Ithaca/Upstate New York former A&Ps

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drpep
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Ithaca/Upstate New York former A&Ps

Post by drpep »

This closed mid to late 90's. I think the last A&P in upstate NY.

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Last edited by drpep on 21 Dec 2008 21:54, edited 1 time in total.
TW-Upstate NY
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Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Actually, there were three A+P's in Upstate NY that I know of that were open after the timeframe in question. There were A+P Super Food Marts in Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake until at least mid-2000 or so both of which are now gone and there is a still operating A+P in Margaretville which is located in Delaware County. The A+P banner gets more plentiful the further you go down into the Hudson Valley closer to NYC but as far as Upstate "proper" so to speak, I'd say Margaretville is about it.
BillyGr
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Post by BillyGr »

TW-Upstate NY wrote:Actually, there were three A+P's in Upstate NY that I know of that were open after the timeframe in question. There were A+P Super Food Marts in Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake until at least mid-2000 or so both of which are now gone and there is a still operating A+P in Margaretville which is located in Delaware County. The A+P banner gets more plentiful the further you go down into the Hudson Valley closer to NYC but as far as Upstate "proper" so to speak, I'd say Margaretville is about it.
Yeah - it was strange - I was up that way (Saranac/Tupper) over a summer (July or Aug) and the stores were there, back the following January and they were closed. Kind of sudden, considering how long they had hung on (and the fact that neither town had other stores, aside from the then (or soon to be) bankrupt Grand Unions that eventually turned into Tops and recently back into Grand Unions - TWO of them in Saranac within a mile or two!).

Also - there was one A&P store in the Capital District that was open until April 1997, in the small village of Wynantskill, just outside of Troy. Again, this village had no other store (GU or PC weren't more than a 5-10 min ride) until Hannaford opened a store across the street - A&P didn't last long after that.

Existing now, after Margaretville (which, for those who might not be sure is west, and actually a bit North of Kingston - accessed via Rt 28 from Kingston and is quite a small store) the furthest North store would be Pleasant Valley (East of Poughkeepsie on Rt 44), which is still pretty far south, but it is a bit more sizable than Margaretville, though still smaller than some of the newer stores in NJ.

Another interesting point - the Margaretville store is (as noted) a Super Food Mart, which means it is connected to the remaining stores in Connecticut (along with former MA etc. stores), whereas Pleasant Valley is part of A&P Supermarkets division (which includes the rest of the Souther NY & NJ stores). Not sure how Margaretville got into that group (I think the ones in the Adirondacks were also)?
paul3124
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Re: Ithaca (Lansing) New York former A&P

Post by paul3124 »

After the era of massive closures in the mid to late 70s, 10 A&P stores remained scatterred throughout upstate NY. They were: Tannersville, Red Hook, Wynantskill, Norwich, Margaretville, Plattsburgh, Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, Ithaca, and Watertown. Since 2000, only Margaretville remains. Ithaca, Norwich, and Watertown were newer stores, built in the 70s, while others were older small stores. Saranac Lake may have been the oldest among them, having opened I think, in 1952.
sbtinme
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Re: Ithaca (Lansing) New York former A&P

Post by sbtinme »

In the late 1990s, I visited the A&P stores in Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, and Plattsburgh often with my job. The Sarancac and Tupper Lake stores felt very 1972ish to me, while the Plattsburgh store felt more like 1958! The Plattsburgh store was oddly dark and felt ancient. The strip plaza it was in was otherwise dark and vacant and the store signage on the front was exceptionally small and looked very inadequate. It was painfully obvious that A&P was simply limping along in Plattsburgh.

It's important to note in this thread that there were two relatively nearby stores to this cluster -- although both were in VT, just over the border. One in Essex Junction and the other in Middlebury. It was always my observation that these stores were better tended to and higher volume than their NY brethren. The Essex Jct store was an older 1970s store, but had been reasonably updated and had a steady business. The Middlebury store was a much more modern store that had a little of the feel of the A&P Futurestore (at least to me) in it. There was a lot of use of glass at the entryway and store front and the store did good business. When these two stores in VT closed, the Essex store became a Big Lots and the Middlebury store was reworked and remodeled into a shiny Hannaford!
maynesG
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Re: Ithaca (Lansing) New York former A&P

Post by maynesG »

I remember the A&P in Red Hook on Route 9 In Dutchess County. It was a verry well maintained Store and I believe that it also opened in the verry early 1950!s. It did not have
power belts. but pulls on its Check stands. It had and Iced Produce Rack and its wooden Meat Box served as the stores cutingroom. I have seen its twins in Bristol Conn and in West Chester PA. All of them now closed.
Also when these stores survived the store closings of the seventies one unitin Scotts Corners in Montgomeryville ny Orange County,survived untill the early 1980!S. It was staffed by people who had worked in stores from the Catskills and Orange County.
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nysw3636
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Re: Ithaca/Upstate New York former A&Ps

Post by nysw3636 »

Just thought I'd update this thread. A&P in Margaretville is now a Foodtown.
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