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: February 6, 2026
The renovation is done at the Park Avenue Market 32 (formerly Price Chopper) in Worcester, and the store looks great. Catch up on the past coverage
here, and now let's check out a full before and after of the store!
The exterior is basically the same, with a fresh coat of paint and some new signage. It's an unusual exterior for a Price Chopper or a Market 32, but not unattractive.
I believe that the only entrance is now on the far left side of the store, and the former entrance seen above is now an exit only. The entrance/exit foyer area has been reworked so that the bathrooms face into the store, not the foyer, and the bottle return room is now only accessible from the outside.
So let's head inside!
This was a pretty nice store inside before, although these pictures were from 2018 and in the following five years or so, maintenance did definitely slip. That said, the store is looking crisp and fresh now...
...if extremely gray. Over the 11 years that Market 32 has existed (and they've used the same decor package for the whole time), the stores have gotten grayer. Compare
this location, converted to Market 32 in 2021, to
this one which opened in 2015. Notice that in Sutton, the walls are not all gray -- some are, but most are black, green, wood-texture, or something else, and the pops of color are significant. The newer stores have much less going on visually, in part because those early remodels were so expensive.
And on that subject, the work here was more extensive than I was expecting. PC/Market 32 did actually move some walls around, replace the flooring throughout the store, replace most of the refrigeration and freezers, and rework the service counters. A grand reopening
was held on January 30.
Another challenge here is the low ceiling, which obviously isn't a problem in a more modern store like Sutton.
The deli and prepared foods counters have been rearranged. They've been tightened up to move prepared foods closer to deli, resulting in more space for a new cheese counter between Foodfare and seafood.
So that eliminates some of the issues previously, like this refrigerator filled with chips.
The pizza counter isn't gone, but just relocated closer to deli. Now, this corner is used for cheese.
This is well done, certainly a big improvement.
The grocery aisles mostly weren't changed except for new flooring and new aisle markers. As far as I can tell, the shelving wasn't replaced.
The reworked customer service/restroom area at the front...
Looks like some new lighting and some old, although I'm not entirely sure.
Looking good in seafood, too.
All new fixtures in the meat department, but the very blank walls continue to be very blank. You can feel this is an old store once you're in this part.
However, there are some really nice newer touches like these specialty merchandising areas. This one is for pasta.
The freezers were all replaced, a necessary change, as was the flooring here. You can see both were pretty old below.
These fixtures presumably predated this decor, as it's clear they don't exactly match.
Now, everything was installed at the same time, so it's much more harmonious.
But very boring. I understand that those early Market 32 remodels were too expensive to be sustainable, but it does feel like some minor changes to the color of the ceiling and floor could make this interior less bleak.
Cosmetic quibbles aside, the work here was extensive. You can see that clearly in the bakery, with all new decor, fixtures, and even a reconstructed wall.
The front-end is laid out similarly to before, but with a new, larger self-checkout area.
It's good to see a decades-old supermarket like this getting such extensive work. Now, there's a lot happening right now, so check out all of this weekend's posts here!
Saturday
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