The Market Report

Smitty's Chester Market Opened:  2020 Owner: Garrison Smith Previous Tenants:  general store (1847-1993) > Lisai's Market (1993-2020) Cooperative: Associated Grocers of New England Location: 526 Depot St, Chester, VT Photographed:  August 10, 2021 There's something quintessentially New England about an old-school general store, operating continuously since 1847, right next to the train tracks. That's what we're seeing here at Smitty's Chester Market in the small town of Chester, Vermont, though over the years the store has been expanded to a small supermarket of around 7500 square feet. It was various general stores for the first century and a half or so of its life, becoming Lisai's Market in 1993 joining an older location in Bellows Falls . Lisai's sold the store to its current owners in 2020. And although the inside is a fully-functioning small supermarket, it still retains a lot of its history. You can get a clear sense of that (plus the layout...

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...

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...