The Market Report

Co-op Food Stores Opened:  2010 Owner: cooperatively owned Previous Tenants: Grand Union (ca. 1960s-2001) > P&C Foods (2001-2009) Cooperative:  National Co-op Grocers Location: 209 Maple St, White River Junction, VT Photographed:  July 6, 2023 It's time to tour another co-op supermarket, but this one has a twist. While many New England co-ops are recently-built facilities , this one has a long history as a grocer. In fact, Grand Union built this 17,000 square foot store back in the 1960s or so, and it appears to have lasted right up until the chain went under. In 2001, it became a P&C Foods, part of the Penn Traffic company, which closed this store in 2009. (Most locations went to Tops; for some reason, this one didn't, possibly because Tops has a limited presence in Vermont.) The building owner then looked for a new tenant, and approached the team running a co-op across the border in Hanover, NH. That co-op reopened this supermarket, fixing it up while rema...

Original Grocery Tenant: Stop & Shop Address: 1230 VFW Pkwy, West Roxbury, MA Opened:  1960s Closed:  between 2002 and 2011 Later Tenants:  Savers Photographed:  July 4, 2019 and August 29, 2026 Just around the corner from the Star Market we saw last week in West Roxbury is this Savers, a thrift store that opened around 2010. It took the spot of a former Stop & Shop supermarket, and it actually has quite a few remnants left. You can't see it from the facade, but the building actually is pitched-roof, or at least the center part is. I'm not totally sure how much of the building Stop & Shop took up -- it's a small strip mall, and I believe Savers' footprint is smaller than the supermarket's was -- but my best estimate was that, through expansions, the original 14,000 square foot store became around 48,000 square feet by the time of its closure in the mid- to late-00s (the most specific I can get is between 2002 and 2011). Some shopping carts that I have...

Time for another price comparison! It's The Market Report's fourth comparison -- 50 items across departments at 35 stores in the northeast. Who comes out on top?  Click here to see the latest comparison! This time, the longtime champ ALDI returns to the top spot. Plus, LIDL and three Wakefern brands jump up in price as ALDI and Walmart decrease their prices. In New England, the price gap between Shaw's and Hannaford widens again -- but this time, Shaw's comes in solidly lower as Hannaford's prices rise once more. To the south, SuperFresh becomes the lowest-priced independent/small-chain surveyed, and Gristedes once again claims its dubious honor of being by far the highest-priced on the list. Plus... Supermarket News features this price comparison in a news article here !

Lisai's Market Opened: 2010 in current location; 1924 previously Owner: Mike Lisai Previous Tenants: A&P (open by 1958, closed by 1976) > Grand Union (open by 1976) > Green Mountain Power > Cornerstone Pediatrics (2000-2010) Cooperative: Associated Grocers of New England Location: 128 Atkinson St, Bellows Falls, VT Photographed: August 10, 2021 Lots of interesting things to note at this small independent grocer in Bellows Falls, Vermont! Let's start with the obvious: this is a centennial-era A&P, though of course an extensively renovated one. But A&P actually opened here before their 1859 centennial, opening between 1956 and 1958. It's possible this was simply a very early centennial, or a pre-centennial store that was remodeled during the centennial era. A&P closed no later than 1976, and Grand Union moved into the space subsequently. (Amazingly, it seems they must've kept most of the A&P facade, given how intact it is today.) I don...

Original Grocery Tenant: Buffum's Supermarket Address: 112 Rockingham St, Bellows Falls, VT Opened: between 1956 and 1962 Closed: after 1995 Later Tenants:  Rite Aid > Walgreens Photographed: August 10, 2021 Bellows Falls, Vermont is a quaint small town along the Connecticut River, where the water cuts through a gorge on the border between Vermont and New Hampshire. For decades, the town was served by an A&P supermarket (later Grand Union) as well as this independent, Buffum's Supermarket. This space is around 15,000 square feet, apparently constructed by Buffum's between 1956 and 1962, though it looks like it might've replaced an older building on the same property. From the closure of Buffum's until 2010, Bellows Falls didn't have a full-size supermarket, it seems, though there was a small corner grocer called Lisai's Red & White. In 2010, Lisai's moved into the former A&P building, and that'll be tomorrow's post! But befor...