All Over Albany

Not-so-wild salmon, and other supermarket fish stories as detailed by the state Attorney General

More than one-in-four fish samples from supermarket chains around the state that were collected in a state Attorney General's office investigation tested as a variety of fish different from what they were being marketed as. That's from a report that the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) released Friday titled... "Fishy Business."

(Go on, insert your own fish pun or dad joke here.)

Investigators bought fish from 29 supermarket brands (155 locations) around the state and had it DNA tested. From the findings:

While mislabeling affected virtually every tested seafood category, there was rampant mislabeling of certain species. The results suggest that consumers who buy lemon sole, red snapper, and grouper are more likely to receive an entirely different fish. Similarly, consumers who bought what was advertised as "wild" salmon often actually received farm-raised salmon instead. Such consumers had often paid more money--on average 34% more--to avoid farm raised fish.

The substitutes were typically cheaper, less desirable species than the desired species. Snappers sold as red snapper, for example, tended to sell for half as much when properly labeled as another type of snapper. Some substitutes (e.g., lane snapper), had higher mercury levels or came from less sustainable fisheries than the desired species, raising consumer safety and environmental sustainability issues.

Environmental groups and advocacy orgs have been raising this issue going back five years or more. OAG says it believes this is the "first major government investigation in the U.S. to target seafood fraud at retail supermarket chains."

The report highlights that a large majority of the samples that tested as mis-labeled were bought at supermarkets downstate. And it provides a listing of all the supermarkets from which samples were purchased.

Here in the immediate Capital Region, the investigation included 32 samples from six chains: Fresh Market, Hannaford, Price Chopper/Market 32, Price Rite, and Walmart. None of those samples tested as mis-labeled. And the report singles out Hannaford for following some of the best practices in ensuring that the fish being sold is actually the fish being sold (pdf p. 25).

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Fresh Neighborhood Market

The Fresh Neighborhood Market -- a new corner grocery that's aiming to offer healthier options in Albany's West Hill neighborhood -- is now open on Judson Street near Clinton Ave.

Said owner Dileep Rathore when we stopped by this week to talk about the new store: "Come in, enjoy, and I hope I got it. And if I don't, I'll get it for you. I want to be a neighborhood deli."

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Rumored Price Chopper acquisition is now off, according to trade publications

Back in November Reuters reported that that the Golub Corp was in "advanced talks" about a potential sale of the Price Chopper/Market 32 supermarkets to Albertsons, the huge chain of chain based out west. And now this week the supermarket trade publications are reporting the deal is off.

From Food Trade News:

During the past six months, multiple financial sources told us that interest in the approximately 135-stores chain was far from robust with Albertsons emerging as perhaps the only bidder to acquire the whole company (reportedly minus real estate) for about $1 billion. ...

However, we were told that, just before 2016 ended, Albertsons elected not to pursue the Price Chopper purchase, opting instead to prioritize its effort to take the company public, something it first announced 18 months ago.

And from Supermarket News:

Price Chopper engaged the advisors last year as it sought additional capital investment for the purpose of funding the ongoing transformation of its stores from the Price Chopper banner to the Market 32 concept it introduced in 2014. Price Chopper has said that initiative would cost about $300 million over five years to convert roughly half of its 135 stores.

Sources told SN this week it was likely that Price Chopper would continue to seek avenues for new investment but that a strategic acquisition was unlikely with Albertsons off the table.

Both articles are interesting not just in the alleged specifics about the situation surrounding Price Chopper, but also how the big picture is about the sloshing motion of huge pools of capital. In some sense, Price Chopper -- a billion dollar company -- is just a cork in a vast ocean of money. (Alas, aren't we all.)

The Golub Corp never acknowledged the rumored deal back in November -- Neil Golub called the reports "nonsense articles coming from halfway across the country." And the company no-commented it again today. [Biz Review]

Earlier on AOA: The potential sale of Price Chopper would be a big deal (and not just because of the price)

A look around the new Save-A-Lot supermarket in Albany

The Save-A-Lot chain opened a new supermarket on Central Ave in Albany Thursday, just about two blocks west of Swinburne Park. It's the company's second store in the city, joining one on Delaware Ave.

The store is in a building that, in the immediate past, was an Albany Med office. But its earlier lives include time as both A&P and Star grocery stores. So it's new, but also kind of old.

Save-A-Lot is a discount chain that specializes in small-format stores -- at 20,000 square feet the Central Ave store is one of the smaller supermarkets in this area. And one of the location types it looks for is densely-populated neighborhoods, the sorts of neighborhoods that, at least in the Capital Region, have struggled to attract new supermarkets over the last few decades.

"We're like a well-kept secret from a lot of people even though we have 1,300 stores across the United States," said Tom Kallio, the northeast business unit director of Save-A-Lot, Thursday. "But because we don't have a big footprint, we don't make the big thunder."

Here's a quick look around the new store, along with a quick chat with Kallio about why the company seeks dense, urban neighborhoods.

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That time Price Chopper was the first supermarket to install self-checkout

A bit we stumbled over recently while doing history of Price Chopper research: The first supermarket self-checkout station was installed at the Price Chopper in Clifton Park in 1992.

The story of the tech's rollout at Price Chopper was part of a recent NPR Planet Money podcast about the self checkout, which focused the inventor of the devices, a Canadian doctor named Howard Schneider. Here's a clip (from about the 10:30 mark) -- Schneider's just had his pitch somewhat harshly turned down by Stop & Shop and he's discouraged. But he get's a meeting with Price Chopper:

The italics are the hosts talking.

The head person [at Price Chopper] actually saw the machines and he said, "I like it. Let's do it." And after that everyone's very nice.

The CEO says we're not going to buy the machines from you. But you can use one of our stores in Upstate New York as a real world experiment.

And on August 5, 1992, grocery store shoppers what may be, depending on your definition, what we're going to call the first fully-automatic check-out machines.

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The potential sale of Price Chopper would be a big deal (and not just because of the price)

The Madison Ave location in Albany, one of the company's small-format stores.

One of the big local news stories this week is the Reuters report that the parent company of Price Chopper is in "advanced talks" for a billion-dollar sale of the supermarket chain to Albertson's, a huge chain of chains headquartered out west.

The Reuters story is based on unnamed sources, and the central players are no-commenting it. (Neil Golub was a little more pointed in not addressing the story.) But the idea that the Golub Corp has been exploring some sort of sale or deal for Price Chopper/Market32 has popped up recently, most notably in a report in the trade journal Supermarket News this past August. And it fits with the overarching trend of consolidation withing the supermarket industry.

So, if a Price Chopper sale is in the works -- and that's still if -- it would be one of the biggest Capital Region news stories in recent years. Here are a few reasons why...

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Talking supermarkets with an industry analyst

Nope. / photo: Flickr user christine592 (CC BY-ND 2.0)

To cap off Supermarket Week, we thought it'd be interesting to get an outside view of the supermarket scene and why some chains do or don't end locating in metro areas. (Maybe there's a certain chain that springs to mind...)

So we got in touch David Livingston of DJL Research, a supermarket industry analyst, to talk a little bit about the scene.

Here are a few quick bits from the conversation -- about Price Chopper, Wegmans, and why some of the sought-after chains expand slowly...

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Supermarket Showdown 2016

New list, new stores.

It's back: Supermarket Showdown, in which check prices for a basket of 40 items across multiple supermarkets here in the Capital Region.

The showdown has taken a few years off -- the last time we did it was in 2012 -- and this year it returns with a new basket and three new stores.

Without further ado, let's get to it...

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Giving ALDI a try

The haul from Deanna's ALDI trip.

I find that I am often a bit naive about how Americans truly eat at home, regardless of the fact that I make a living from writing about food. I eat out a lot and I when I cook at home, it either leans towards the clean, healthy side (to counteract all the eating out) or it turns into a production somehow related to a story.

That's not to say I live in a vacuum, but I realize that sometimes my grasp of what the typical grocery run looks like it a bit slippery.

Lately, I've noticed plenty of friends, acquaintances, and colleagues talking about ALDI, the low-priced chain of grocery stores with European roots that's rapidly expanding. (According to the US ALDI website, the supermarket will have 2,000 US-based stores by 2018.)

I remember shopping at LDI with my Aunt Laura and her kids growing up. It was the first stop on the bi-weekly shopping trip, followed by Tops, Grand Union, and Price Chopper if absolutely necessary. The generic-looking packaging under ALDI private labels, the fact that you had to bring your own bags, and the way the entire system worked always gave me the impression that ALDI was low-quality.

Now, some of my favorite food enthusiasts shop there... and they won't settle for subpar. So there's got to be something worth checking out.

So I did.

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Recalling the grocery stores of Albany's past

The Empire Food Market -- "Albany's Premier Food Center" -- in the old Lyon Block building in downtown Albany. (The building was knocked down during the Empire State Plaza construction.) / via the Albany Public Library History Collection

The trick of time is that it passes slowly, and changes are incremental, so you can hardly notice it happening. The world of today looks mostly like the world of yesterday to us, and yet there have been a thousand little changes over the years that separate those worlds. When things change all at once, it seems a revolution, but when they change little by little, it just seems the passing of time.

Grocery stores are one example. Sure, 50 years ago, they were selling milk and meats, frozen foods and Cap'n Crunch, just as they are today. And yet everything about them has changed.

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What's a bit of supermarket shopping savvy that you can share with everyone here?

Drawing's closed and winner's been emailed!

It's back: Supermarket Week returns to AOA this week. We'll have a bunch of posts about supermarkets -- including a new version of the popular Supermarket Showdown price comparison -- because, well, we all have to eat.

To start things off, we have a drawing for a $100 gift card to the local supermarket of the winner's choice. To enter the drawing, please answer this question:

What's a bit of supermarket shopping savvy that you can share with everyone here?

The range of possible answers is very wide. Maybe it's a tip about how to play the coupon game. Or maybe it's the best local market for finding a certain item. Or maybe it's about your system for doing your shopping quickly. Or maybe it's the best way to pick out a certain type of fruit or vegetable.

We'll draw one winner at random. That person gets the $100 gift card of their choice. (The gift card must be to a supermarket in the four core counties of the Capital Region.)

Important: All comments must be submitted by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, November 16, 2016 to be entered in the drawing. You must answer the question to be part of the drawing. (Normal commenting guidelines apply.) One entry per person, please. You must enter a valid email address (that you check regularly) with your comment. The winner will be notified via email by noon on Thursday and must respond by noon on Friday, November 18.

Destination supermarket as development catalyst

Over at Politico New York, Jimmy Vielkind pitches the idea of using a Wegmans to anchor development at the former convention center site in downtown Albany. A clip:

The Rochester-based grocery chain has a nearly religious following in the areas of upstate New York where it operates, but there are no outposts in the Capital Region. In locating a store at the vacant site downtown, it could simultaneously provide a needed amenity for the struggling neighborhoods nearby and create a regional attraction that would draw people from the surrounding office towers and suburban communities.

Imagine a supermarket with a street-level cafe opening onto Hudson Avenue, beckoning to pedestrians along Broadway and Pearl Street or people in town for a show at the arena or a convention up the hill. Several floors of rental housing or condos above the store -- perhaps with requirements that some units be affordable -- that will give a further boost to the burgeoning residential options in the old business district and prevent the area between the Pastures and Sheridan Hollow, two predominately residential areas, from seeming lifeless after dark.

Call it the Wegmans effect, a development strategy for lagging urban areas rooted in designer cheese. Wegmans, or something like it, could do for Albany what Fairway did for Red Hook.

To be clear: There's no indication that Wegmans is actually considering this -- a spokesperson for Wegmans says as much to Vielkind, noting the company has looked at the Capital Region in the past but seen more opportunity in places such as Maryland and Virginia. And he figures it would take a push from Andrew Cuomo to make it happen.

The former convention site has been the subject of some intrigue recently because the Capital Region's Upstate Revitalization Initiative proposal included mention of an almost unbelievably big "catalyst" project there -- 1,200 housing units, more than 400,000 square feet of office space, and 295,000 square feet of retail. As you know, the Capital Region didn't get one of the $500 million grants. Before that, there had been a pitch to build an aquarium, which also fizzled. Now it's unclear what -- if anything -- is going to happen at the site.

One of the interesting angles to this topic is the question of whether downtown Albany should by vying for some sort of high-profile development piece like a Wegmans or (insert some other large, big-name retailer/project) -- or if it's better off cultivating the steady bit-by-bit development it's experienced in recent years.

Earlier on AOA:
+ The plan for the former Jillian's building, and cultivating retail in downtown Albany
+ Scanning the Capital Region's bid for half a billion dollars from the state
+ Wegmans? Really? Please explain.

New CEO for Price Chopper/Market 32 parent company

The Golub Corporation -- the privately-held parent company of Price Chopper/Market 32 based in Schenectady -- announced Wednesday that it has a new CEO. And notably, the person is not a Golub.

Scott Grimmett, who had been the company chief operating officer (he was the first non-Golub to hold that role), is succeeding Jerry Golub in the CEO role. Grimmett (that's him on the right) joined the Golub Corp in 2012 after working for Safeway for 37 years. He's been part of the company succession plan since he was hired, according to a press release.

Press release blurbage:

"This is an exciting time for our company," said Neil Golub, chairman of the board. "While international conglomerates and Wall St. continue to consolidate our industry, we are investing in our future as a strong, American-owned, family-built regional chain. The design work that we invested in Market Bistro (circa 2010-2014), coupled with the brand-defining innovation that has given rise to our first few Market 32 concept stores has not only laid the groundwork for our continued growth, but also fueled the acceleration of our plans to modernize our stores under the Market 32 banner. "

Jerry Golub is now vice chair of the company's board and will be leading a committee focused on accelerating the switch from the Price Chopper brand to Market 32, according to the press release.

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Electric City Food Co-op info meeting

The in-development Electric City Food Co-op -- "organizing to bring a community-owned, one-stop grocery market featuring local and bulk foods to the downtown area of Schenectady" -- has an informational meeting lined for this Saturday, January 16.

Project blurbage:

The Electric City Food Co-op hopes to expand market opportunities for local farmers and entrepreneurs, bring the healthiest and freshest foods to one of the food deserts of Schenectady on a full-time basis, offer greater opportunity for intentional eating, and strengthen the local economy by keeping our food dollars local.

Here's an FAQ on the co-op's website about its plans.

Co-op organizers say they've gotten financial commitments from 155 households so far. When it reached 300 households, they say they'll be able to begin the process of site selection. (And 1,000 member-owners will eventually be needed to open.)

The info meeting Saturday is at the Schenectady County Historical Society (32 Washington Ave in Schenectady) from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Steuben Street Market

There's a new grocery store in downtown Albany. The Steuben Street Market opened at 58 North Pearl Street for the first time Wednesday, and will be open seven days a week.

The market's opening is notable because a grocery store has been a missing piece in downtown Albany's ongoing evolution into a residential neighborhood. Roughly 1,000 new residential units have been added downtown during the last few years, and residents, developers, and other business owners have all mentioned that the addition of a grocery could mark an important turning point for the neighborhood.

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Conversations about the future direction of Honest Weight

This could be interesting: The Honest Weight Food Co-op is hosting a series of strategic planning sessions during May -- and they're open to everyone. Blurbage:

Now that the new store has been open for almost two years, Honest Weight is undertaking a strategic planning process that will rely on input from our members, shareholders, non-member shoppers, vendors, management, staff and other interested groups. We will create a shared vision of who we are as an organization and a business, what we wish to become, and how to get there over the coming years.

We'll be hosting 3 large community events across the Capital Region to bring people together for conversations that we hope will identify the perceptions and values we hold in common. We'll then use that information to help define ourselves into the future.

The first event is this Saturday, May 2 at RPI's Russell Sage Dining Hall (1649 15th Street in Troy) from 1-4 pm. There are also sessions planned for May 17 at the Desmond, and May 30 at St. Sophia's in Albany.

The co-op is asking people to pre-register for a session (and for one session only).

(Thanks, Cara)

The Honest Weight Food Co-op advertises on AOA.

The Best Dozen: Hannaford

We've enlisted Daniel B. to survey Capital Region donut shops -- and pick his favorite donuts -- for a short series called The Best Dozen.

Donuts are defined by their garnishes. Yeast-raised donut shells aren't very fun on their own. They require something extra to make them come to life. It can be as simple as a dusting of sugar. But part of the joy comes from the variety of toppings and fillings that make these fried rounds of dough a sweet treat.

A professional baker might be able to detail the technical difference between glazes, icings and frostings. For the purpose of this series, glaze is a clear sugar coating; icing is a thin, dense top coat; and frosting is what you typically find on cakes.

At Hannaford, many of the donuts from their bakery appeared to be frosted and drizzled with a fudgy icing. An abundance of caution and gut instinct told me to avoid the ones with bright red icing. Past experience ruled out the specimens covered in sprinkles.

But there were still plenty left to try in the search for the best dozen, including a cro-dough.

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Price Chopper CEO: Albany stores set for updates

The much discussed Delaware Ave store in Albany.

I'm the CEO of a supermarket chain that just announced it's changing its name -- ask me anything.

OK, that's not exactly how Golub Corp CEO Jerry Golub introduced himself on Facebook Friday afternoon. But the huge FB thread -- more than 500 comments -- took on an AMA-style feel with Golub fielding questions and comments about Price Chopper's impending name change and modernization campaign.

This response from Golub, to a question about the company upgrading its stores in urban areas, caught our eye and we thought it'd be interesting bit to people around the city of Albany (emphasis added):

Jerry Golub: We will also be updating our smaller and urban stores. The first will be our Delaware and Madison Avenue stores beginning early next year although they won't be getting the complete Market 32 identity right away. We want to introduce the complete Market 32 concept in the larger stores and then apply it to the smaller stores.

Update: We checked with a Price Chopper rep about the updates planned, and specific details aren't ready to be released yet. But the planned updates were described as part of the chain's overall modernization effort.

A few other exchanges that caught our eye...

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Around the virtual water cooler: Price Chopper name change

A rendering shared by Price Chopper on Facebook of the new Market 32 exterior design. (larger)

Everybody eats. And (pretty much) everyone shops for food.

So the news that Price Chopper is changing its name to Market 32 prompted a lot of reactions, even more so because the company is a local institution.

For a while on Tuesday our Twitter feed was jammed with people commenting, criticizing, cracking jokes about the change. It was the topic of the day at the virtual water cooler.

Here's a quick collection of a bunch of those tweets.

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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.

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Greulich's Market checks out

Greulich's Market in Guilderland, in business since 1949, has closed, according to its Facebook page. The Gazette's Bethany Bump reports the situation around the closing is unclear, and there was at least some indication that the store might still have a future.

Greulich's, near the border between Guilderland and Schenectady, was like something from another time -- a small, independent grocery store that focused on customer service. But the grocery business is a notoriously difficult industry with tiny margins. And as manager Robert Van Allen told Liz Clancy Lerner for AOA a few years back, Greulich's was feeling the pressure of staying small in a world of supermarket giants:

You gotta realize when you go into a big chain, their groceries are going to be cheaper; they'll always be cheaper because they buy railcar loads, where I buy one at a time. ...

The biggest change is that years ago Hannaford wasn't down here, the beverage center wasn't down here. So when the other places come in, probably our grocery business has gone down a little bit -- but our perishables are still way up there because we can offer a more personal touch to that. The beer business has gone down because that's gone to drugstores and discount beverage stores because they get a huge quantity.

But as Van Allen told Liz about managing a small, independent store: "You become tight knit and you're able to do things on your own [here] where in a chain you have to just follow the policy 'bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.'"

Poll: Multiple Cap Region supermarket chains rank above regional average

Yep, Wegmans does top this ranking of grocery store brands for the Northeast, as compiled by the polling firm Harris. But the thing that caught our eye about these rankings: Six grocery chains with presences in the Capital Region ranked above the category average for the Northeast -- and three of them are relatively new arrivals.

In descending order, those chains were: Trader Joe's (2), Whole Foods (3), ShopRite (4), Hannaford (5), BJ's Wholesale Club (Groceries) (6), and Price Chopper (9).

Other brands with local supermarket presences -- Aldi, Sam's Club, Target, and Walmart -- ranked below the regional average.

We gotta admit, we're not sure whether these sorts of lists actually tell us anything because they're not based on direct assessment/measurement/analysis of price/value/experience/whatever for the chains. That link at the top has a methodology section at the bottom -- basically, this was an (methodically done) online poll that asked people to rate brands. So, if anything, the rankings give some sense of to what degree people are fans (or not) of a certain brand.

For what it's worth, Wegmans and Trader Joe's also ranked 1-2 in the Consumer Reports' national ranking of supermarket brands this year. The CR rankings were also based on a survey of the public.

Earlier on AOA: Wegmans? Really? Please explain.

[via @rachbarnhart]

image: Harris Poll EquiTrend

Supermarket number gawking

A little bit of number gawking*: Whole Foods announced last week that it would be donating $11,303 to Capital District Community Gardens based on opening day sales at its new store at Colonie Center. The donation was 5 percent of sales from that day.

So, that donation figure points to Whole Foods doing something like $225,000 in sales that day. That seems like a pretty good first day.

For some perspective, Whole Foods stores averaged $719,000 in sales per week during the first quarter of this year, according to the company.

Of course, the opening day for a location is probably always going to be an outlier. But the (guessed) sales total points to the level of interest and shopping visits the opening was able to generate.

*We don't even know if number gawking is possible. Number noodling?

Checking out the Whole Foods at Colonie Center

The long awaited Whole Foods at Colonie Center opens this Wednesday.

We figured a lot of people will be curious, so we stopped by for the media tour Monday afternoon.

Here are a bunch of photos and a few thoughts...

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What would it take for a downtown Albany supermarket?

Maybe at the ESP? Maybe somewhere else?

Urban planning and development often prompt a lot of discussion here at AOA, so we thought it'd be interesting to have an actual urban planner look more closely at some of the topics that bubble up. Meet Alison Bates, who takes up the issue of a downtown Albany supermarket today.

As the discussion of downtown Albany's redevelopment progresses, the call for a neighborhood supermarket has become central to the conversation. A place close at hand to get good food if you live or work downtown, a way to avoid driving to a strip mall each week to do your grocery shopping -- many of us would like this.

Not only would it be a convenience, but it would speak loudly about downtown Albany. Downtown grocery stores are an important piece of a city's redevelopment. They're a classic urban amenity that sends a message that your downtown is doing well, and that breathing new life into your city is not only possible, it's already happening.

So what would it take to make this a reality? There are some sizable economic, political, and logistical challenges. But there is hope.

Let's look at some of the economics -- because urban planning usually comes back to the numbers (and because everyone secretly enjoys econometrics) -- and some different ways of thinking about the situation.

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