766 Putney Rd, Brattleboro, VT

Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union
Address: 766 Putney Rd, Brattleboro, VT

Opened: 1970s

Closed: 1998

Later Tenants: Hot Dot Discount (1998-1999)

Photographed: August 10, 2021

In the same mall as yesterday's ALDI is this former Grand Union. Grand Union built this store of around 33,000 square feet in the 1970s, though I haven't been able to pinpoint an exact year, and it closed in 1998 as the chain struggled. One strategy Grand Union attempted, to save their failing locations, was converting them to a discount format called Hot Dot Discount. Unfortunately, here Hot Dot only lasted a year, closing in 1999, two years before the rest of the chain declared bankruptcy. A new Hannaford had just been constructed up the street, opening in 1996, and it's possible that store put this one out of business.

The space has subsequently been split up. Grand Union was headquartered just outside of Paterson, New Jersey, but had a large base of stores in upstate New York and then across the border here into Vermont. We'll see many more Grand Union locations here in this area. And after a roughly 15 year hiatus, this strip mall has regained a supermarket with the opening of ALDI in 2014. On Monday, we're going to check out the Hannaford up the street!