COLONIE — A slow transformation is happening in real time as a former Price Chopper store closed for 14 months becomes what is by far the region’s largest international market, but, after almost three weeks in business, it remains half empty, with the original aisle and department signs in place.
While the pharmacy is gated and dark, one of the few operating stations in the otherwise vacant food court ringing the produce section has a menu, in Urdu only, offering Indian and Pakistani dishes including kormas, kebabs, samosas and rotis. Entire aisles are devoted to oils, rices, spices and dried legumes, while a 3-foot-wide section of American foods includes Ritz crackers and Spam. (Nearby sits a pork-free, halal version of “luncheon loaf” called Al Haloub Cow.) Himalayan pink salt is 75% cheaper than the house brand at Hannaford.
Named Walworld International Supermarket and open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, the store is the first food-related venture for business partners Hari Godhwani and Sheik Ullah, who in 2022 paid $20.8 million for Colonie Plaza, at 1892 Central Ave. The Price Chopper closed in June 2024 when the chain took over a newer store that previously was a ShopRite location at 1750 Central Ave. The Business Review reported last year that Godhwani is a retired chemist from Middletown and Ullah, a Long Island attorney…