Geissler’s supermarket has Granby reopening
High-tech carts, Munson’s chocolates, expanded grab-and-go among features
At Geissler’s freshly renovated Granby supermarket, customers find an eclectic mix of features: high-tech shopping carts, an elaborate Munson’s chocolates corner, Connecticutand Massachusetts-grown produce, and an expanded deli and bakery section. The star of the show is the enormous kiosk where employees produce fresh popcorn in the traditional butter styles as well as specialty flavors ranging from Oreo to bacon to blue raspberry.
President Bob Rybick sees it all as part of how the Connecticut-based, independent Geissler’s supermarket chain can compete as it begins its second century in business. Rybick said he and his brother Andrew along with their cousins Ryan and Eric Nilsson believe Geissler’s will thrive against even its biggest rivals if it stays current with the ever-evolving marketplace, where customer preferences change quickly.
Part of that meant investing more than $1.5 million into completely redesigning the roughly 30,000-square-foot Granby store, and town and state officials have been invited to a ribbon-cutting and celebration May 4 at 9 a.m. Some of the new layout came from what Rybick learned when the chain renovated its outlet in Agawam, Mass., and some of it was designed specifically for the Granby market.
“I learned that putting the fresh foods forward is really where our industry is going,” Rybick said Wednesday as he showed visitors the produce section and expanded showcase of grab-and-go store-prepared meals. “We’re competing less and less with each other, and more and more with restaurants. Over half of the food consumed in the U.S. is restaurant food, whether that’s takeout or in the restaurant.”
Between Jan. 2 and earlier this month, construction workers installed new flooring, rearranged aisles and shelves, took out
drop ceilings, installed more decorative lighting and added a much wider entryway with better natural light.
But beyond the structure itself, Geissler’s has been putting money into high-volume, state of the art bakery ovens and other kitchen equipment to supply the extensive offerings of prepared, prepackaged lunches and dinners that Geissler’s staff turns out each day.
“Before (the renovation), when you came in the store this area was blocked with produce cases, it was like a maze,” store manager Paul Buchardt said in the vastly widened entry area. “That’s cleared out now, your focal point is the prepared foods. We do a really good lunch business: Wednesdays are our senior days when we offer 5% off for senior citizens. They seem to be one of our biggest sellers for the prepared foods, they come in and get four or five or six entrees for the week and they get that 5% off.”
With national giants like Big Y and Stop & Shop only a few miles away, Geissler’s banks heavily on local foods and preparation to set it apart. Above the produce section hang signs showcasing the local suppliers such as Roger’s Orchards of Southington, Hilltop Apiaries of Simsbury and others. And Rybick is emphatic that meals made fresh in the store are superior.
“If you buy our roast beef dinner, that roast beef was cut in our butcher shop, cooked in our oven and then into the entree. No preservatives, just salt and pepper and into the oven,” Rybick said.
The Granby store is the second to get a full makeover; Geissler’s renovated its Agawam, Mass., store first. Whether the Somers, East Windsor, Windsor, South Windsor and Bloomfield stores will follow is still undecided.
“What COVID did was almost double the cost of construction. This all started when we said ‘we need a new floor,’ after that it kept evolving from there,” Rybick said.
Geissler’s is up for expanding beyond seven stores, but doesn’t have any short-term plans outside the Connecticut and western Massachusetts markets, Rybick said. He and his relatives work directly with local farmers and other suppliers, and that connection can be lost when a chain expands very far, he said.
“One chain is advertising that their produce manager goes to see the local farms. Here, I’m the one who is out there,” he said.
Geissler’s was founded in 1923, an era long before the concept of modern supermarkets. Some time after Adolph Geissler opened his first tiny store in East Windsor’s Broad Brook section, he decided to expand at a new location.
“He wanted a store with 10,000 square feet, people thought that was crazy — who would need 10,000 square feet for a grocery store?’” Rybick said. “The business is so much more now.”
The Rybicks and Nilssons, great grandsons of the founder, now maintain a social media program for the chain with cooking demonstrations and video interviews with local farmers. The Granby store now has carts with Instacart’s “smart cart” technology that lets shoppers digitally clip coupons, tally their spending as they put items into the cart, and then check out quickly.
A hit of the operation has been the kiosk where popcorn is made fresh. John Snow was a cashier when the elaborate equipment for the kiosk was installed, and he said he’s enjoyed working at that station ever since. He makes the popcorn, boxes it and talks it up to passing shoppers, all while wearing an apron marked “Just call me the kernel.”
“I enjoy doing this, and I don’t think ‘oh no, I have to go to work in the morning,’” he said. “I think that’s because of the managers. They work a lot harder than I do. I’ve had bosses that weren’t like that, but here they treat you well, they work hard themselves.”