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New York: Bohacks

Posted: 16 Sep 2006 19:37
by turbocsx
Does anyone remember Bohacks in New York? What ever happened to them. I used to work with a guy at king kullen and he would talk about how he started in the business with Bohacks. I never saw one, but I think some of the OLD, small, brick a&p's were originally bohacks. There was one in centereach and one in ronkonkoma that I know of.

Bohacks "The Meat People"

Posted: 17 Sep 2006 11:12
by John Michael
I sure do remember Bohack. I also worked with a few former Bohack people back when I also worked for King Kullen - in the deli department. Bohack had nothing to do with A & P though. If I recall correctly, almost every town had a Bohack. They were all over Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. We even had one in Southampton, as well as Riverhead, Hampton Bays, Westhampton, as so on. However, I was most impressed with the size of the one in Masapequa or was it in Massapequa Park. They were known as the "Meat People" in my day. I believe that in was in 1978 that the chain closed. Oh yes, I remember Bohack with their big red letters. I cannot believe that you also worked for King Kullen. Which King Kullen did you work at. I was in store #17, Bridgehampton for a long time - also a long time ago.

Posted: 20 Sep 2006 21:13
by turbocsx
where in riverhead was the bohack's?

Re: New York: Bohacks

Posted: 07 Oct 2006 00:14
by Jared
turbocsx wrote:Does anyone remember Bohacks in New York? What ever happened to them. I used to work with a guy at king kullen and he would talk about how he started in the business with Bohacks. I never saw one, but I think some of the OLD, small, brick a&p's were originally bohacks. There was one in centereach and one in ronkonkoma that I know of.
The on in centereach became a A&P. Then in the early 90's, Pathmark leveled most of the store, and put a new store up.

The Islip Bohacks was taken over by Pathmark also. I worked in that store before, Cool thing is, they kept half the store how it was set up in Bo's. It was recently doubled in size though.

Posted: 07 Oct 2006 07:03
by turbocsx
ok. that's interesting about the one in centereach. because a&p originally had a store on the other side of the street about a 1/2 mile west of the present day pathmark. it was one of their old brick stores. that store was still standing till recently. i was over there about a month ago and itwas being leveled and something else was being done to the site.

Posted: 09 Oct 2006 21:50
by John Michael
Hey Turbocsx: My mistake. There were two (2) A & P stores in Riverhead. My father set me straight on this. I confused the one that was located off of Main Street as a Bohack. There were no Bohack's Markets in Riverhead. However, the Bohacks in Southampton was recently raised to make room for the expanding Drug Store that was located next to it for some years. It had been an IGA for about twenty (20) years now. The interior remained the same as for as long as I could remember. The original Bohack in Southampton is still standing but it is a number of smaller stores located on Main Street. Oh well, progress.
Michael

Posted: 09 Oct 2006 22:20
by Jared
turbocsx wrote:ok. that's interesting about the one in centereach. because a&p originally had a store on the other side of the street about a 1/2 mile west of the present day pathmark. it was one of their old brick stores. that store was still standing till recently. i was over there about a month ago and itwas being leveled and something else was being done to the site.
Oh, I thought there was an A&P right before that mall on the southside. Where the burlington coat factory is now. It looks like it was one. I know what bldg you are talking about that was recently leveled. I remember the Cur. City near the mall was a pathmark until around 1994. I remember when the Stop N shop on the south side was an Food Town. I remember when pathmarked took over that old A&P and gutted it and expanded it. My friends dad opened that store as the store manager in 94-5ish.

Bohacks in Queens

Posted: 17 Dec 2006 22:51
by RobJC
I know of these locations:

Rego Park-63rd Drive-became Met Food right after closing
Forest Hills - Austin St. - became a Lucille Roberts gym (was vacant for years after closing)
Forest Hills - 108th St. - became a drug store called Bialows - now a Rite Aid
Maspeth - Fresh Pond Rd. - now a Met Food (or was) - the old red B was visible around the Met Food sign.
Middle Village - Metropolitan Ave. - big big store - became a Waldbaums

Part of the reason Bohack's closed was because there was a lot of ingrained cash theft in the stores at the bookkeeper/cashier level. I think that's interesting given that you couldn't sneeze at Waldbaums w/o getting a reprimand.

Re: New York: Bohacks

Posted: 13 Mar 2009 12:14
by endlessroad
I used to work for Bohacks from 1964 to 1966 both part-time and full time. The store was in Lynbrook, on Sunrise Hwy. A few things I remember was wooden floors that creaked when you walked on them. And, the NY area blackout of 1965. I was at the rear store checkout when the lights went out and the cash register was so old that it had a hand crank next to it. So I just kept checking and had to pull the hand crank after each item purchased. I loved working in that store; it was a real piece of work.

Re: New York: Bohacks

Posted: 13 Mar 2009 18:07
by maynesG
Yes, I remember Bohacks and I also worked with people that had worked for this chain, when I had worked for Finast. Several of their stores in Manhatan were purchased by Finast, Shopwell, and Sloans.
Its funny that you mention employee theft as a reason for them going belly up, I worked for a former Bohack Manager who got fired for using First National!s easy going cash system, as
his verry own bank.

Re: New York: Bohacks

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 20:31
by levittownbob
Bohacks was something I went to as a kid, and still have memories. I have some items like a garbage can from there. then it went into 'the village' and was huge. but quickly closed after that.

Re: New York: Bohacks

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 20:06
by Jared
I got a question, bohacks opened three super bohacks before they closed, and they were not under the bohack name. Anyone know the banner they were under? There was one in Patchogue

Re: New York: Bohacks

Posted: 18 Jan 2010 20:41
by BOHACKIAN
Jared wrote:I got a question, bohacks opened three super bohacks before they closed, and they were not under the bohack name. Anyone know the banner they were under? There was one in Patchogue

THEY WERE CALLED "THE VILLAGE" THERE WAS A BRAND NEW ONE BUILT IN MATTITUCK ON ROUTE 25 (NOW CAPITAL ONE OFFICES) AROUND 1973 AND LASTED ONLY 3-4 YEARS BEFORE CLOSING UP. I MENTIONED THIS IN ANOTHER THREAD AS WELL.

Re:

Posted: 18 Jan 2010 20:47
by BOHACKIAN
John Michael wrote:Hey Turbocsx: My mistake. There were two (2) A & P stores in Riverhead. My father set me straight on this. I confused the one that was located off of Main Street as a Bohack. There were no Bohack's Markets in Riverhead.
Michael
ACTUALLY A FRIEND OF MINE IN HIS EARLY 60'S REMEMBERS HIS FIRST JOB WORKING IN THE BASEMENT OF A BOHACK'S ON MAIN STREET IN RIVERHEAD...HE SORTED BOTTLES IN THE BASEMENT. IT LATER BECAME AN OFFICE SUPPLY STORE WORKING UNDER THE NAME MCCABE'S. CLOSED ABOUT 10+/- YEARS AGO, IT THEN TRANSFORMED INTO A DINOSAUR WALK MUSEUM WHICH CLOSED ABOUT A YEAR AGO. STORE IS CURRENTLY SITTING EMPTY JUST LIKE MOST LARGE RETAIL STORES ON MAIN STREET, RIVERHEAD.

THEY'VE LOST SEARS, F.W. WOOLWORTH'S, SWEZEY'S, AN AUTO PARTS STORE, BEN FRANKLINS, SEVERAL RESTAURANTS AND MISC OTHER SMALL SHOPS. AT LEAST THE OLD 1932 SUFFOLK THEATER STILL STANDS LOOKING NICE!

Re: New York: Bohacks

Posted: 08 Jan 2011 23:50
by Jeffrey55
I don't see this here already, so I'll post it: just found an interesting blog post by Richard Bohack, great-grandnephew of the founder of the chain. You can read it here: http://mingum.blogspot.com/2010/01/bohacks.html.

Among the things he mentions is that "Bohack purchased Daitch Shopwell, Packers and a few other supermarket businesses." He claims that during the recession of the 1970's, Bohack tried buying up a lot of other stores and went on a building spree "while everyone else was selling and slowing down. They quickly opened stores in Westchester and Fairfield Counties that didn't last at all ... some closed in a month! The risk didn't work. Bohack went through various stages of Bankruptcy and eventually folded. It was July 13, 1977 and I was 13-yrs-old ... I remember it like it was yesterday."