355 N Main St, Barre, VT

Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union

Address: 355 N Main St, Barre, VT

Opened: 1974

Closed: ca. 1990s

Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants

Photographed: August 13, 2025

It's not hard to tell from a glance that this building in downtown Barre was originally a supermarket. And given that we're here in Vermont, it's easy to guess who the original tenant was -- Grand Union, which has left plenty of similar buildings across the state. It's around 28,000 square feet, and has been subdivided between a shoe store and a Walgreens.

Grand Union opened here in 1974, though this store replaced an older location in town that had been in business since at least the 1940s. I haven't been able to pin down exactly where that old store was. And it looks like this store didn't actually make it to Grand Union's 2001 bankruptcy, instead closing around the 1990s. I'm not sure if there was a very short-lived replacement store in the area, which is possible. At the very end of the company's life, Grand Union did replace or extensively renovate a lot of their locations (that was part of the problem; they were essentially spending money they didn't have and weren't going to make back).

Tomorrow, The Market Report heads about five miles north to a small general store in East Montpelier!