Due to a major merger involving two major store owners in northern New York, a Grand Union supermarket is expected to open in the Binghamton area in the next three months.

Owego's Tops supermarket will be renamed the Grand Union store early next year because a New Hampshire company will take over the business.

C&S Wholesale Grocers is acquiring the Tioga County store and ten other Tops units related to the merger of Tops and Price Chopper.

The merger plan announced in February last year was finalized this week. Price Chopper and Tops will continue to operate under their current names under a new named entity called Northeast Grocery Inc.

The Tops store on Route 17C is one of only two large Owego supermarkets. The other is the Price Chopper store located about two miles west of the Tops unit.

Regulators worried that the merger might adversely affect competition in certain communities, prompting the spin-off of 12 Tops stores.

Other Tops stores to be renamed Grand Union include stores in Norwich, Cortland and Cooperstown. The name change will be rolled out in January and February.

For decades, Grand Union stores have been common in several communities in Broome County. The local Grand Union supermarket closed nearly 20 years ago.

Contact Bob Joseph, WNBF news reporter: bob@wnbf.com.

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