After C&S bought Grand Union, it down-scaled most of its operations, keeping only a number of stores in upstate New York and New England open.

The store's mascot was Abraham Lincoln wearing a deli apron, and most stores featured a costumed Lincoln to accomplish deeds, talk to customers, and proclaim the general splendor of the Grand Union, and to urge them to "Save the Union" when the company faced economic hardship.

In the early 1950s, Grand Union merged with Great Eastern and began construction on a new shopping center in what was then known as East Paterson (now Elmwood Park), New Jersey.

The strip was to include a new Grand Union store with an office tower attached that would serve as the company's new corporate headquarters.

In 1987, Grand Union moved its corporate headquarters to Willowbrook Center in Wayne, abandoning its Elmwood Park offices.

Goldsmith also had world-renowned artist Milton Glaser complete a graphical redesign of the chain, which included the "red dot" theme.

Grand Union was Hirsch's fourth major supermarket purchase since 1987, as he had acquired the Pennsylvania-based Penn Traffic, the Syracuse, New York–based P&C Foods, and the Columbus, Ohio-based Big Bear Stores in the previous two years.

[8][9] Under Hirsch's leadership the company was driven into serious debt and ran out of the necessary capital for store improvements and upgrades, making it difficult for them to compete with other better financed retailers.

Harris immediately began remodeling stores and building larger ones, which put even more stress on the company's finances and forced another Chapter 11 filing in 1998.

In addition to this, many of Grand Union's executives were found to have been stealing money such as Don Vaillancourt, who was convicted of embezzling over $2 million from the company in 2002.

In addition to the now-critical debt being borne by Grand Union, the company was unable to build the stores it wanted to as there was not enough money left.

[12] C&S also was one of Grand Union's largest creditors, and made a stalking horse offer to take control of the company in early 2001 that was approved.

This resulted in a consolidation that left the chain with only a relatively small number of stores in smaller cities and towns across Upstate New York and New England.

This meant that although the store retained the Grand Union sign on the outside and various other signage on the inside, it had Stop & Shop branded items on the shelves.

Other supermarket chains that purchased Grand Union stores included Tops, which was at the time also an Ahold subsidiary, Shaw's, Hannaford, Price Chopper and Pathmark.

On July 19, 2012, Tops Friendly Markets announced that it would acquire the 21 remaining Grand Union stores in the Adirondack Region and parts of Vermont.

In 2021, it was announced that, as part of the merge of Tops and Price Chopper Supermarkets merger, the combined entity had to sell 12 stores to meet regulatory approval.