Big Y - Milford, MA

Big Y
Opened: 2016

Owner: D'Amour family

Previous Tenants: Star Market (early 1990s-1999) > Hannaford (1999-2016)

Cooperative: none

Location: 7 Medway Rd, Milford, MA

Photographed: August 24, 2025

This Big Y has been on my radar for actually a very long time. It's got a fascinating history, and you might be able to pick up on it if you look very carefully at the exterior. Well, at the very least you might be able to tell it's not a typical Big Y. But the 60,000 square foot store was constructed in the early 1990s as a Star Market, during the time that American Stores owned Star Market. Check out the similarity to this ACME on the outside, which was built when American Stores also owned ACME around the same time. Or see here for more detail. Now, it appears that when Sainsbury's -- a British chain that owned Shaw's -- bought Star Market in 1999, they had to divest a few stores. It appears they divested both this store and the Shaw's in Quincy to Hannaford, possibly along with others. This store is about two miles from a Shaw's in town that we'll tour tomorrow. When Ahold (Stop & Shop) and Delhaize (Hannaford) merged in 2016, this store and Quincy were both divested again, both to Big Y. Quincy, under Big Y, closed in 2019 and is now a 99 Ranch Market; this one not only is still open but has been recently renovated. This store had to be divested because of its proximity to the Stop & Shop, which moved to a new spot shortly after the merger was completed -- so it was almost definitely in progress at the time of the merger.

So although the decor is 100% Big Y, the bones are entirely 90s American Stores. Produce is in a spacious alcove in the front-left corner, with bakery and meat lining the rest of the first aisle. Big Y has added a few short aisles of natural foods opposite bakery and meat, which I'm not sure Star Market would've originally had. Seafood, deli, and cheese are on the back wall, with dairy and frozen on the right side of the store. A confusingly-placed prepared foods department is in the front-right corner, where I'd expect to see a pharmacy or floral, along with a small seating area. It looks like there may have originally been a pharmacy there, which appears to have closed under Hannaford.

The decor was updated shortly after Big Y moved in, but more recently they've done some additional updates like flooring and some fixtures -- in the past two years or so, it seems. Until recently, it still had Star Market flooring throughout the store. Now, only this small herringbone tile is left over from Star Market.

Although the bones are on the older side, Big Y has done a very nice job of fixing up this store. It doesn't feel like a brand-new store, but it's very attractively updated.

Large service butcher added by Big Y...

Here's the best part of this store tour: we can actually get a look inside the Hannaford! Check out this post from Acme Style in 2016. As was mentioned in the comments section, Hannaford painted the walls and installed new lettering upon moving in, but the rest of the decor was original (just repainted). It's sad to see the American Stores history being removed here, but let's face it -- this store looks far better today than it did prior to Big Y's renovation. Over in Quincy, Big Y never did any renovation, so 99 Ranch inherited Hannaford decor placed on top of repainted Shaw's decor (which they promptly removed).

Big Y definitely reset the grocery aisles, as the setup is very typical. HABA is in the first few aisles, and normally there'd be a pharmacy at the front of these aisles.

Big Y put their touches on the seafood, deli, and cheese departments at the back of the store, as these areas look like a standard Big Y.

The only difference is scale. Typically, Big Y has much larger cheese and seafood departments, especially in their newer and purpose-built stores.

Still, this is an attractive setup. The cheese islands are left over from Star Market, as are the seafood freezers (I think), but it looks like the rest of the fixtures were updated much more recently.

The frozen foods aisles definitely haven't been updated since Big Y moved in here!

Star Market had lights hanging over the freezer cases, which Hannaford left. I don't know when they were removed.

But Big Y replaced the shelving for paper goods with this warehouse-style shelving, which they typically use for paper goods and sometimes beverages like water and soda.

Milk and juice are in the back-right corner, with the rest of dairy in the last aisle.

Looks like these dairy cases are original, too, although they've had doors added to them (recently, by Big Y).

Single-serve drinks and other grab-and-go items are at the front of this aisle, near the prepared foods department that Big Y added.

It does look like some of this was reduced after being installed, as some of the self-service bars were open but others were covered in packaged products.

Still, there's made-to-order sandwiches, fried chicken, pizza, and sushi, the typical selection at a Big Y. But in the average Big Y, these are next to deli, not in this rather unusual spot.

And a look across the front-end, which Big Y has modified quite a bit with their new express checkout feature (tied to the app), along with lots of new self-checkouts.

Even though a lot of the Star Market remnants are gone, this was still a very fun store to visit because of the history. And we're almost done with Milford! Tomorrow is the last stop in town.