Price Chopper
Opened: 2006
On a beautiful September Friday back in 2020, I decided I wanted to take a good long walk. I had the day off and it was sunny and gorgeous, why not? I love walking, and didn't have a car when I lived in Worcester so I walked everywhere. Well, that Friday I woke up around 5:30 to get my things ready and hopped on a bus to Webster, Massachusetts, about 14 miles south of Worcester. The fun began when I got to Webster. I headed south, towards Putnam, and walked for hours and hours until I reached the small Connecticut town. After stopping by this store and the Putnam Supermarket a couple blocks away, grabbing an Italian sub for lunch (or a grinder, depending on who you ask), and wandering briefly around an antique store, it was back off to Webster. The whole pilgrimage was over 26 miles -- the most I've ever walked in a day -- but hey, now we get to tour some supermarkets in Putnam.
Price Chopper entered Putnam in 2006, building this 56,000 square foot store from the ground up just outside of the small downtown. The store hasn't been renovated -- although it may have received new flooring, as I've never seen this type of flooring in a Price Chopper of this era -- but it still looks really good. I'm a bit surprised this hasn't yet become a Market 32, given the upscale setting of Putnam.
We enter to the grand aisle on the right side of the store, with the bagel and muffin shop on the front wall. There's a small cafe in the front right corner, with deli and bakery along the right-side wall and seafood/meat at the back. Produce faces these, with pharmacy in an island behind it. Floral is in the front left corner. This is a very typical Price Chopper layout, and not too different from what we saw a few days ago in Vernon.
Don't forget that this was back in 2020, so the seating in the cafe area had been reduced. This type of tile flooring is the style I'm more familiar with in the Price Chopper grand aisles of this era, so I suspect the flooring was replaced in the rest of the store but left in this area.
Like many Price Choppers, the grand aisle is spacious. Here, it's not overly so.
The deli and prepared foods departments run along the right side of the grand aisle.
And bakery is in the back corner. I actually like the ceiling here, since it's low but not too low, dark so it disappears, and still open enough to make the space not feel too small.
Seafood is at the back of the grand aisle.
Moving into the grocery aisles, we start with nonfoods and HABA. This flooring, too, I assume was installed after the store actually opened.
A large service butcher counter is up next on the back wall, and I would say this decor looks very good even today. It doesn't look too outdated, although the seafood and deli departments do look more so. It's also possible that this decor was redone more recently than the rest of the store.
Meat lines the back wall, as we see here. Interesting that here, Price Chopper chose to keep the ceiling on the back aisle exposed even though it's lower. A drop ceiling is the more common choice, like we saw in Vernon.
Frozen foods are on the left side of the store.
The fixtures here are original to the store's opening, I'm sure, but the flooring again looks newer. I'm not sure about the category markers.
Dairy is on the left side of the store, and here we start to see the decor looking a bit out of date.
Cold cuts and more frozen foods line the inside of the last aisle, aisle 13, with dairy on the outside.
A bountiful floral department is in the front corner, and if I'm not mistaken, that "central market florist" sign is newer than the rest of the decor. That matches the decor package we saw in East Stroudsburg more than Matamoras (which is now a Market 32). Notice that the meat sign I commented on is present in both of those stores, making me wonder if this is actually a hybrid decor package between the two. Matamoras opened around 2000 and East Stroudsburg opened in 2012, and this one is right in between those two.
And for a look across the front-end...
Opened: 2006
Previous Tenants: none
Location: 251 Kennedy Dr, Putnam, CT
Photographed: September 25, 2020
Well folks, that's a wrap on Connecticut! For now, at least. I'm sure we'll be coming back soon enough. But tomorrow we begin Rhode Island, a state that we haven't previously seen much of but recently I've been able to get a few stores there. Stay tuned!
All the flooring is newer. You were right about the grand aisle originally having the same tile as the Market Cafe. The non wood-look flooring replaced white VC tile. The register area in addition would have originally had alternating light red/dark red sections of VC tile as well. Some of our stores here in Upstate NY could use some new flooring; ours has not aged well.
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