SILVER ANNIVERSARY
Putnam Market celebrating 25th year in Spa City
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.
» Local business Putnam Market is celebrating a quarter century of feeding the Spa City community.
The market, located at 431 Broadway in Saratoga Springs, will mark its 25th anniversary on Tuesday, June 30 with an allday celebration.
Festivities will include a 4 p.m. ribbon cutting ceremony with the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, and a reception afterward with cake.
Putnam Market is also taking this milestone as an opportunity to honor one of its longtime employees Tyrone Jackson, who will be inducted into the Putnam Market Hall of Fame.
Jackson has been involved with the business since even before its opening in 1995.
Jackson worked for the contractor building Putnam Market’s original home on Putnam Street. When the market opened, he joined the business. At the time he was 27 years old and an aspiring boxer.
Today, Jackson is a fixture at Putnam Market and he now coaches aspiring boxers. In his
time with the business he has served more than a million customers and made close to two million sandwiches.
“He mentors new employees and greets old regulars,” the Putnam Market owners shared. “He is the heart of our business.”
Putnam Market is owned and operated by founders Catharine Hamilton and Gloria Griskowitz of Saratoga Springs, sis
ters who come from an entrepreneurial family.
“What exists today is completely different than what the original business plan was,” Hamilton said, explaining how Putnam Market is ever-evolving.
Hamilton and Griskowitz started Putnam Market, then called Putnam Street Market Place, at 63 Putnam St. in downtown Saratoga Springs.
“When we first went in there it was an old gnarly warehouse,” Hamilton said, “and we spent a lot of money fixing it up.”
Once the space was transformed, “It was pretty spectacular,” she continued, describing the double high ceiling and exposed brick. “It was really cool looking.”
The business opened its doors to the public on June 30, 1995.
Though many shoppers loved the spacious converted warehouse, “For the size and scale of the business, as spectacular as the spot was that we had on Putnam Street, it just didn’t have the traffic to make it really viable in the long run for food,” Hamilton said, noting that back then the store sold produce, meat and seafood - and sandwiches were a very small part of the business.
In May of 2000, the owners moved their market to Broadway, in the newly built Roohan Building. This site was approximately half the size of the first location, but it had five times the foot traffic.
Rather than serve as a full service market, the relocated business primarily became a deli. While it still had a specialty grocery component, Putnam Market was gaining popularity as a lunchtime stop.
During its first decade on Broadway, Putnam Market made the complete conversion from buying in products to making everything in-house - from roasted meats to deli salads to baked goods. Some of the best selling products are the The Putnam sandwich (smoked turkey, brie and honey mustard), hickory chicken salad, mixed berry pie and the Celestial Chocolate Torte.
Putnam Market is also known for matching its foods with wines from all over the world. These are available in the adjacent wine room, which is run by the market’s wine director William Roach, Hamilton’s husband.
The most recent major change at Putnam Market came last November, when the business got a license to sell wine and beer for onpremise consumption.
With this new license, Putnam Market can now also offer events such as wine and cheese tastings or beer pairing classes, which will be a focus for the business in coming months.
Looking ahead to the future of Putnam Market, “It’s increasingly about delivering an experience for customers,” Hamilton said, sharing that the eatery’s staff aim to make visits entertaining for guests.
Other goals going forward are simply to continue to stay relevant and continue bringing new customers into the business, Hamilton said.
The Putnam Market owners credit their long term success to really listening to their customers, which means continuing to explore new technologies that connect the business with those customers. “To remain relevant, there is a localness to our business, which is important … but we also have to be really smart about how we communicate with our customers,” Hamilton said. “As ways to communicate to customers continues to expand, we have to always keep thinking ‘How do we get to our customers? How do we talk to them?’.”
Putnam Market has seen many evolutions over its 25year history, and there are likely more to come.
“We have changed the mix and layout over time, but the central idea has not changed,” the market’s website says. “We do delicious.”
More information about Putnam Market is available online at putnammarket.com or by calling (518) 587-3663.