Upstate New York supermarket chain Price Chopper offers Penn Traffic $54M for 22 stores

New York supermarket chain bids for P&C stores

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — An upstate New York supermarket chain is offering $54 million for 22 of the 46 P&C stores being auctioned by the bankrupt Penn Traffic Co.

Price Chopper, a Schenectady-based company with 119 stores in six Northeastern states, said Wednesday it is negotiating to buy 19 P&C stores in New York and three others in New Hampshire, Vermont and Pennsylvania.

Syracuse-based Penn Traffic filed for bankruptcy in November and wants to sell most or all of its assets. It operates 79 P&C, Quality Markets and BiLo stores in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire and employs 5,739 people.

Price Chopper already offered $12.3 million for four P&C stores in northern New York. Those stores are among the 22 stores in its latest bid.