Price Chopper is rebranding itself as Market 32
Price Chopper's parent company announced Tuesday morning that it's rebranding as "Market 32," part of larger campaign to modernize its stores. The "32" is reference to the chain being founded in 1932.
The company says the new stores will have "expanded food service options, an enhanced product mix and a re-emphasis on customer service."
From a press release:
"Market 32 represents the next leap forward for our company. We have evolved from the Public Service Market to Central Market to Price Chopper by responding to customers' changing needs over time and Market 32 is the next natural progression for us," said Neil Golub, Price Chopper's executive chairman of the board. "Early learnings gleaned from our Market Bistro concept store have put our next generation in an excellent position to make this move today." ...
"Market 32 combines what we are hearing from our customers and what we are learning at Market Bistro with some of the best thinking in the retail industry, and will focus on delivering a distinctively different shopping experience to our customers. Our stores will meet customers' needs today and for decades to come. Most importantly, though, we will continue to offer great value for great food and service," said Jerel Golub, Price Chopper's president and CEO.
That the Golub Corp, PC's parent company, is looking to up its game chain-wide isn't surprising. The supermarket industry is famously competitive and intense.
The Capital Region is a good example: in just the past few years competition here has scaled tremendously with the return of ShopRite, upscale competitors such as Fresh Market and Whole Foods and Healthy Living Market, the long-sought Trader Joe's, and already-established local players such as Hannaford and Honest Weight renovating and building new. And of course, there's also competition from Walmart and Target and Aldi and other players.
When the Market Bistro concept store opened in Latham earlier this year, company officials emphasized that it would be used to test new ideas that could be spread to its other stores. And it sounds like the mentioned Market 32 elements -- like the expanded food service options -- are in line with that goal.
The company says the first three Price Choppers to undergo the switch will be locations in Clifton Park, Wilton, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A new store in Sutton, Massachusetts will be built from the start as a Market 32. It projects that more than half of its 135 stores will be converted in five years.
Later on AOA: Around the virtual water cooler: Price Chopper name change
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Comments
One word: Wegmans!
... said komradebob on Nov 11, 2014 at 11:18 AM | link
kills me how the R and K connect to make one uhhh letter...
anyway this will be good!
... said J. Welf on Nov 11, 2014 at 11:31 AM | link
Can't they just sell to Wegman's already!?!?!?!
... said abc on Nov 11, 2014 at 11:55 AM | link
Anything is better than the hatchet logo and failed promises of everyday low prices. Not that they don't have good sales, but the savvy value conscious shopper isn't filling up their cart at the Price Chopper.
Count another vote in the "good move" column.
... said Daniel B. on Nov 11, 2014 at 12:02 PM | link
It's about time. I like the store just fine, but Price Chopper has to be the corniest and most dated grocery store name still around.
It's so ingrained into the local culture that I think it's just accepted without thought. I think i was a teenager when I finally got it. Oh, I see it's an ax and a quarter, they are chopping prices, and then I rolled my eyes because that's too corny to even be real.
... said Doreen on Nov 11, 2014 at 12:18 PM | link
Rebranded food tastes better and is better for you. Especially when it includes an enhanced product mix.
... said Bob on Nov 11, 2014 at 12:24 PM | link
Why do I have a feeling the Deleware Ave. Price Chopper will remain a Price Chopper forever, even while all the other ones are updated.
... said acw on Nov 11, 2014 at 1:03 PM | link
Hannaford, if you're listening, please don't change!!
... said Fox on Nov 11, 2014 at 1:28 PM | link
Not a huge fan of the new name - somehow I get the feeling that it will sound as equally dated as "Price Chopper" in a couple of decades, but if this is what it takes to get them to remodel their stores (looking at you, Delaware Avenue), I'm all for it.
... said Frank on Nov 11, 2014 at 1:40 PM | link
Oh, please, please, get your campaign yard sign gurus to critique that logo. I want to hear Doug Bartow's snark on that one.
As for corny and dated, PC has been running some recent television spots that are so retro (in the bad sense, not the good sense) that they are pathetic. Sit com type scenarios where the wife puts down the clueless husband, an overbearing father puts down his dullard kids as some kind of humor. These ads say it all to me about PC being stuck back in some other era. So I'm skeptical about their modernizing effort to not seem so 1932.
... said chrisck on Nov 11, 2014 at 1:49 PM | link
get your Ghetto Chopper t-shirts now smallbany! ;-)
... said lynnb on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:11 PM | link
Am I the only one surprised that they didn't go with their already established Central Markets name?
... said abby on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:33 PM | link
You have to admit: This 'rebranding' is great for getting some free advertising.
... said Bob on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:36 PM | link
My eyes! My eyes! I've lost my sight after having witnessed that travesty of a logo!
I'd call on the parishioners of that church in Watervliet to help, but it seems it was replaced with a grocery store.
... said J on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:54 PM | link
I'll accept any name and logo they want to put in place if it means improvements to the Delaware Ave location.
... said Paul on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:22 PM | link
You'd think it'd be more cost effective just to improve their crummy customer service by paying and training their employees better. That's why Wegmans is popular; it's not about fancy stores.
... said Dan Roesser on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:50 PM | link
Price Chopper has inspired me. I'm talking to my PR person right now about rebranding as 'Bob 52'....
... said Bob on Nov 11, 2014 at 4:04 PM | link
Perhaps Price Chopper's rebranding gurus should have devoted more time and research to picking a name that links the word "market" and "32." On July 8, 1932 the New York Stock Exchange fell to its lowest level of the Great Depression. Price Chopper indeed!
... said Ken Picard on Nov 11, 2014 at 5:19 PM | link
Who cares about the name? I mean really. Are the products going to change? Are their core values and fundamental structure going to change? No.
Agreed with chrisck above. Their current marketing campaign is cheesy and laden with sitcom-TV-esque family stereotypes. I think they should focus more on their messaging and core values, and forget about a name change. But I'm sure it will get more people into the store, if only for curiosity's sake.
... said Danika Atkins on Nov 11, 2014 at 5:38 PM | link
We've been saying it on the MEDIA ZONE for years.. They had to change the name.. they ain't CHOPPING prices over there,, http://youtu.be/WrbIeFWbzoQ
... said Media Zone on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:01 PM | link
Market 32? This is the best they could come up with? Actually it probably is if you consider how Market Bistro is obviously the genius idea of combining a Wegmans and the Schaghticoke Fair. Really, pay your people more, train them, keep them happy and nobody cares what the name is.
... said Big 'Vic' Proton on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:03 PM | link
Yea... agreed. The Capital District could use a Wegmans.
... said Andrea on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:33 PM | link
It has been Price Chopper since before I was born and I can't imagine I will be changing it any time soon. Heck I still catch River Rats games at the Knick and shop at Mohawk Mall and CCM. Thanks Golubs for giving young whippersnappers more excuses to mock me!
I really am rooting for this company to survive. They have been coming under tremendous competitive pressure these past few years and I support whatever they do to update themselves. The company is an institution in this area who is committed to supporting local causes. I would hate to see it sold to a competitor elsewhere and loose the ties to the community.
... said Laura on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:55 PM | link
"Learnings"?? Holy crap, somebody get Neil Golub a dictionary.
My guess would be that they're trying to move away from the idea of being a "price-chopper," 'cause they're not -- their prices are the highest in the area (aside from Whole Foods, which is sort of a different animal).
... said KB @ Home-Baked Happiness on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:06 PM | link
It is not a bistro.
Just call yourself Gollup's grocery.
Have Ben & Bill's products in more stores.
Teach employees to be polite, knowing, and upbeat, and i will be happy.
... said mg on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:54 PM | link
This is the second time in my memory that 'ol Price Chopper has taken to a graphic design fix. Way back in '89 the market made news not for a new logo, but for what they removed from it...
... said daleyplanit on Nov 11, 2014 at 8:41 PM | link
Maybe the Kansas City(no relation) Price Chopper is looking to move into our area =] http://www.mypricechopper.com/
... said mike e on Nov 11, 2014 at 9:18 PM | link
In related news, Hannaford has announced it will be renaming its stores to Average Joe’s.
... said Craig Patik on Nov 12, 2014 at 7:55 AM | link
I don't have a problem with the new name. But they must rebrand the Delaware Ave store as Ghetto Chopper.
... said ponce on Nov 12, 2014 at 9:24 AM | link
What the heck is that thing over the "2" supposed to be???
... said Jessica R W on Nov 12, 2014 at 11:34 AM | link
$300 million, huh? I'm sure their employees are glad that money is being put to good use.
Also, the Delaware Ave. branch won't be the last to get the renovation. My pick is the ignored and pint-sized Cohoes branch which will get its new sign around 2027.
... said Ryan on Nov 12, 2014 at 12:08 PM | link
@Jessica R W -- it could be a leaf, but it also looks like a diacritic mark you'd find over a letter indicating pronunciation. Either way it doesn't make such sense. I guess it's just added for flair and to look fancy.
... said chrisck on Nov 12, 2014 at 12:20 PM | link
The company is an institution in this area who is committed to supporting local causes. I would hate to see it sold to a competitor elsewhere and loose the ties to the community.
If pushing for the demolition of a 123 year old church (that had just had a brand new 100-year rated $800,000 roof put on it a decade ago, funded by parishioner donations), the destruction of a stand of solid and healthy old growth maple trees, and the ruining the quiet residential character of a neighborhood (which was allowed after an entire city block was rezoned just to permit the store to be built) is the way that a local institution that is "committed to supporting local causes" behaves, perhaps their replacement with with an outside competitor wouldn't be such a bad thing. As the saying goes, "With friends like these . . ."
... said EL on Nov 12, 2014 at 3:48 PM | link
Market 32 by Price Chopper? I think we need to summon Jimmy McMillan here. The. Name. Is. Too. Damn. Long. This is Branding 101 stuff. Brand names over three syllables get shortened:
Federal Express -> FedEx
Beverages & More -> BevMo
Coca-Cola -> Coke
Even many three syllable names get cropped:
Budweiser -> Bud
Chevrolet -> Chevy
Sears Roebuck -> Sears
"Mar-ket-thir-ty-two" does not exactly roll off the tongue, and it doesn't mean anything significant to the consumer. Who but the Golubs care that the company started in 1932? How will they simplify the name when people tire of saying Market 32? Just "32"? It's plain annoying, and I don't even shop there. /rant
... said D on Nov 15, 2014 at 1:09 PM | link
My dad has been the meat manager for maybe twenty years at one of the stores. He said they changed the name because "Price Chopper" no longer represents them as a company. They're not about low prices--they're about quality and selection, or at least that's their aim. The company was founded in 1932, hence the name Market 32.
... said Owen on Apr 22, 2015 at 11:26 PM | link
@Owen -- my 83 yr. old father was born in 1932. Much as I love him, I don't see him, his birth year, or the Great Depression as a symbol of a modern seeming brand.
... said chrisck on Apr 23, 2015 at 10:00 AM | link
Market 32 should...needs to incorporate Half Pints or maybe rename it Market Pints. Parent's tend to purchase more when they're able to shop at ease. When I told my 6 years old kid there would be no more Half Pints she cried. We're going to say farewell today. Half Pints East Greenbush will be missed.
... said Tia on Feb 28, 2016 at 11:31 AM | link
New PriceChopper 32 in Burlington VT seems minimalist,sterile atmosphere, lots of narrow food cases not holding much and way-too-wide grey cart aisles, no colosr, hard to see down the aisles, have to almost get in front of selections to see what's there. Soap section stuck in a corner., I could have cried to lose the best super market in Vermont with its color and abundance to this strange new and boring idea.
... said Edie Browning on Sep 14, 2018 at 9:36 PM | link