The Market Report

It's time for one more roundup of former grocers in northeastern Worcester! This is where my coverage starts to become much more spotty, so we're only going to see about a dozen stores along Lincoln Street between Lincoln Square and the 290 overpass to the south, and Brittan Square and the other 290 overpass to the north. A note on historical sources:  To get past stores in each location, I've consulted Worcester city directories going back to the 1910s. Here in the city, I'm drawing from  1916, 1922, 1927, 1931, 1937, 1943, 1959, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1969, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1991, 2000, 2009, and 2017.  Also of note: this is far from an exhaustive listing of all grocery stores that have been in this area, although I'll probably eventually post the full thing, this is just what I've been able to photograph. Reading the captions:  A caption such as the following...          |  John Smith (1926-1937) > Joe Jones (1955-1982) ...means that Jo...

Let's now retrace our steps a bit, starting on Bell Hill (just north of Shrewsbury Street) and then continuing up Lincoln Street through Brittan Square and all the way beyond Lincoln Plaza to the Great Brook Valley area! A note on historical sources:  To get "past stores" in each location, I've consulted Worcester city directories going back to the 1910s. Here in the city, I'm drawing from  1916, 1922, 1927, 1931, 1937, 1943, 1959, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1969, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1991, 2000, 2009, and 2017.  Also of note: this is far from an exhaustive listing of all grocery stores that have been in this area, although I'll probably eventually post the full thing, this is just what I've been able to photograph. Reading the captions:  A caption such as the following...          |  John Smith (1926-1937) > Joe Jones (1955-1982) ...means that John Smith appears in the directories in 1926 and 1937, and Joe Jones appears in all directories I cons...

Stop & Shop Open: ca. 2002 - 2024 Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  545 Lincoln St, Lincoln Plaza, Worcester, MA Photographed:  February 17, 2019 and November 2, 2019 Closing Date: by October 31, 2024 Another Worcester Stop & Shop coming our way! This store was just under 60,000 square feet and was constructed around the early 00s on the site of an older strip of stores built in the 1960s or so. This is Lincoln Plaza, one of the large (if not the largest perhaps) strip malls in Worcester, with Stop & Shop, Target, Lowe's, and other big-box retailers. Originally, there were two strips in Lincoln Plaza, one roughly where the Stop & Shop is all the way through the Michaels or so on that same strip; the other was across the parking lot facing it in an L-shape. That side had two levels for at least part of its length, since the west side of Lincoln Plaza is at a lower elevation than the east side where th...

ALDI Food Market Opened: between 2007 and 2011 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  500 Lincoln St, North Lincoln St/Lincoln Plaza, Worcester, MA Photographed:  February 17, 2019 and November 2, 2019 This, folks, is an ALDI. End of store tour. Have a great day. Okay, maybe I'll say a little more, even though ALDI famously sticks almost-religiously to their standard store format. It's an 18,000 square foot store, constructed between 2007 and 2011. Around 2018, it was renovated to the current decor package, and I photographed it the following year. Although you can see the decor is up-to-date, the flooring remains from the original decor package . In a slightly unusual setup (only slightly, though), produce is in the front left corner instead of the back with baked goods behind it. Dairy/meat/deli items are on the back wall and extend about halfway down the right side wall, with frozen foods in the front half of the right side. This is the only ALDI in the immediate area (th...

Original Grocery Tenant: Food World Warehouse Address: 490 Lincoln St, North Lincoln St/Lincoln Plaza, Worcester, MA Opened:  bet. 1979 and 1985 Closed:  bet. 1985 and 1991 Later Tenants:  Shaw's (open by 1991, closed by 2000) Photographed:  February 17, 2019 Quick look today at a former supermarket on Lincoln Street. This store of roughly 42,000 square feet opened between 1979 and 1985 (probably in the early 1980s, based on Historic Aerials) as a Food World Warehouse, one of the Iandoli brands , then likely was sold to Shaw's with the rest of the Iandoli chain in 1987-88. Shaw's closed by 2000. I'm not sure if Savers (a thrift store) opened immediately thereafter, or if there were any other tenants in between. Even though this Shaw's isn't here anymore, there are still two supermarkets in this area (plus a Target) -- let's tour the smaller one tomorrow!

Original Grocery Tenant: First National Stores Address: 267 Lincoln St, Brittan Square, Worcester, MA Opened:  bet. 1943 and 1949 Closed:  bet. 1952 and 1957 Later Tenants:  Phillip Jacobs > General Food Stores > Pennywise Market > North End Market Photographed:  November 2, 2019 and September 9, 2022 There sure are a lot of squares in Worcester. In fact, the Worcester Public Library has an entire page dedicated to listing them. (Side note: the WPL is a wonderful library and I loved it the time I was in Worcester.) So we're here now at Brittan Square, about two miles northeast of downtown, where a longtime grocery store has recently closed. 267 Lincoln Street was first built in 1925, but I'm not sure what was here prior to 1949, when the first listing I can find for this address shows First National Stores (later Finast). In 1927, First National was at 265b Lincoln, which might be the same building, but I'm not sure; 265b was Cloverdale in 1931. The 4200 ...