215 North St, Bennington, VT

Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union
Address: 215 North St, Bennington, VT

Opened: ca. early 1950s

Closed: by late 1980s

Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants

Photographed: August 8, 2021

This was certainly Grand Union territory at one point. The New Jersey-based chain developed a stronghold in much of Vermont as well as the I-87 corridor across the border in New York, and while many of those locations are still selling groceries these days, some have been repurposed.

This 15,000 square foot store has been split between a Goodwill and a bank. It doesn't seem like the bank has anything left over from Grand Union, but the Goodwill definitely does. Below, you can see the soffit around the perimeter of the store, possibly over the produce department or dairy here on the perimeter wall.

If you look really carefully at the flooring, too, you can see evidence of where grocery shelving was removed. You can see tiles that don't quite line up and are a slightly different color. My best guess is that, where Goodwill has their cart storage, Grand Union probably had their produce department.

Grand Union closed here by the late 1980s and the space subsequently saw a few different non-grocery tenants, but that didn't mean Grand Union left Bennington. They simply moved to a much larger location on the north end of town, which we'll see in a few days. First, though, there's another former supermarket right across the street that'll be tomorrow's post!