C&S Wholesale paves the way for Grand Union redux | Supermarket News

With the closing of the Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Friendly Markets merger, Keene, N.H.-based C&S said Tuesday that it plans to buy 12 Tops supermarkets and convert them to Grand Union grocery stores.

“The Grand Union stores will offer competitive prices on a wide variety of fresh foods and an extensive assortment of brand name groceries, as well as our signature private brands,” C&S Wholesale Grocers CEO Bob Palmer said in a statement.

had opted to liquidate its assets, auctioning off most of its approximately 200 stores to its distributor C&S, which in turn sold the majority of those locations to buyers including Ahold USA, Shaw’s Supermarkets, Delhaize America and Pathmark Stores.

In 2005, C&S acquired 12 Tops stores in New York and in 2006 reopened them as Grand Union locations, the banner that the supermarkets held when they were sold to Tops.

Plans call for the transaction to close in the coming weeks and grand reopenings for the Grand Union stores to be held from mid-January to mid-February 2022, C&S reported.

C&S noted that the relaunch of Grand Union marks another expansion of its retail presence, coming just months after its acquisition of Sheboygan, Wis.-based Piggly Wiggly Midwest, which added 11 Piggly Wiggly corporate-run stores.

“With our recent announcement of the purchase of Piggly Wiggly Midwest, this is another very exciting opportunity for C&S to further expand into the retail market,” stated Rick Cohen, executive chairman at C&S Wholesale Grocers.

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