Grand Union

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TW-Upstate NY
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Joined: 18 Sep 2006 20:45

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

I was in that Milford store right after the C+S takeover and at the time it had a GU decor package from the late '70's very early '80's and seemed to be in very good shape-beautiful small(er) to medium sized store.
carljohnson
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Joined: 30 Dec 2007 10:33

Re: Grand Union

Post by carljohnson »

Just for interest, here's a photo of a '60s/'70s era Grand Union sign from Scotia, NY (Schenectady County):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carljohnson/6837168/
Attachments
Grand Union grocery store sign, Scotia, New York
Grand Union grocery store sign, Scotia, New York
6837168_40b32cf1c4_m.jpg (5.43 KiB) Viewed 15161 times
capecodder
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Location: Massachusetts

Re: Grand Union

Post by capecodder »

Grand Union Family Market in South Yarmouth, Mass. (Cape Cod, Mass.) just shut its doors in early December -- to be reopened as a Stop-n-Shop. This particular Grand Union first opened as an A&P FutureStore in 1987. GU bought it in 2003, I think.
todaresq

Re: Grand Union

Post by todaresq »

In the Binghamton area... 607 area code there was quite a few... as well as many Great Americans.

Grand Union had stores at:
33 West State Street in Binghamton - Now empty space used as flea market space.

4700 Vestal Parkway East in Vestal - Torn down to make room for student housing for the nearby university after being a Dollar Bazaar store for a few years.

150 Vestal Parkway West in Vestal - Now a Big Lots after being Vacant for about a decade.

1240 Upper Front St in the town of Chenango - Now a Giant Food Market... not the larger chain... but a local http://www.giantmarkets.com/ ... They also have a store at 1290 Upper Front Street. They bought the plaza at 1240 which housed an Ames as well as the GU to prevent Wegman's from doing so. They also bought the plaza at 1318 Upper Front St which housed a Great American for the same reason... and it was demolished for a Lowe's Home Improvement.

800 Hooper Road in Endwell - Now also a Giant Food Market. Giant had a free standing store just up the hill, but that was closed after Giant bought the plaza and enlarged the GU location to handle the new layout.

527 Endicott Plaza in Endicott NY - well, I am using the KMart address since that is the only building left at the moment. It is accessed either through the McDonald's on Main St. or Harrison Av. Which is the closest St. and entrance to the Grand Union.

I think I got them all.
umtrr-author
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Joined: 18 Sep 2007 18:19

Re:

Post by umtrr-author »

(snip) Of course, Grand Union as a company no longer exists, but there ARE still stores with the Grand Union name (actually GU Family markets, but most of the older stores still have the onld name on them) - currently 36, 22 in NY (including several just re-opened under the GU name which Tops had been running since the bankruptcy), 8 in VT, 1 in CT, 1 in PA, and even 4 in MA! (which they bought from A&P when A&P left all of New England except CT). http://www.gufamilymarkets.com if you want more current info.
[/quote]

It appears that the Tops Market in Au Sable Forks, NY is one of these. (ASF is roughly between Plattsburgh and Lake Placid.) Last time I visited it was still a Grand Union; I guess I missed the entire "Tops Era" there as it's showing as a Grand Union (Family Markets) again in 'net lookups and the Tops website no longer shows Au Sable Forks as a store location.
levittownbob

Re: Grand Union

Post by levittownbob »

I recall the Grand Union in Roosevelt Field in the 1960's..it was next to a Ice skating rink. My Mom had stamps from there and I had my first fish tank using the stamps!
RoleModel

Re: Grand Union

Post by RoleModel »

What former Suffolk, LI locations were there? Here's the ones I knew:

- Deer Park: now Stop & Shop
- Commack/Smithtown?: now Waldbaums
- Downtown Sayville: now Stop & Shop
- West Islip: now Stop & Shop

I was only a kid when GU was around, so I really wasn't aware of most of them. Does anyone know of any others that were in Suffolk?
GreatAmericanBagBoy
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Joined: 29 Apr 2009 15:57

Re: Grand Union

Post by GreatAmericanBagBoy »

todaresq wrote:In the Binghamton area... 607 area code there was quite a few... as well as many Great Americans.

1240 Upper Front St in the town of Chenango - Now a Giant Food Market... not the larger chain... but a local http://www.giantmarkets.com/ ... They also have a store at 1290 Upper Front Street. They bought the plaza at 1240 which housed an Ames as well as the GU to prevent Wegman's from doing so.
Not to nitpick too much, but one minor quibble; neither Giant nor the Akel family owns the plaza at 1240, despite attempts to purchase the lot over the years. The plaza is owned by a New Jersey developer, hence the Akel's renting the space. Word when the Grand Union went out was that other chains were looking to rent the space, so Akel's snapped it up to prevent P&C, a then-expanding Tops, or others from getting in to compete. I would kill for a Wegman's to be located on Upper Front Street in Binghamton. The Giant (Now owned by Weis) was a lousy chain but had a stranglehold on Broome County.
Jared
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Posts: 69
Joined: 01 Mar 2006 23:47
Location: PA

Re: Grand Union

Post by Jared »

RoleModel wrote:What former Suffolk, LI locations were there? Here's the ones I knew:

- Deer Park: now Stop & Shop
- Commack/Smithtown?: now Waldbaums
- Downtown Sayville: now Stop & Shop
- West Islip: now Stop & Shop

I was only a kid when GU was around, so I really wasn't aware of most of them. Does anyone know of any others that were in Suffolk?
Port Jeff - Meat Farms now
Commack - Meat farms now
Massequa (spelled wrong) - now pathmark, it had a FULLY intact GU interior, until pm remodeled it and expanded it three years ago
Patchogue - Strip of diff stores now
Smithtown - Became a Pathmark and now a Walbaums
Brentwood - small independent store now, VERY small store, very old location on 5th ave.
West Hempstead - became a pathmark but recently closed in the past 6 months.
RoleModel

Re: Grand Union

Post by RoleModel »

Jared wrote:
RoleModel wrote:What former Suffolk, LI locations were there? Here's the ones I knew:

- Deer Park: now Stop & Shop
- Commack/Smithtown?: now Waldbaums
- Downtown Sayville: now Stop & Shop
- West Islip: now Stop & Shop

I was only a kid when GU was around, so I really wasn't aware of most of them. Does anyone know of any others that were in Suffolk?
Patchogue - Strip of diff stores now
I can't picture where the Patchogue one would have been. Where exactly was it?

If I were to take a random guess out of thin air...either somewhere on 112 or that shopping center across from the Health Center on Main Street.
Jared
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Joined: 01 Mar 2006 23:47
Location: PA

Re: Grand Union

Post by Jared »

The Heath center on main street was once an old Hills Supermarket before they moved into north patchogue (waldbuams is here now).

You know right after mainstreet an 112 meet, theres a shopping center with a 711, carvel and a few other lil stores, well that was the GU. Where the clothing store was ,next to 711 is where the old entrance to it was.

One more location, looks like the port jeff one, Lake Grove right before the mall, the burlington coat factory on the south side of 25 4 lights before the smithhaven mall was an OLD GU also. probably 40+ years old.


Block buster was an OLD Finast, before they opened the Finast super store on 101 which that store is now gone replaced by a , what else is new, a brand new StopNshop.
Last edited by Jared on 27 Sep 2009 20:39, edited 1 time in total.
Jared
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Joined: 01 Mar 2006 23:47
Location: PA

Re: Grand Union

Post by Jared »

And I might add, right next to the patchogue post office, was an OLD OLD OLD 1930's (EARLY 30's) A&P that was open straight to the late 80's, even when they had the second A&P down the road off of sunrise (near pathmark).

If you drive by and look into the store, original lights and everything inside, but pretty dirty looking now =[. I was wondering, Where it says C B S on the building, each letter in a different box, could those box's once held W E O in them?
krogerclerk
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Location: Northwest Georgia

Re: Grand Union

Post by krogerclerk »

Was Grand Union ever in the Philadelphia region? This thread is why I'm asking this:http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... =16&t=2757

One of Grand Union's predecessor companies began in Scranton, PA which would indicate that the chain had at least been in Northeast Pennsylvania if not in the Philly region. Also the chain had a long standing presence in the Washington, DC area and a more miniscule presence in Baltimore,which would have meant leapfrogging over the Philadelphia region. Leapfrogging would not have been out of the question as the company also had a Miami, FL division until the 1980's.

My suspicion is that the presence likely predated WWII and the modern supermarket era if it had a Philly operation. Food Fair and Penn Fruit built some of the regions first supermarkets, which were typically high volume and large for the era while Acme and A&P with their high store counts were dominant and replaced their stores with supermarkets over a longer period of time, still having several pre-war units operating into the 1970's. It looks like Grand Union lacked the "economy of scale" and withdrew from the region in face of converting to the supermarket format.
maynesG
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Location: DELAWARE

Re: Grand Union

Post by maynesG »

Hi,I too ka look at Lackawana County where Scranton is located and I am just Guessing that it is just possible that G.U. to the counties in New York that are adjacent to this county ( Broome to the North,Delaware county ny to the North East and Sullivan county to the East allplaces that Gu had stores to the verry end. places that were close and similar to Scranton.
Philadelphia even the was a bigcity a decent distance from Scranton with higher rents and with a lot of competition. Then again perhapsthey did experiment in Philadelphia.
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: Grand Union

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

I posted this some time ago but I'll say it again: I lived in the Scranton, Pa./NE Pa. area from late '66 to mid '80 and NEVER knew of even a single Grand Union in the immdeiate area. The closest one was the Milford, Pa. unit referenced earlier in this thread. You had to cross into NY state to find them in any quantity. The chain may have been founded in Scranton but they had no presence there by the time I arrived there and it's doubtful they had any stores there after I left the area.
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