By the end of this week, corporate downsizing will have consumed a significant portion of Dartmouth students' limited grocery options.
P&C Food Market's South Main St. facility -- a fixture of Hanover's shopping district -- will shut down Friday, store representatives announced last week.
Among the smallest of 200-plus supermarkets owned by P&C's parent company, Syracuse, N.Y.-based Penn Traffic, the Hanover location was targeted for closure when site owner Bayson Properties refused to renew its lease, according to public relations firm Jampole Communications.
Rumors that the store will reopen as a CVS Pharmacy have spread among town residents, but CVS spokesman Mike DeAnglis told media outlets that he could not comment because his company has not yet signed a lease at the location.
Permissible uses for the property include retail, bank, lodging, above-ground residence or civic use, according to Hanover zoning officials.
Recent months have been difficult for the supermarket industry, largely due to deflation in food prices. In addition, Penn Traffic's supermarkets have been plagued by sagging returns and cost increases in expenditures.
Now, the Hanover Co-op Food Store -- located southeast of the College on Lyme Road -- is poised to become the town's sole supermarket.
Students contacted by The Dartmouth had mixed feelings regarding P&C's departure.
"I shop at the Co-op anyway," Jon Eisenman '03 said, citing little choice and low product quality as reasons why he has only rarely visited P&C in the past. "I have a car, so the extra distance doesn't really matter to me."
As for the rumor that a CVS may occupy the 1.25 acre site, Eisenman argued, "The more penetration Hanover gets from chain stores, the better."
Others appeared less optimistic.
"It's going to be a bit of a hassle," Krista Sande-Kerback '05 said. As a resident of the River cluster, located more than a mile west of the Co-op, she said that going to buy groceries on foot would no longer be feasible.
"I don't feel that a CVS is necessarily needed," Sande-Kerback said, noting that she visits P&C several times per term to shop for snacks in her role as an undergraduate adviser. "I'd like something that has more food."
All goods currently on sale at the Hanover P&C will be transferred to other locations after Friday, store representatives said. Larger P&C branches are located in White River Junction, Vt. and in West Lebanon.
