Chansky's Super Market - Brighton, MA

Chansky's Super Market
Opened: 1985 under current ownership; ca. 1950s previously

Owner: Doug Labb

Previous Tenants: M. Winer/Elm Farm Food Co. (opened late 1930s, converted to Elm Farm ca. mid-1940s, closed by mid-1950s)

Cooperative: none

Location: 161 Sunderland Rd, Brighton, MA

Photographed: July 20, 2019

A grocery store has been here at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Sutherland Road in Brighton for nearly 100 years. By the late 1930s, this 1500 square foot space was a location of M. Winer, a chain grocer in the Boston area that eventually rebranded as Elm Farm Food Co. It looks like that chain either expanded or became a cooperative with multiple owners across New England, but here in Brighton, the Sutherland Road location became Chansky's Super Market by the mid-1950s or so, which it's stayed ever since despite changing ownership at least once. It's also been expanded to its present 3300 square feet, including a small smoke shop next to the grocery store.

Part of the expansion involved extending the storefront out to Commonwealth Avenue, because as you can see above, it originally was just in from the main street on a side street. These days, Chansky's is mostly a liquor and convenience store and doesn't have the departments a small supermarket would like produce or meat. I don't believe there's a deli. Speaking of deli, tomorrow we'll be checking out a small Eastern European deli nearby along with a chain supermarket here in the southern end of Brighton!