image description — During recent store remodels, Price Rite has enhanced its produce departments for customers to enjoy a farmers market experience right in their local grocer. (Photo courtesy Price Rite Marketplace)

Biz Briefs: Price Rite Marketpace to Hold Grand Re-Opening of Pittsfield Store

12:55PM / Thursday, January 23, 2020Print Story | Email Story

Price Rite grand re-opening

Price Rite Marketplace will unveil fresh new looks and shopping experiences with grand re-openings at its store on Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield, as well as stores in Chicopee, Springfield, West Springfield and Westfield. The supermarket is continuing to roll out its award-winning redesigned store concept focused on deep discounts and fresh foods after successful store rebrands in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania locations.

Price Rite Marketplace kicked off its rebranding campaign in fall 2018 with three stores in Pennsylvania, followed by an aggressive 2019 rollout with 35 additional rebrands in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Maryland. The changes attracted new customers, generated industry buzz and even secured a National Grocers Association Creative Choice Award for outstanding marketing and merchandising in the supermarket industry.

Customers who visit these stores will find bright, revitalized décor, including market-style produce departments brimming with fresh fruit, vegetables and organics. Each store will also include the new "Drop Zone" stocked with special surprise buys on must-have grocery and private label items, and lower prices that extend across hundreds of products.

To mark the latest grand re-openings, Price Rite Marketplace is hosting community celebrations on Friday, Jan. 24, with music, free sampling and other fun events. Doors open 8 a.m.; the first 400 customers who arrive at each store will receive a $20 Price Rite Marketplace gift card.

Birthday party for Marty

Marty, the tall, googly-eyed robot that roams Stop & Shop stores searching for spills and potential hazards, is turning 1. To celebrate, all three Berkshire County Stop & Shop stores - 1 Dan Fox Drive and 60 Merrill Road in Pittsfield and 876 State Road in North Adams - will throw Marty a first birthday party on Saturday, Jan. 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., complete with birthday cake, crafts for kids and giveaways.

Marty the robot is used to identify hazards and spills on the floor, allowing associates to focus on customers. When the robot detects a potential hazard on the floor, he notifies store associates who take corrective action.

Marty is from Kentucky and was created by Badger Technologies. He speaks both English and Spanish. On average, he spots 40 spills and potential hazards at each store every day. Marty has more than 300 cousins who also live at Stop & Shop stores across the company's five-state footprint. And Marty's favorite dance move is the robot (naturally).

Richmond Grill changes

The Richmond Grill, a fixture on the North Adams dining scene, has teamed up with Main Street Hospitality to develop a new attitude for the local classic. Located in The Holiday Inn, and owned by Larkin Hospitality in Burlington, Vt., the grill now features a new look, a new feel and a new dining experience thanks to a facelift to its surroundings and new breakfast and dinner menus.

Main Street's vice president of Culinary Development, Brian Alberg, and executive chef Joe Segala, have collaborated on a new menu that celebrates classic grill favorites, as well as fresh new selections such as shrimp scampi risotto. Mel Karakaya, the general manager of the Porches Inn at Mass MoCA, is supporting The Grill's operations in close conjunction with The Holiday Inn team. In addition to her role at Porches, Karakaya and her husband own Pera and Casalina.

Instagram classes

Silo Media and Professionality Consulting are offering a six-week Instagram class for local businesses on Thursdays from noon to 1 p.m. from Feb. 6 to March 12 at ExtraSpecialTeas, 2 Elm St., Great Barrington. Instagram is one of the fastest, most accessible, most effective, and most affordable marketing tools available today. The cost is $35 a class or $180 to prepay for all six classes. To register, email dawn@professionalityconsulting.com or beth@silo-media.com or call 413-429-1176.

Appropriate for artists, individuals, nonprofit professionals and small business owners, the class will cover why people should use Instagram, how to set goals, how to tell a good story, explain hashtags, followers and following, how to take a good photo, how to use Instagram stories, how to link with Facebook and much more.

Spectrum News launched

Spectrum Networks has launched Spectrum News 1, a new 24/7 format for high-quality, hyperlocal news, weather and sports coverage for Spectrum customers in Central and Western Massachusetts. Spectrum News 1 is dedicated to providing compelling local content exclusively for Spectrum viewers in Western and Central Massachusetts. With reporters embedded in the communities of Worcester, Chicopee and Pittsfield, content includes a robust lineup of hyperlocal news, stories and area-specific weather reports, along with political and local sports coverage for viewers across the region.

Every Monday through Friday starting at 6 a.m., viewers can tune in to Your Morning News for local news and essential stories that are relevant to their daily lives with anchor Ana Bottary, followed by Your Afternoon News starting at noon and Your Evening News starting at 6 p.m. with Anchor Olivia Lemmon. On weekends starting at 6 a.m., anchors Chandler Walsh and Cam Jandrow lead coverage of the day's local news and events. Additionally, the network's journalists are embedded in the communities to cover local news on the ground. Multimedia journalist (MMJ) Valerie Bell covers Chicopee, Matt Ristaino covers Pittsfield, and Chandler Walsh and Cam Jandrow cover Worcester.

In addition, Spectrum News 1 will continue to air popular local shows such as the local-oriented public affairs program Central Mass Chronicles, the half-hour show Chamber Exchange, presented by the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, which highlights the Central Mass business community, and Chamber of Commerce, which focuses on the region's businesses and emerging sectors of the local economy. The network also will continue to provide coverage of local high school and college sports on the network, including the popular local sports program Football Frenzy Show.

Big Y donations

In order to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer, all Big Y Supermarkets donated proceeds from their October initiative "Partners of Hope" to 29 local breast cancer support groups throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut. This month-long program reflects the partnership, commitment and support of breast cancer awareness and research that are so vital for many.

The results have finally been tabulated and in October, Big Y raised $215,742.00 for the slate of organizations in Massachusetts and Connecticut, including locally the Berkshire Medical Center Women's Imaging Center in Pittsfield.

Greylock grant

Greylock Federal Credit Union has been awarded $525,000 in grant funds from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the US Treasury Department. The award will expand products for low-income members and increase services that promote financial inclusion. Greylock is the only CDFI credit union in western Massachusetts.

This is the second CDFI grant awarded to Greylock. The first award of $686,500 was received in 2017. Those funds were leveraged to generate over $15 million in special lending in Berkshire County, including New Road Auto loans, Small Business loans and Safety Net loans.

The initial award also supported the program creation at the Community Empowerment Center that opened in Greylock's Kellogg Street branch earlier this fall. The new grant will enhance outreach and education efforts and allow greater flexibility to develop new products that meet the unique needs of the community. The CEC is a safe space where anyone can access the financial tools and resources needed to thrive and grow in the community. It is home to Greylock’s special lending programs, personal financial coaching services, school-based financial literacy curriculum, member education classes, and immigrant and minority services.

Berkshire Computer Repair Award

Berkshire Computer Repair has been selected for the 2020 Best of North Adams Award in the Computer Service & Repair category by the North Adams Award Program.

Each year, the North Adams Award Program identifies companies that have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the North Adams area a great place to live, work and play.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2020 North Adams Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the North Adams Award Program and data provided by third parties.

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BRTA Focuses on a New Run Schedule

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
01:26PM / Wednesday, April 29, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is still working on maintaining its run schedules after dropping the route realignment proposal.

Last Thursday's meeting was Administrator Kathleen Lambert's first official meeting taking over the reins; retiring director Robert Malnati stayed during a transition period that ended last month.

Lambert is trying to create a schedule that will lessen cancellations. There was a two-hour meeting the week before with the drivers union to negotiate run bids and Lambert is working with the new operating company Keolis, which is taking over from Transdev.

The board spoke about anonymous emails from drivers, which Lambert said she has not seen. iBerkshires was not able to see those letters, but has received some.

"They were lengthy emails from someone describing themselves as concerning BRTA employee, and there was a signed letter from a whole group of employees basically stating their concerns. So, you know, to me, it was a set of whistleblowers, and that, what my understanding is that this really triggers a need for some type of process to review the merits of these whistleblowers, not going to call them accusations, but basically expressions of concern," said member Stephen Bannon.

A letter iBerkshires received spoke of unhappy drivers who were considering quitting because of decisions being made without "input from frontline staff," frustration and falling morale, and the removal of the former general manager shortly after Lambert came in.

Lambert said it's difficult to navigate a new change. She also noted many drivers don't want to do Saturday runs and it has been hard negotiating with drivers on the new runs.

"I would like you all to keep in mind that the process of change is super difficult. Transdev has been here for 20 years, and some of these drivers have never known any other operating company, the way some of the operations have been handled has been archaic," she said. "So getting folks up to speed on how a modern transit system works is going to be painful for them. So I don't want to say that I'm unsympathetic, because I am sympathetic, but I am trying to coax people along with a system that's going to seem very strange to them."

The board spoke about better communication between them and Lambert, citing cooperation will be best moving forward.

"There's just a lot of stuff in the air right now, and there are a lot of fires to put out to make this a coordinated effort. And if we don't keep our communications open and be straightforward, then you get blindsided about how you know the input that you could get from us about your position, and how you know what's going on in your direction, and we get blindsided. And I think that we have to make sure that this is a collaboration," said member Sherry Youngkin.

"Both sides have responsibilities, because in the long run, this advisory board is going to have to make decisions as to how we brought forward and if we've gone forward in a fair and helpful way. And I think that's hopefully what everybody is looking for also."

Transdev and Keolis held a three-day recruiting event interviewing almost 40 candidates and offering jobs to eight, but only three stayed on to start training. Lambert said it was disappointing but she will keep trying to retain more people.

In her first report to the board, she noted that ridership dipped a little over 10 percent, but still remains higher than last year, adding that was because of cancellations of services because of the lack of drivers.

Like the last meeting, some of the advisory board members were torn over the start of the Link413 service, worried that the start of the service took drivers away and the numbers of riders are low.

Lambert, however, said the ridership has doubled from last month.

"As I've spoken before, we have, generally, a six-month adoption for brand-new service before you can really go in and evaluate, are you being successful based on the grant that my predecessor wrote along with the team for PBTA and RTA, we are ahead of schedule, which is pretty good, so I'm hoping that will continue to improve," she said.

Member Renee Wood said the board never approved the service, adding the only thing she could find in the minutes was a vote to accept the equipment. She said it was supposed to be put on the agenda to discuss.

"The Link413 service has been three years in the making. It's been a grant that was accepted and has been working with our partners, PVTA and FRTA, to put into place. So I don't have the entire history of how that process worked, but it's been three years in the making, and did we not understand that once we accept that grant that we were going to put in new service?" Lambert said.

The board discussed if Title VI, the Civil Rights Act, was followed with an accurate review and accurate amount of time for public comment period on the service changes and if its attorney should review if the grant conditions were properly followed.

Lambert said changes had the 60-day comment period included in the proposed route realignment packet, giving the opportunity for the community to respond to that as well but will look into the legality of the situation with their attorney.

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