Tops brand items being sold at P&Cs

Area P&C grocery stores have started to carry some Tops-labeled food products, an outward sign to customers that Tops Markets, Buffalo, now owns the grocery chain.

However, the future of P&C's north country stores remains in limbo, leaving employees and local customers to speculate about their job situations and long-term grocery options.

Katherine L. McKenna, a Tops spokeswoman, said former Penn Traffic Co. stores purchased Jan. 29 are still being evaluated to determine which of the 79 will remain open and which will be closed or sold.

"Tops continues to evaluate all stores in seeking the best possible outcome for the remaining locations," Miss McKenna said by e-mail. "It has been Tops' stated intention to operate a majority of Penn Traffic locations."

Last month, Tops said it was trying to find another unionized grocer to purchase seven former P&C stores in the north country because they're too far from the company's core service region.

Those stores are in Watertown, West Carthage, Gouverneur, Canton, Potsdam, Massena and Ogdensburg.

Gregory P. Gorea, assistant to the president of United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local One, Utica, said finding a union buyer for those P&C stores has been unsuccessful.

Therefore, he said, if Tops decides to sell the north country stores, it likely will be to a non-union buyer.

"We have asked, and Tops has pledged that any Penn Traffic member that is displaced be placed on a preferential hiring list for future openings at Tops," Mr. Gorea said in an e-mail. "We have not been successful getting our members hired at many non-union retail grocers. However, we encourage our members to apply for jobs that may come available if and when these stores are sold."

Customers at local P&C stores are finding Tops brand cheese, yogurt, orange juice, selected produce, some deli meats and other products on store shelves.

Many items with Food Club labels, which is P&C's in-house brand, continue to be available. Other shelves remain sparse or empty of certain products, including specialty brands of cereal, tea and other products.

In the north country, weekly advertising fliers continue under the P&C store name, and outside storefront signage has not been converted to Tops signage.

"Some stores may begin to see Tops-labeled products to supplement existing products during the ongoing review of all stores," Miss McKenna said.

Two former Penn Traffic warehouses in Syracuse that supplied food to north country P&C stores closed in February.

However, C&S Wholesale Grocers, which handled food distribution for Penn Traffic, is also Tops's distributor and continues to serve area P&C stores, Miss McKenna said.

Food products are now being trucked to P&C stores from various other warehouses used by C&S, a New Hampshire company that acquired Penn Traffic's distribution business about a year ago.

Tops has announced plans to close four of the 79 stores it acquired from Penn Traffic through an $85 million purchase deal approved in January by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Factors being considered by Tops during its review of stores include economic viability, store condition, marketplace competition and location within Tops's geographic footprint.

The P&C store in the city of Hornell, south of Rochester, is slated to close March 20, while a P&C store in Bradford, Vt., closed Sunday when its building lease expired, Miss McKenna said. On March 13, Tops also plans to close two BiLo stores in Pennsylvania, one in Clarion and one in Blairsville.

Miss McKenna said Tops will notify employees, community members and the media when it decides to close a store in their area.

She said a Federal Trade Commission review of all of the store locations is still under way.