Our final Central Westchester store is a 20,000 square foot former A&P that was briefly converted to The Food Emporium, A&P's upscale banner, and when it was
converted back to A&P the deli was still branded The Food Emporium Deli. In the 2015-16 bankruptcy, the location was purchased by Estevez Markets, which also owns the
Foodtown location in Yonkers we saw. The renovation done by Estevez was relatively light, but it gave the store a more modern look. While I'm not entirely sure what A&P's layout would have been, it's probably very similar to today's Foodtown layout. You enter to produce in the front right corner, with bakery and deli on the right side wall. Seafood is in the back right corner, with meats along the back wall. What confuses me is a section on the left half of the store that extends farther back which has a few grocery aisles and the beginning of frozen and dairy, which continue in the last aisle. Because the area looks very different from the rest of the store, I'd bet that Foodtown expanded into A&P's backroom space.
It's quite possible that A&P's bakery was larger than Foodtown's, and the front wall area (to the right above) was originally baked goods. The left side of the grand aisle, which is now beer and individual drinks, was almost definitely originally produce cases.
A simple but attractive upgrade to the bakery area.
I like the rounded light fixtures and the brick along the wall. Does anyone know what decor package this store would've had as an A&P?
Looking along the right side wall of the store from bakery to deli. The odd property shape means that the back wall of the store is slanted, and there's actually a second level with a parking lot over this part of the store because at the back, the ground level is higher than at the front.
Very nice deli. I've actually become a big fan of my local Foodtown's deli recently.
An overview of the produce department in the front corner before we move on. As much as I like the remodel in this section of the store, it is a little disorganized and cluttered.
Morning supermarket visits = no seafood yet. Other than the single tray of seafood the clerk has just put out. This corner still looks very good. Foodtown has repurposed A&P's sushi counter, to the right, for salted fish. Now let's head over to the grocery aisles...
Notice anything interesting here? For sure! The A&P aisle markers are still hanging. However, it's worth noting that they have new category inserts, new numbers (in a font that matches the new department signage), and a Foodtown decal over the A&P logo. They suggest that this A&P had a Fresh renovation, but they could've just brought in aisle markers from a closed store. For a look at an early green version of the A&P aisle marker, see
here.
Nicely upgraded grocery aisles. New flooring and category markers, while the grocery shelving remains.
Heading in to the section that I'm pretty sure was an expansion into a backroom. Very hard to tell whether it was done by Foodtown or A&P.
The new grocery shelving in this section and different ceiling treatment (which I really like, by the way) suggest that it was Foodtown to make the change.
You can see here looking along the back wall that the wall isn't exactly straight. Look at the floor and ceiling.
And it kind of looks like Foodtown made custom aisle markers that match the A&P ones to hang under this lower ceiling area. The main supermarket extends to the right.
The last aisle has frozen and dairy. Here we're looking from the far back wall in the expansion towards the front of the store.
Now back into the original supermarket still looking towards the front of the store. Notice that the floor is new, but the ceiling is the old A&P style. Also notice that there's no decor on the side wall here.
Looking across the front end from the entrance side. There are self checkout registers on the far side of the store. That's all for our Central Westchester group but don't worry, soon enough we'll be seeing another A&P-turned-Foodtown -- stay tuned!
Foodtown of Hastings
87 Main St, Hastings-On-Hudson, NY
Photographed March 2020
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