The Market Report

Big Y World Class Market Owner: D'Amour family Opened:  1970 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  433 Center St, Ludlow, MA Photographed:  November 20, 2023 One final stop outside of Springfield -- the roughly 57,000 square foot Big Y of Ludlow! The store in this location dates back to 1970 although it's possible this building was actually constructed after that. I suspect the store moved from a space that's now divided between a Joann Fabrics and a Rocky's Hardware (look at an aerial photo and you'll see exactly what I mean). That store is about half the size of the present-day Big Y, which feels more like what a chain would've been building back in 1970. Don't worry, even though we haven't toured this one, we'll be touring a few more Big Y locations shortly!

Price Rite Marketplace of Springfield Opened:  ca. late 1990s Previous Tenants:  Mott's ShopRite (open bet. 1970 & 1976, closed ca. late 1990s) Location:  633 Boston Rd, Springfield, MA Photographed:  November 20, 2023 Welcome to our final Springfield store! As I've said, there's a lot in and around Springfield we're not seeing, but this is just the selection of stores I've been able to actually get to. Outside of the city about four miles from downtown, we have this roughly 40,000 square foot Price Rite. The building dates back to roughly the 1960s and is paired with a former department store. While I'm not sure about the early days here, we do know from Groceteria that this store was a Mott's ShopRite by 1976, which it presumably stayed as until Mott's went under in the late 1990s. Mott's ShopRite was the only ShopRite operator in Massachusetts, and had a run of a few decades in the state. By the time the chain went under, many of the stores h...

America's Food Basket Owner: Francisco Diaz Opened:  2015 Previous Tenants:  Stop & Shop > CTown Supermarkets (1989-ca. 2010) > NSA Supermarkets (ca. 2010-2015) Cooperative:  America's Food Basket Location:  790 State St, Mason Square, Springfield, MA Photographed:  November 20, 2023 Happy Monday! On Friday, we saw a Save-A-Lot that took up around 18,000 square feet of a former A&P. Today is a very similar store -- a former 32,000 square foot Stop & Shop, built between 1960 and 1965, that in 1989 had a roughly 17,000 square foot CTown built in the center of it. There was also previously a Finast on this property that was demolished to make way for this building. Thanks to Groceteria for that history ! CTown became NSA around 2010, and the NSA switched over to America's Food Basket when the cooperative was rebranded in 2014-2015. The store takes up the center of the building, but because it's very deep and extends behind the other tenants in t...

Save-A-Lot Owner: Anthony Pena Opened:  unknown Previous Tenants:  unknown Location:  655 Liberty St, Springfield, MA Photographed:  July 9, 2023 When is a Save-A-Lot not a Save-A-Lot? Well, I've been asking myself that question quite a bit lately, with many of the stores between northern New Jersey and Massachusetts becoming more and more like their Key Food or CTown counterparts. Some have reset their product mix , and others even are selling other storebrands like Urban Meadow from Key Food . Here in New England, seven Save-A-Lot stores were purchased by a Key Food owner in 2021 . Two have since closed, and one is now actually a Key Food in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield . Another, over in Holyoke, is transitioning to SuperFresh . The others have been reset to look and feel more like Key Food stores, but haven't seen any major renovation beyond a few new fixtures and a coat of paint on the walls. Despite the updates, this store felt a bit neglected -- ...