I happened to drive by this nice little Tops on the outskirts of the city of Rochester. Unfortunately, I did not go inside and it closed for good shortly thereafter. It's also just up the street from yesterday's Price Rite.
I very much like the Tops chain and am still trying to figure out exactly what the appeal of Wegmans, one of its main competitors, is. Do I want a lot of mediocre stuff or a nice selection of very high quality stuff?
Classic "Enter" sign here. I like it a lot! The property is now partially occupied by ALDI, and it's located at 175 N Winton Rd, Rochester, NY.
Photographed August 2018
I'd suspect Wegman's has a couple things that explain its popularity.
ReplyDeleteParticularly in that area is the history, since the company was founded in Rochester, has been around since 1916 and is still owned and run by the family that started it (which isn't terribly common).
More generally (as they have expanded quite far, having only about 100 stores but stretching from NY down into VA as well as MA now) is their variety, particularly in the fresh items.
They have a much larger variety of fresh products - not an aisle of produce, but a section equal to 3 or 4 aisles width in most stores (if not more). Same goes for the meats, seafoods and such.
Then there is the prepared foods section - I'd suspect they have more choices for you to pick from than most buffet style restaurants do.
You could probably fit the entirety of some of those stores you posted in the NYC areas into their prepared items section!
The "regular" parts of the store tend to actually have less variety than many stores, but what they do sell there can be quite reasonably priced - they get the image of being "expensive" from all that fresh stuff (which makes sense, since you have to cover what may not get sold, which is more likely the more you have in stock, particularly with items that can't be kept a long time).
That all may be true, but I have never been a fan. I see why it has the local appeal, and I know a lot of people like it for its vast selection. It's just not my kind of store.
DeleteThis store was interesting. It was originally a car dealership (which is why the parking lot was huge, at least before they built the CVS in it, compared to the size of the store). Apparently Tops wanted to move the store to University Ave (the current site of Price Rite), so they weren't doing much in the way of upgrades to it, so it kind of felt like you were stepping back in time when you walked in, but not really in a good way.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, thanks for all this history! I know the Morristown, NJ Whole Foods (previously A&P) was also a car dealership, and interestingly enough, a small independent store called Caribbean Supermarket in Elizabeth, NJ was built out of part of a former car dealer around 2010 (well, it was an Associated at the time, but same difference). Are there any other examples out there of car dealerships becoming supermarkets?
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