As A&P ends its 156-year tenure as a supermarket staple in the Northeast, the birth and expansion of several other grocery chains in Westchester County are underway.
Since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July, A&P”™s parent company, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., has seen nearly all of its 25 A&P and Pathmark banner stores in Westchester sold.
Acme Markets Inc., a Pennsylvania-based subsidiary of Albertsons Cos., opened its first store in Westchester on Oct. 11 at the site of the former A&P at 103 Knollwood Road in Greenburgh. According to Acme officials, it will acquire 71 A&P stores that operate under the A&P, Pathmark and Super Fresh banners.
Acme will acquire 12 Westchester A&P stores and 16 New York stores in total, including sites in Yorktown Heights, Thornwood, Yonkers, Mohegan Lake, Goldens Bridge, Bronxville, Rye Brook, Briarcliff Manor, Scarsdale, Greenburgh, New Rochelle, Shrub Oak, Pleasant Valley, Hopewell Junction and Brewster.
- An Acme supermarket opened at the former site of an A&P store at 103 Knollwood Rd. on Oct. 11.
According to the company, all Acme stores will be open by the end of November. Acme spokeswoman Danielle D”™Ella said each store will typically be closed for “just a few days” while they are renovated and converted. The company will reopen locations first in Westchester before those farther south.
“The company is on an aggressive timeline to convert all locations to the Acme banner within the next two months,” D”™Ella said. “We intend to hire/make offers to substantially all of the store-level A&P employees at the stores we are acquiring and welcoming them to the Acme Markets team.”
Acme initially was scheduled to buy stores in Bedford, Croton-on-Hudson, Millwood and Yonkers, but later dropped those purchases and the stores went to auction.
Massachusetts-based The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. LLC, a division of Ahold USA which already operates stores in Westchester, said earlier this month it began converting 25 former A&P locations. It will convert five stores at a time through Nov. 13. Each store will close for roughly one week, but pharmacies and in-store banks will remain open during the process. The first conversions, which began Oct. 8, included five stores in New York City and on Long Island.
Stop & Shop”™s lone acquisition in Westchester was A&P”™s most profitable location at 195 N. Bedford Road in Mount Kisco.
“It”™s a great opportunity for us to expand our presence in the Westchester County area,” said Arlene Putterman, Stop & Shop NY Metro Division spokeswoman. “It gives us an opportunity to showcase more products and also some new technology like our Scan It technology that didn”™t exist at A&P.”
Putterman said Stop & Shop has not yet determined when the Mount Kisco location would open, but said it was “more than likely” that location would be included in the final wave of reopenings. The Mount Kisco store will see a new produce department and bakery decor, new IT systems and will be repainted. She added that all employees of the Mount Kisco store have been interviewed, and “many” of them will stay on.
According to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, Staten Island-based Key Food Stores Co-operative Inc. won bidding for a Pathmark store at 130 Midland Ave. in Port Chester and a Bedford A&P, while Shanghai Enterprises, a Queens-based LLC, acquired the A&P location at 87 Main St. in Hastings-on-Hudson.
Mount Vernon-based PSK Supermarkets, Inc., which operates the Foodtown and Freshtown store brands, won the Oct. 9 bidding on the 19,360-square-foot A&P location at 230 Saw Mill River Road in Millwood, according to court documents. CW A&P Mamaroneck LLC had the winning bid on a 25,597-square-foot A&P store at 805 Mamaroneck Ave. in Mamaroneck.
CVS Pharmacy acquired a Yonkers A&P store in an October auction.
According to a Sept. 22 notice filed with the state Department of Labor, more than 13,000 A&P employees will no longer work with the company. The Knollwood Avenue A&P location had 196 employees, the most of any store in Westchester. The A&P location in Croton-on-Hudson had 132 employees and a Thornwood location had another 125.
Most new stores are expected to retain A&P employees. The A&P stores are scheduled to close by Nov. 26.
Don Sussman, Stop & Shop New York Metro Division president, said his company plans on retaining roughly 3,000 A&P employees. “Shoppers should look forward to seeing many of the same friendly faces,” he said.
“We are very excited to begin the store conversion process, and we will strive to minimize the inconvenience to customers,” he said. “Stop & Shop is committed to improving the overall shopping experience in these 25 stores to meet the quality, selection and savings that customers have come to expect from us.”
In a post on the company”™s website, Acme President Don Croce said his company will also be retaining A&P employees.
“Our friendly and knowledgeable store associates are looking forward to providing you with superior customer service ”” and, I”™m sure you will see some of the same familiar faces with a renewed spirit,” he said.
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. stated in its Chapter 11 filing that it would sell off its 296 stores in four states. The chain had also filed for protection against creditors in 2010.
I hope your info is correct about Foodtown getting Millwood- I recall Jaru Enterprises as having the winning bid.