parts have attracted new chains over time: For example, Shop-Rite has returned to the Hartford area and Springfield's Big Y has entered, as well.

If anything, A&P had less of a foot print in the old days in most of CT than they did elsewhere. The chain that was everywhere in CT was First National which had stores in virtually every town of any size into the 70s. First National was in every sizable business area in Greater Hartford in the 50s and 60s, where as A&P had many fewer stores. First National also extended into the NYC area--first in Westchester County and then more broadly when they bought Safeway's stores, which were not very successful for them. First National was more successful in CT than elsewhere in New England during its later years and that was the core of the stores they brought into the acquisition by Ahold and consolidation with Stop & Shop. First National aside, much of CT was very competitive for many years----local operators like those affiliated with Shop-Rite and those supplied by Sweet Life (later Supervalu), the local Popular Markets chain which was in parts of Central CT and the Springfield, Mass area, Stop & Shop, Food Fair, and Grand Union.

Waldbaum's was based on Long Island. Food Mart was based in the Springfield, Mass area--they had stores near Hartford by the early 60s, but built their footprint mostly by taking over former Grand Unions in Central CT. A&P bought Waldbaum's and got the Food Mart stores as part of that.

New Canaan is an affluent suburb of NYC, so it made sense for Food Emporium---A&P converted a number of stores to that format.

A&P shrank down to mostly being in Greater NYC (plus Philly), and CT was part of that. It was the same for Pathmark, before A&P bought them. If anything, the core of A&P's long-term commitment was NYC and vicinity. Their later competition was very local (multiple co-ops) and they were the one surviving major chain to be all over the area. You could ask the question of why they were able to persist there--it's an expensive place to operate and logistically complicated.
And don't forget Food Fair had about 30 stores in CT.

😉
The Food Fair Empire
rich
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Re: Why was A&P so committed to being in Connecticut?

Post by rich »

Steve Landry wrote: 16 Jun 2022 09:50
rich wrote: 15 Jun 2022 19:21 Connecticut has a number of distinct submarkets--Hartford and New Haven, for example, are very different places, but the state is relatively affluent and despite very little population growth different parts have attracted new chains over time: For example, Shop-Rite has returned to the Hartford area and Springfield's Big Y has entered, as well.

If anything, A&P had less of a foot print in the old days in most of CT than they did elsewhere. The chain that was everywhere in CT was First National which had stores in virtually every town of any size into the 70s. First National was in every sizable business area in Greater Hartford in the 50s and 60s, where as A&P had many fewer stores. First National also extended into the NYC area--first in Westchester County and then more broadly when they bought Safeway's stores, which were not very successful for them. First National was more successful in CT than elsewhere in New England during its later years and that was the core of the stores they brought into the acquisition by Ahold and consolidation with Stop & Shop. First National aside, much of CT was very competitive for many years----local operators like those affiliated with Shop-Rite and those supplied by Sweet Life (later Supervalu), the local Popular Markets chain which was in parts of Central CT and the Springfield, Mass area, Stop & Shop, Food Fair, and Grand Union.

Waldbaum's was based on Long Island. Food Mart was based in the Springfield, Mass area--they had stores near Hartford by the early 60s, but built their footprint mostly by taking over former Grand Unions in Central CT. A&P bought Waldbaum's and got the Food Mart stores as part of that.

New Canaan is an affluent suburb of NYC, so it made sense for Food Emporium---A&P converted a number of stores to that format.

A&P shrank down to mostly being in Greater NYC (plus Philly), and CT was part of that. It was the same for Pathmark, before A&P bought them. If anything, the core of A&P's long-term commitment was NYC and vicinity. Their later competition was very local (multiple co-ops) and they were the one surviving major chain to be all over the area. You could ask the question of why they were able to persist there--it's an expensive place to operate and logistically complicated.
And don't forget Food Fair had about 30 stores in CT.

😉
I think they got as far North as New Britain where they shared downtown plaza with JM Fields. I don't think they had a presence in the Hartford area otherwise. I remember the store which was abandoned, along with a Grand Union (also abandoned) next to it. Probably a failed urban renewal project. I assume Grand Union took over from Food Fair but couldn't interest Food Mart in taking it over when they left the area in the late 70s. The JM Field's lasted until at least 1978.
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