The Market Report

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

Our first post of the Finger Lakes group is this Price Rite Marketplace on University Ave in Rochester, NY! (Yes, I know Rochester isn't really part of the Finger Lakes. Too bad.) The hard-discount branch of famous New Jersey chain ShopRite has made it all the way up here to Rochester, with two stores in the city. At the time of my drive-by, this location at 1230 University Ave in Rochester was in transition from the old look to the new, sleeker Price Rite Marketplace look. If you zoom in, you can see the store was actually being painted the day of my visit with what amounts to professional-grade painter's tape over the edges of the logo. Unfortunately, I don't have interior photographs, but I have documented both the old and new looks in the Boston and Worcester areas in Massachusetts, so stay tuned! Photographed August 2018

Rochester is one of those cities that's large enough and close enough to where I'm from in New Jersey that I really ought to have been to it. But I never had, until I finally went while on vacation in the Finger Lakes in August of 2018. I know I've been dropping little hints about the Finger Lakes and posting a few stores here and there, but we're going to get serious and spend about three weeks on that area come September. Anyway, this is the last store we'll see in the area until September. It's pretty obvious that this building used to house a supermarket. Even my parents, who were with me at the time I photographed this store and aren't insane I mean obsessed with supermarkets  er perhaps quite as knowledgeable about supermarkets as I am, agreed that it was clearly a grocery store. I just don't know what it was. Classic layout, with a narrow row of parking in front of the building, then a larger lot off to the side. Here's a look at...