The Market Report

Rounding out Connecticut Week with a final store tour. There are two CTowns in New Haven, but I've only been to one. If you're curious, here's a look at the outside and inside of the other one, which appears to be smaller. Now for this one, which has to be one of the largest CTowns out there. This 25,000 square foot store is the only supermarket serving the relatively isolated neighborhood of Fair Haven, located east of downtown New Haven, and the better-know parts including the University of New Haven and Yale University. It's pretty obvious this used to be a chain store, but I don't know what it would have been. My gut tells me Stop & Shop, but I have no evidence to base this on. Heading in, we see a simplified version of the decor designed for CitiGrocer in Elizabeth (coming soon to the blog), and a variant of what's in the Ideal Food Basket of Clifton . Produce is located in the front corner, with deli, meat, and seafood continuing along the ...

For a change of scenery around here, we're moving from a small town in sparsely-populated northwestern Connecticut to a suburb between Norwalk and Bridgeport. Today we're taking a quick look at a former Grand Union-turned-Shaw's that has since become a Fresh Market, one of my least favorite chains. That said, this picture did come out pretty nice, especially for a drive-by photo on an iPhone from 2014 I think? This store is located at 605 Post Rd E, and you can check out an interior photo from Google Maps. Photographed November 2016

Today's Snapshot is a quick look at a store just up the street from yesterday's IGA . This business's name is J.P. Gifford Market & Catering Company, although it seems to focus heavily on the catering, along with being a bakery and café. Not much market around here. Oh well. The store was closed when I visited (I believe it was on a Sunday). And based on the appearance of the windows, the store is also a fishtank. J.P. Gifford Aquarium is located at 12 N Main St, Kent, CT. Photographed June 2018

Heading about 20 miles west of Litchfield to Kent, which is right near the New York state border. It's a small town with a very nice downtown. And one supermarket. Well okay, it also has a gourmet market we're going to see tomorrow. But for now, we'll just take a look at the friendly neighborhood IGA... The Davis IGA is a very small but very nice market that really looks to be full-service. Having been both here and the Stop & Shop in Litchfield , I would really rather shop here. I got a very strong NYC-area feeling from this store, likely because this is a popular vacation area for many NYC folks. But this store very much feels compact like a Key Food in Brooklyn might. It even has the same look on the inside, if a little more rustic. Regardless, if you focus on the decor, it's really not far from the Key Food Marketplace in Bay Ridge . Anyhow, this store isn't located in Bay Ridge, it's at 27 Kent Green Blvd in Kent, CT. Photographed June 20...

To kick off our Connecticut week, we are checking out a brand-new store -- that is, one that has never before appeared here on The Market Report or on Flickr, as well as one that's actually very newly built. Opened in June 2017, this location in the Litchfield Village Green replaced an older store just west on US-202 which itself may have been an older Grand Union. I photographed the store at night, then returned a few days later for an additional exterior photo. All of the interior photos were taken at night, so we'll be seeing very few customers and low stock in most departments. This exterior store model is quite attractive. However, it's strangely one-sided, and it gives the appearance that the store was expanded (when, in fact, it was built this way). Marking a departure from many earlier models, there is only one entrance and exit, both on this side of the storefront. You enter to the right and encounter bakery in the front corner with prepared foods and del...