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Market 32 - Worcester, MA (Main Middle)

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By Zachary
Market 32
Opened: October 2025
Owner: Northeast Grocery
Previous Tenants: McCracken Markets > Iandoli Super Markets > Price Chopper (ca. late 1980s-2025)
Cooperative: none
Location: 221-223 Park Ave, Worcester, MA
Photographed: October 31, 2025
Welcome back to Worcester, where one of the remaining Price Chopper stores is in the process of becoming a Market 32! One city Price Chopper became a Market 32 back in 2018, and another closed early this year. This store is on the small side for a Price Chopper -- only around 36,000 square feet. You can see the store prior to its renovation here.
The outside has gotten a new paint job and some new signage, but the work is more extensive inside. And it's definitely necessary -- this store had become rather rundown in recent years. At this point, it doesn't look like the layout will change at all, but many of the fixtures are being replaced.
Flooring is scraped down to concrete on the left side of the store, including in the produce department, with new paint on the walls, refrigerators, and ceiling. It's not quite clear yet whether there'll be new flooring going in or whether they'll just polish the concrete that's already here. The existing flooring on the right side of the store, though, is in very rough shape, so one of those two needs to happen.
I couldn't tell for certain whether these produce bins were new. They're temporarily on rolling wheels so they can be moved around for the renovation.
Part of the produce department, at the front, has been tarped off. The packaged prepared foods/deli cases are mostly empty (and some are closed up, as you can see above), so I wonder if something else is going to come in here.
Meanwhile, the deli itself has gotten new cases. This temporary department signage isn't bad at all, and I'm interested to see what decor goes in here.
The prepared foods department has been condensed slightly, and I wonder what'll occupy this corner visible to the left above. One possibility: an expanded cheese department, which many Market 32s have but this Price Chopper didn't.
The fixtures haven't yet been replaced in the meat and seafood departments on the back wall, though, and you can see where the flooring transitions to the older tile. As you can see, this is an old store and it still feels old. We'll have to wait and see how the final product looks -- I'm curious how extensive the work will be int he rest of the store, but obviously it needs some serious work to the flooring, ceiling, and grocery aisles to make it feel like a new store.
It looks like a few of the grocery aisles are being shortened slightly, which Market 32 tends to do to allow for specialty displays for items like olive oil and pasta at the ends of the aisles.
You don't have to look further than this frozen foods aisle to see that this store really was in need of some serious work. This flooring is particularly bad, possibly as a result of leaking freezers or something like that, and obviously the freezers need to be replaced.
There are a few small Market 32 locations in and around Albany, where Northeast Grocery has been quick to remodel stores close to home but there isn't room to expand them. This has the same feeling as those, although like this one, those also still feel like old stores.
I'm really not loving the gray paint in the new Market 32 remodels -- there's a big difference between the original Market 32 stores, like Worcester which I linked above, and the newer ones that are far less attractive. A higher, open ceiling and a shiny polished concrete floor would make this store feel much newer -- or at least a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling and a new floor. Here's an example of a 1960s-era A&P feeling like a brand-new store with a shiny concrete floor, a high open ceiling, and some good new lighting.
Bakery in the front-right corner, again with some flooring issues. Work is ongoing in the ceiling here, as you can see.
It's been 10 years since the Market 32 concept was originally introduced, and the decor really hasn't changed much in that time other than becoming more simple and lower-cost. This is the first conversion I've been aware of in a while, so I'm interested to see how this decor looks.
And a look across the front-end, which hasn't gotten any work just yet...
And the foyer is getting a fresh coat of paint, though again you can see some ceiling issues.
I'm very interested to keep an eye on this renovation, and when I can I'll post updates! Here's a look at some of this weekend's other posts:
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