City Market Onion River Co-op - Burlington, VT (Downtown)

City Market Onion River Co-op
Opened: 2002

Owner: cooperatively owned

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: National Co-op Grocers

Location: 82 S Winooski Ave, Burlington, VT

Photographed: August 14, 2025

Welcome to our next Vermont food co-op, which also happens to be the only large supermarket in downtown Burlington! This is the City Market, run by the Onion River Co-op, which has two locations here in town. This 22,000 square foot one was built in 2002.

This store is similar to the Hunger Mountain Co-op in its general setup (and its food-geography name) but also in the fact that it's a beautiful, premium supermarket. It's a noticeable step up from the average chain supermarket, and that's reflected in a fantastic perimeter including lots of local produce and other local items.

In fact, the bountiful produce department is the first department we encounter upon entering the store, then customers pass through the grocery aisles and health and beauty department. Here, dairy and frozen are kind of in the middle of the store, with meat, seafood, deli, bakery, and cafe on the left side if I remember correctly, along with a gorgeous wine store. Once again, there's a hefty cafe and coffee shop inside this store, with seating up at the front.

You can check out the interior of the other Onion River Co-op location here. That store is newer than this one, having opened in 2017.

Field Day items from UNFI are on the shelves here.

Vermont definitely knows how to make (and find) great bread and cheese. I'll say again that the food in Vermont generally has been really good when I've been there.

Here's the cafe and wine store up front. As you can see, there's some serious attention here paid to the food service and the made-to-order selections, a refreshing change from most big chain stores.

This is the only full supermarket in downtown Burlington, though there's a smaller market just about a block west. We're going to check that out tomorrow!