The Market Report

Brigido's Fresh Market Owner: Mike Fernandez Opened:  2023 under current ownership; 1978 previously Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  54 Sayles Ave, Pascoag, RI Photographed:  April 16, 2022 Welcome to Pascoag, Rhode Island, a small village that makes up part of the town of Burrillville. In the middle of this village are a few small businesses, and the largest is this Brigido's Fresh Market. Built in 1978 as a Brigido's IGA, the store became independent and C&S-supplied by the time I got here in 2022. Then in early 2023, the store was sold to Mike Fernandez, who also owns two Foodtowns in New York City and the Brigido's (formerly Foodtown) in New Hartford, CT . Brigido's was a longtime Rhode Island chain of three stores, and when Fernandez purchased the three stores, the New Hartford one was switched. These days, Brigido's is the only Rhode Island member of the Allegiance Retail cooperative, which also represents Foodtown, Pathmark, Green

The smallest state in the union has only 105 supermarkets (for reference, that's less than half of the number of supermarkets in Manhattan alone). But we're going to be taking a look at a few of them, even though my coverage isn't too extensive. There's still a lot of fun things to see here! We'll be spending about two weeks in the Bay State, moving from north to south through Burrillville, North Smithfield, Smithfield, North Scituate, then a few stops in Providence (but of course nowhere near a full tour of all the stores in Providence), with two final stops in the Newport area in Portsmouth and Tiverton. Like Connecticut, Rhode Island has quite a few independent stores that are really fun to visit. In fact, we won't be seeing any big-chain supermarkets here in Rhode Island (but rest assured, there are plenty of Stop & Shops and Shaw's). We're starting with our first store tomorrow in Burrillville!

Price Chopper Opened: 2006 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  251 Kennedy Dr, Putnam, CT Photographed:  September 25, 2020 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

Putnam Supermarket Owner: Jay Sinha Opened:  2010 under current ownership; unknown previously Cooperative:  none Location:  162 Providence St, Putnam, CT Photographed:  September 25, 2020 Welcome to Putnam, Connecticut! The quaint town of 10,000 people is such a quintessential small town that it's been used as the setting for Hallmark movies (which frequently feature Hartford, Providence, and Worcester -- all of which are within about 40 miles away -- as the big bad city). There are two supermarkets in the downtown area, plus a Stop & Shop about two miles outside of town. (Speaking of, I posted an update on the NJ/NY Stop & Shops here last night.) One of the two is the longtime independent Putnam Supermarket, not a member of any cooperative but supplied by New Hampshire's C&S Wholesale Grocers (which originated in Worcester, by the way). I haven't been able to place when the store opened, and Historic Aerials isn't much help either, showing that it was co