PriceRite
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Wakefern (ShopRite's corporate arm) owns and operates the PriceRite limited-assortment chain of supermarkets throughout Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. The chain currently operates 30 PriceRite stores and is growing fast, opening 8 new stores in 2006. There is also 1 store in California which is operated under a franchise agreement.[1]
Like other limited-assortment chains such as Aldi or SuperValu’s Save-A-Lot, PriceRite offers drastically fewer SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) than its sister ShopRite stores. The stores operate on the same principles as its competition; however, they are a bit bigger (averaging 35,000 sq. ft.) and concentrate on offering a larger “fresh food” selection.
PriceRite also emphasizes the fact that its stores are US-owned, by incorporating the phrase "An American Company" into the PriceRite trademark. This is presumably to highlight the fact that much of PriceRite's competition is owned by non-US entities (Aldi is German-owned and Food Basics is operated by A&P–The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, which is 57% German-owned.)
Due to the generic nature of the name "PriceRite", and the unfamiliarity with the brand outside New England, Wakefern has also begun distributing PriceRite-branded merchandise such as health & beauty, paper products and some foodstuffs to other retail outlets, such as dollar-stores, mom-and-pop pharmacies and corner markets, and other supermarkets such as Gristedes Operating Corp., which owns Gristedes Supermarkets in New York City. Due to Gristedes' partnership with amazon.com, selected PriceRite-branded products are also available for sale on amazon.com.
Because of its cooperative structure, Wakefern has been very careful not to cannibalize sales of its member-owned ShopRite stores by opening PriceRite stores in overlapping trade areas—thus, most stores operate in New England or Pennsylvania, outside ShopRite’s core markets.
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[edit] History of PriceRite Limited Assortment Stores
It was 1995 when the Wakefern Food Corporation opened its first limited-assortment concept store in West Springfield, Massachusetts. After failing to successfully enter the warehouse club market with their PriceRite Warehouse Club concept (see below), Wakefern assigned the PriceRite name to its newest prototype: a limited-assortment, deep-discount supermarket meant to do battle with the no-frills operators which were successfully spreading across North America (Aldi, Food Basics, Save-a-Lot.)
In the years since the first PriceRite opened, the concept has been tweaked to emphasize the size and freshness of the perishable departments in comparison to its competition. Newer stores, such as the PriceRite of Brockton, MA (at over 40,000 sq ft) are also larger than most of the earlier stores. Wakefern has also used the concept as a replacement for under-performing ShopRite stores or in markets where the PriceRite concept was thought to be more successful. As a result, underperforming ShopRite supermarkets in places like York, PA and Weathersfield, CT have been converted to very successful PriceRite stores, keeping jobs and a supermarket in these towns.
In 2005, one store was also opened in Azusa, CA, in partnership with Kvmart Corp., which is an independent supermarket operator in Southern California. The store has been branded "PriceRite Grocery Depot".
[edit] PriceRite Warehouse Clubs
During the 1980's and early 1990’s, many American supermarket chains experimented with opening their own warehouse clubs to compete with the new clubs that were invading their trade areas and stealing market share away. SuperValu had Max-Club, Kroger had Price Savers; A&P had an investment in Wholesale Club, Inc.; Meijer had SourceClub; HEB had its Bodega clubs and ShopRite opened PriceRite. Wakefern defined PriceRite as a “mini-club”, and at under 50,000 sq. ft., promoted it as a convenient alternative to the massive conventional clubs.
The logo was the same as the old ShopRite logo, only instead of the graphic of a shopping carriage with circles inside, there was a flatbed cart with square boxes on it to symbolize the wholesale nature of the store. (This saved costs on new sign-frames for the stores, since they all were previously a ShopRite and already had round sign-frames)
Unfortunately, the PriceRite MiniClubs were opened in buildings that had previously housed ailing or outdated ShopRite stores and had been simply retrofitted with warehouse-type shelving. Thus, they were much too small and didn't have enough of a following to attract shoppers away from the true warehouse competition which was opening new outlets all over the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. (BJ's Wholesale Club, Pace Warehouse Club and Price Club.)
Members operated PriceRite mini-clubs in Rockaway Township, New Jersey; Toms River, New Jersey and Fishkill, New York. The last PriceRite club closed in 1994.[2]
