The Market Report

Dumbo Market Opened: December 18, 2025 Owner:  Mohammed Mujalli Previous Tenants:  CVS Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  1223 2nd Ave, Manhattan, NY Photographed:  February 18, 2026 Welcome to the Upper East Side, where a 12,000 square foot former CVS has reopened as the latest Dumbo Market. This store opened only about a month after the new-build Long Island City location , and while it's pretty similar, it's slightly smaller and a little less upscale. That one, for instance, has a dedicated bakery department, a seafood counter, and a small seating area, none of which this store has. Still, it's an attractive, sleek, and stylish new supermarket. You enter on the left side of the store to the produce department in the first aisle, with service deli and a sushi counter at the back. Frozen foods line the back wall, with meat and dairy in the last aisle on the right side and beer in the front-right corner. You can see that the produce department has a simil...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 114 Central St, Ipswich, MA Opened:  1960s Closed:  between 1975 and 1994 Later Tenants:  Brooks Pharmacy (open by 1994) > Rite Aid > CVS Photographed:  January 8, 2025 Nestled in the quaint little coastal town of Ipswich is this former A&P, now a CVS (surprise surprise). A&P built this store, but I don't know when; it was definitely up and running by around 1965. It closed at some point between 1975 and 1994, and I don't know if there was another supermarket in the space after A&P. But by 1994, the space became a Brooks Pharmacy, which became Rite Aid in 2007, then a CVS between 2011 and 2018. At just 12,000 square feet, it's on the smaller size for a centennial, and I'd assume that's because it's in a pretty cramped New England small town. Ipswich doesn't have a supermarket right in town anymore, but just outside the downtown area is a small Shaw's . And Ipswich is important to the food busi...

Apna Bazar Farmers Market Opened: 2023 Owner:  Jaswinder Singh and Dipak Bhardwaj Previous Tenants:  CVS Cooperative:  none Location:  1815 Middlesex St, Lowell, MA Photographed:  August 23, 2025 There's been so many stores we've seen that are drugstores converted to supermarkets, but most are in the New York metro area . Apna Bazar has made its home in a former CVS here in Lowell, though, taking up 10,000 square feet of space vacated when CVS moved into the Market Basket strip mall across the street. In a way, it makes sense though, because Indian grocer chain Apna Bazar originated in the New York City area. That's where most of their stores are, but three are here in Massachusetts, Woburn (opened 2022), Norwood (opened around 2017), and Lowell (opened 2023). You enter on the left side of the store to a very well-stocked produce department in the first aisle. Bulk rice and grains are on the back wall, with dairy in the back half of the first aisle and froz...

Fresh Mart Opened: May 2025 Owner:  James Chan Previous Tenants:  Grand Union (open by 1966, closed between 1994 and 1996) > CVS (open by 1996, closed 2024) Cooperative:  none Location:  132-22 14th Ave, College Point, NY Photographed:  July 25, 2025 Add it to the list: time for a look at another former drugstore-turned-supermarket! In the case of the 10,000 square foot Fresh Mart in College Point, Queens, this building also started out as a supermarket. Grand Union built the store in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and actually kept it open all the way until at least 1994. By 1996, the space had become a CVS, which closed in 2024. Fresh Mart, an independent Asian supermarket, embarked on a major remodeling project of the space and opened in May. Because as much as the exterior looks like CVS did , the interior is a sleek, modern Asian supermarket that looks brand-new... Needless to say, this is nothing like CVS's interior . Produce and dairy are in the first...

Garden Fresh Market Opened: October 23, 2024 Owner:  Wilson Bermeo Previous Tenants:  CVS Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  274 Old Nyack Tpk, Spring Valley, NY Photographed: October 25, 2024 How many supermarkets have we seen that have made their home in former drugstores? Ten or twenty years ago, it would've been the other way around -- lots of drugstores that had opened in former supermarkets. Now, the trend has flipped, as more drugstores close and independent supermarkets pop up around the area in former supermarkets. Spring Valley, New York is a city of around 35,000 (okay, it's actually a village within the town of Ramapo) right on the New York/New Jersey border in Rockland County, about seven miles west of the Mario Cuomo bridge, formerly the Tappan Zee. In an area of Rockland County with a large Orthodox Jewish population , parts of Spring Valley are home to large Latin, Caribbean, and African immigrant communities. Two miles north of the New Jersey ...