TOUR: Foodtown - Croton-On-Hudson, NY

Super Foodtown of Croton

Owner: Noah Katz / PSK Supermarkets

Opened: 2015

Previous Tenants: A&P

Cooperative: Allegiance

Location: 2005 Albany Post Rd, Croton-on-Hudson, NY

Photographed: May 2019

Today we're touring a former A&P in the small town of Croton-on-Hudson, which also has an SRS-owned ShopRite. The 32,000 square foot Foodtown might be smaller than the 58,000 square foot nearby ShopRite, but it's also a very solid full-service supermarket.

The A&P had a very basic Fresh 2.0 remodel inside, and the outside oddly had only a very small sign. PSK Supermarkets, which also owns the Pathmark of Albany Ave, multiple Foodtown stores, and two Freshtown locations, completed an extensive interior and exterior renovation at this store. The new look is modern but mostly comforting and small-town feeling.

We enter to a spacious produce department with sushi in an island at the back. Floral and pharmacy are immediately to the left of the entrance, with deli, seafood, and meat on the back wall. Natural foods take up the first few aisles. Frozen is in the second-to-last aisle with dairy in the last aisle, and bakery and customer service are in the front corner opposite the entrance. I'm assuming the layout is largely original to A&P, but the decor is all-new and quite a few of the fixtures have been replaced. Lighting and flooring is all new too.

PSK is clearly taking the store in a much more upscale direction than A&P, with large organic and locally grown sections in the produce and more deluxe decor than A&P had.

Floral and pharmacy next to the entrance. The pharmacy is an outside business which rents space in the Foodtown. It's called Drug World, which somehow seems unappealing to me.

Beautiful fixtures and flooring. We've seen a few A&P-turned-Foodtown locations, and I'd say this is one of the more successful conversions. Valley Cottage is also great, and as much as I like Hastings, it doesn't have quite the same professional look as the other two.

Totally remodeled deli counter at the back of the produce aisle.

Seafood is next, with butcher shop just around the corner to the left...

Butcher is, in my opinion, one of the most successful department renovations. The wood is very striking and the graphics are simple but attractive. The fixtures and flooring are also all new.

Natural foods (including refrigerated and frozen selections) take up the first two or three aisles, with beer in the next one. While this area is totally remodeled, we see very A&P-like grocery aisles...

You could convince me this was a picture of the A&P -- except for the Smart! category signs and the aisle markers. Oh, and the clean floor, well-stocked shelves, and working lights that aren't mostly burned out, like so many A&Ps had. Wait, did I actually write that?

Really awesome aisle markers and meat graphics, but we see repainted A&P cases and A&P flooring. Looks great though.

Eggs and cold cuts at the far end of the back wall. Here we're looking back towards butcher/seafood.

The frozen cases look new but I'm pretty sure the flooring is left from A&P. Could be wrong though.

Hard to tell whether the dairy cases are new or repainted, but they're in excellent shape. The custom wall decor is definitely brand-new...

Nice bakery and coffee in the front corner, with some very subtle decor.

Can you spot what's left from A&P at the bakery and customer service departments? The lightboxes...

...which shine up towards the wall decor. A mainstay of the A&P Foodmarket decor. Looking across the front end, we see a hanging wood structure similar to what we've seen at Food Bazaar (that's from Elizabeth). Nice! This store is looking great, and it's a fantastic demonstration of what can be done with an old A&P. We're heading north tomorrow before we begin our trip east towards the Connecticut border, first via the city of Peekskill.