The Market Report

A Market Opened:  2019 in current location; 2007 previously Owner:  Kirk Rawson Previous Tenants:  Almacs > Eastside Marketplace Cooperative:  none Location:  181 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI Photographed:  August 2021 Contributor:  Lucas F. Exterior Image from Google Maps Street View Welcome to Newport, Rhode Island! The famous vacation destination is on the southern coast of the state, home to a well-known series of waterfront mansions and other tourist stops . But our contributor Lucas isn't bringing us photos of the mansions -- he's gotten pictures of A Market, a natural food store in downtown a mile north of the mansion row. A disclaimer as we tour the store: I've never actually been here, so I don't know what the layout is for sure. I've made my best guess based on the pictures. The 26,000 square foot supermarket was originally a location of Rhode Island chain Almacs, whose location in southwestern Providence we saw last May, later becoming an E...

Original Grocery Tenant: Almacs Address: 740 Plainfield St, Providence, RI Opened:  between 1963 and 1970 Closed:  by 1995 Later Tenants:  call center > Americana Expo Center flea market Photographed:  November 19, 2023 Almacs might not be a name we all know these days, but once it was a big force in Rhode Island grocery stores. At its height, the chain had 43 stores across the smallest state in the union, and this 28,000 square foot location was one from about the mid-1960s through 1995, when the chain went under. These days, after becoming a call center, the former Almacs on Plainfield Street is an indoor flea market. I strongly regret not getting pictures inside, as the building still has some decor left up inside. Maybe on a future trip to Providence! There's a lot in and around Providence we're not seeing, but let's take a look at one more store in the city before we move to the southern part of the state tomorrow.