The Market Report

Food Universe Marketplace Opened: October 9, 2025 Owner:  unknown Previous Tenants:  none; Waterbury Farms/Key Food Marketplace planned but never opened Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  96 Grove St, Waterbury, CT Photographed:  October 30, 2025 This recently-opened Food Universe in Waterbury has an interesting history. Even though it's a new-build store, it wasn't built for Food Universe. Instead, it was originally contructed by the Hassen family starting in 2016 and first slated to be Waterbury Farms. Later, signage went up advertising a Key Food Marketplace around the same time the Hassens bought the Town Plot IGA and converted it to a Key Food Marketplace across town. That store then briefly became Banana Fresh Market and is now a Key Food again but under new ownership. Similarly, a different Key Food owner has taken over this Grove Street store and after finishing the construction that was started but never completed, has opened this one as a Food...

Price Rite Marketplace Opened: October 1, 2025 Owner:  Wakefern Food Previous Tenants:  Kmart > Ollie's Bargain Outlet Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Location:  881 Wolcott St, Waterbury, CT Photographed:  October 9, 2025 Here in Waterbury, CT, Wakefern has just opened up its latest Price Rite location. As you might be able to guess from the outside, it's carved out of a former Kmart, a space that was Ollie's Bargain Outlet after Kmart closed (and Ollie's has since moved up the street). The 34,000 square foot space has now been renovated and reopened as the latest Price Rite. Price Rite is Wakefern's discount banner, and they haven't done a lot of store openings lately. In fact, in the last five years or so, they've mostly closed stores. This one is particularly interesting, though, because it's just next door to a ShopRite that recently closed and became a Stop & Shop (that space itself was originally a Price Chopper). It's possible that Wakefe...

Save-A-Lot Owner: unknown Opened:  2010 Previous Tenants:  Shaw's (closed 2007) Location:  205 Union St, Waterbury, CT Photographed:  September 17, 2023 It's time for our final Waterbury store! Just outside of downtown and in an outparcel of the Brass Mill Center mall, Shaw's constructed a roughly 55,000 square foot store around 2000. Under Supervalu's ownership, Shaw's left the state in 2010, selling most of their stores to ShopRite or Stop & Shop . A few went to other supermarkets and still others remained vacant or were turned into non-grocery stores. A few were subdivided, with Save-A-Lot (also owned by Supervalu at the time) taking part of the building. A similar situation played out in Manchester , and that Save-A-Lot closed in 2020 with Key Food coming in soon. In this case, the Shaw's actually closed a few years before the chain left CT, in 2007. In 2020, as Save-A-Lot transitioned away from owning stores and sold all of the locations it owned, th...

Compare Foods Supermarket Owner: unknown Opened:  2016 Previous Tenants:  Bravo Supermarkets (2006-2016) Cooperative:  Associated Supermarket Group Location:  1954 Baldwin St, Waterbury, CT Photographed:  July 9, 2021 Welcome to Waterbury's Compare Foods! There was previously a much larger Compare Foods in town, located around two and a half miles northwest in a former Pathmark. That store became Cherry Valley Marketplace in 2014, and this one was a Bravo from 2006 to 2016. In 2016, Bravo switched to Compare Foods. I don't know what the space was previously -- although back in 1968, a building at this address was a machine shop. Today, the 10,000 square foot space is a small but full supermarket. The deli is in the front right corner, with produce and packaged meat lining the rest of the first aisle. There's a small service butcher at the back of the first aisle, with dairy on the back wall and frozen foods in the last aisle on the left side. I visited on a ho...