Tozier's Family Markets - Brewer, ME

Tozier's Family Markets

Open: 2021-2024

Owner: Dale Tozier

Previous Tenants: Save-A-Lot > Brewer IGA

Later Tenants: vacant

Cooperative: none

Location: 87 S Main St, Brewer, ME

Photographed: June 13, 2022

Just across from Tiller & Rye is this longtime supermarket, which goes back decades although I haven't been able to pin down the exact history here (so anyone who knows this area, please tell me what I'm missing!). In recent history, the approximately 16,000 square foot supermarket has been a Save-A-Lot, which closed around 2020 and became the Brewer IGA. That store also closed shortly after opening, and in 2021 it became a location of Tozier's Family Markets. Tozier's closed all but its smallest store in 2024, and this one has remained vacant since.

Inside, the Save-A-Lot history is clear. Brewer IGA updated some of the signage, but the bones are distinctly Save-A-Lot (including these food image posters). See here for an example.

Produce is in the front-right corner, with juice and cold cuts in the rest of the first aisle. Brewer IGA added a small deli at the end of the first aisle, with meats on the back wall. Frozen and dairy were on the left side.

Depending on this building's history -- if it was a full-service supermarket before Save-A-Lot -- it's possible all of the backroom space was already there, and Brewer IGA just had to remove the wall that closed it off.

(That is to say, as far as I know, Save-A-Lot did not have a service deli here.)

You can tell the store is an old supermarket, or at least it looks that way to me.

The aisle markers were left over from Save-A-Lot but had Brewer IGA labels on them, which Tozier's never changed.

Dairy and frozen beginning on the back wall and then continuing down the last aisle...

As you can see, the store was clean and orderly, but still basically a Save-A-Lot with an expanded (and more expensive) product selection. When there are multiple other competitors nearby in a town of under 10,000, that's not exactly a recipe for success.

Again, assuming this store was another grocer before Save-A-Lot, these freezer cases may have been left over from before Save-A-Lot, and it's possible the floor was too.

A look across the front-end, where some of the checkout lane markers had Tozier's logos affixed...

I'm glad that I got to see this store before it closed, and it's sad to see the independent grocers here couldn't make it. On the other hand, Tiller & Rye is still going strong across the street.

Tomorrow, we're headed into Bangor for a look at a former supermarket!