University Plaza once again has a grocery store catering to Binghamton University student shoppers.
Grocery Tree, which opened Wednesday, Oct. 26, hopes to offer UP residents a convenient alternative to local supermarket juggernauts Wegmans and Walmart, according to the store’s owner, Clel Lee.
Lee said he would stock his shelves with specialty items requested by students. Since July, he has intermittently stood outside the Grocery Tree’s doors, asking students what they wanted in a grocery store, and he has already added a kosher snack section based on students’ requests.
“If we don’t have it, ask and we’ll have it the next day,” Lee said.
Lee said the small size of Grocery Tree distinguishes it from supermarkets, and its wide selection distinguishes it from conveniences stores which sell just “beer, gas, and cigarettes.”
“People can shop here without the hassle of navigating to the 40,000-foot [supermarket],” Lee said. “People can be in and out in 10 minutes. I just want it to be the local, small grocery store.”
He said he remembers shopping at the grocery store Grand Union, which closed in the late 1990s, in University Plaza some 40 years ago.
“When [Grand Union] closed down we had a big void,” Lee said. “We wanted to fill that void.”
UP has not had a grocery store since Clintwood Healthy U, a health foods store and pharmacy, closed last semester.
Lee’s dedication to personal accommodation has not gone unnoticed by UP residents.
Naekeshia Smith, a senior majoring in psychology, said Lee always greets her personally every time she steps in his store.
“He’s awesome with customer service,” Smith said. “He always asks me how I’m doing and what he could do better.”
Lee said that Grocery Tree has seen steady business since opening. He expressed optimism that students are buying more than “convenience store snacks.”
“They’re actually buying groceries, eggs and milk,” he said. “I sold out of eggs in three days.”
Grocery Tree’s biggest weakness in comparison with its supermarket competitors in Vestal and Johnson City is its slightly higher prices. A 14-ounce box of Cheerios at the Grocery Tree costs $4.49. The same item costs $3.19 at Wegmans and $2.98 at Walmart.
For some UP residents who own cars, the difference in prices was significant enough to make the drive to Wegmans or Walmart worthwhile.
“For college students, the lowest prices win,” said Louis Alerte, a graduate biomedical engineering student who lives in UP but continues to drive to Wegmans.
Lee acknowledged that he often cannot match the prices of the supermarket chains because he has to pay more for his inventory.
He said he hoped the Grocery Tree’s convenient location and personal touch would help counteract the price difference.
“I can’t compete with a supermarket because I am a family market,” Lee said.
But even those students who continue to shop at Wegmans or Walmart said they believed the Grocery Tree will greatly increase its appeal once it begins selling beer.
“If they get their liquor license, they’ll sell out,” Alerte said.
Lee said he expects the Grocery Tree will obtain its liquor license by the end of the year, and that it will be stocked with beer by the time “students get back from Christmas break.”
In the meantime, Lee is accommodating students as best he can, selling limes, mixers and ping pong balls.
“I’ve got all the student staples,” he said.