Photo: Mike Mozart from Funny YouTube, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Brothers William and Ben Golub opened a self-service grocery called Central Market in Green Island in 1932, during the Depression. The idea of shoppers picking items off the shelves themselves was still fairly new, and the low-price format caught on.
The chain grew across the Capital Region and took the name Price Chopper in 1973. Headquarters stayed in Schenectady.
A new name for a new era
In 2014 the company began converting stores to a new banner, Market 32, named for the year of the first store. The remodeled stores have larger fresh food departments and prepared foods. Many locations still carry the Price Chopper name.
Joining Tops
In 2021 the company combined with Tops Markets, the Buffalo area chain, under a parent company called Northeast Grocery. The two chains together run several hundred stores across New York, New England and Pennsylvania.
Employee ownership has long been part of the company’s identity, and it is one of the larger private employers in the Capital Region.
For many families, the weekly trip to “Chopper” is as much a local habit as anything else, and the company’s name is on events and sponsorships across the area.
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