The Market Report

Original Grocery Tenant:  Elm Farm Food Stores Address: 426 Essex St, Salem, MA Opened:  by 1965 Closed:  by 1970 Later Tenants:  Giant Value Discount Foods (open by 1970, closed 1988 or 1989) > Crosby's Marketplace (open by 1989, closed 2000 or 2001) > CVS (2002- ) Photographed:  May 20, 2025 Just west of downtown Salem, Elm Farm Food Stores opened this 15,000 square foot supermarket in the early 1960s, no later than 1965. By 1970, it had become a Giant Value Discount Foods, which then became a Crosby's Marketplace in 1988 or 1989. Crosby's stuck around here until late 2000 or 2001, and a new CVS opened up in the space in 2002. Now, a couple interesting things here. First off, the Elm Farm to Giant Value progression is actually a familiar one: a supermarket in Boston's Mission Hill was originally an Elm Farms, later a Giant Value. It looks like both of those might have been cooperatives or franchises, so it's possible ownership didn't change during tha...

Stop & Shop Opened: 2003 Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  none; other stores previously on property Cooperative:  none Location:  1620 Tremont St, Boston, MA Photographed:  June 2, 2019 and July 19, 2019 Welcome to Mission Hill! This store is right on the border of Longwood and Mission Hill, which is south of the Back Bay / Fenway area. This suburban area is between Longwood, the suburb of Brookline to the west, Roxbury to the east, and Jamaica Plain to the south.  This complex was a ground-up build in 2003, but it replaced an older store on the property. It wasn't a Stop & Shop, though. Instead, some searching on Newspapers.com revealed that it opened as an Elm Farms Food Store in April 1955. It looks like it may have been co-branded Elm Farms and Calumet Supermarket -- it appears that Elm Farms may have been a cooperative? -- and by 1978, it seems to have been co-branded Giant Value and Calumet. Calumet was in business until at least...