Freshtown Opens in Upstate New York
CQM Foods, an employee-owned company operating Freshtown and Peck’s grocery stores in upstate New York, officially opened a new state-of-the-art Freshtown of Newburgh on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 am. Located at 59 North Plank Road in Newburgh, N.Y., the store was under construction for nine months and now employs around 75 local residents. CQM is a member of the Allegiance Retail Services buying cooperative of 140 supermarkets throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The Newburgh Freshtown store features a fresh bakery department; meals to go from an in-house kitchen; a large fruit and vegetable department, including organics; fresh store-made sushi; fresh seafood; a capacious meat department; a huge section of craft beer; fresh pizza; floral; and more, along with a weekly sale and price structure allowing shoppers to save money.
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“The store includes a wide variety of high-quality store-cooked meals and food to go from our state-of-the-art kitchen so that shoppers who don’t have time to cook can stop and have a great dinner,” said CQM President Noah Katz. “We have really amazing comfort food, sushi, pizza and many meal options, all at great prices, so there is no need to go to fast-food restaurants.”
Added CQM VP Ed Hunt: “The store is about 25,000 square feet and includes everything a larger store would have, so it’s much easier to shop for busy consumers, especially after a long day of work. Our price structure is low so shoppers can enjoy saving money, especially on items they need most. We encourage everyone to shop the weekly flyer, which will help customers’ food dollars go much further.”
Additionally, the banner offers a points program for its customers. Shoppers earn 10 points per dollar, and point totals are shown on the register receipt. Customers can then buy down the cost of their groceries by redeeming their points for free and discounted items throughout the store.
The site was formerly occupied by a Big Lots store, which moved to another location. “The store had to be completely rebuilt,” noted Katz. “ Everything except for the four walls is new. The electric system, plumbing, cases, checkouts, everything is new.”
Noting CQM’s status as an employee-owned company, Katz explained that workers “have a stake in the store. Every year, associates receive stock in the company, which accumulates over the course of their career. Then, when they retire, they redeem their stock for the money. Employee-owned companies have a history of creating wealth for their associates, and Freshtown is no different. The company also offers a full benefit package, including a 401K.”
“The purpose of our company is to serve world-class communities with amazing stores and create wealth for our employees, so everyone wins,” observed Hunt. “ The profits of our company do not go to huge corporations, some of which are overseas; they stay right here, with our employees, right in the community.”
Further, because Freshtown is part of the Allegiance cooperative, the Newburgh store had plenty of help getting set up and installed. Allegiance offers expertise, vendor support, reset specialists, scan support, advertising support, and more to enable the store to operate and compete as a chain.
“Because we have the resources of a 140-store multi-state chain, we can provide independent retailers lower cost of goods, as well as all the back-of-the-house resources required to run a larger grocery chain,” asserted Joe Fantozzi, president of Iselin, N.J.-based Allegiance. “This lets our members such as Freshtown compete in any marketplace we open.”
Being part of the co-op also enables Freshtown to buy goods from all the major manufacturers at the same low truck load prices as every major chain. These savings are then passed on to the customers, which allows Freshtown to remain competitive in the marketplace.
CQM Foods/PSK Supermarkets is based in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Allegiance supports more than 130 member-owned independent supermarkets, including Foodtown, Freshtown, D’Agostino, Gristedes, Morton Williams, Pathmark, LaBella Marketplace, Brooklyn Harvest, Market Fresh, Big Deal Food Market, Green Way Markets, Brigido’s Fresh Market, Olive Tree Marketplace, Bloomingdale Supermarket by Foodtown and Shop n Bag.
