The Market Report

Debra's Natural Gourmet & Debra's Next Door Opened: 1989 originally; ca. 2008 in current location Owner:  Debra Stark Previous Tenants:  non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  INFRA Location:  98 Commonwealth Ave, West Concord, MA Photographed:  May 18, 2024 Happy Monday, and welcome back to West Concord! On Friday, we took a look at the longtime supermarket that was right in the middle of West Concord but closed in 2013. Just a few years before that store closed, a small natural foods store opened up across the train tracks. Debra's Natural Gourmet had been around since 1989, but moved into the current 3200 square foot location in 2008 or 2009. In 2022, Debra's added a second storefront next door, appropriately called Debra's Next Door, expanding the business by about another 4000 square feet. Debra's original store has a produce department in the front-left corner, with several aisles of natural groceries to the right of that. Meats are in the back occupying ...

Roots Natural Market Opened:  ca. mid-00s in this location Owner:  Marieke Cormier Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  INFRA Location:  100 Crawford St, Leominster, MA Photographed:  April 7, 2023 The light-industrial stretch of Crawford Street in northern Leominster doesn't look much like a spot for a grocery store, but Roots Natural Market made its home here about 20 years ago and they've been going strong ever since. The natural food store isn't large -- just around 6500 square feet -- but is a really nice small natural supermarket. We enter in the front to a small cafe and coffee shop area, then turn left to enter another room of specialty items, home goods, and some prepared foods in the refrigerators here. In the back of that room is a doorway to the main grocery store part, which is in the back of this space. It seems like this store was previously a light-industrial space just like all the others that surround it, so perhaps the back part was a w...

Cornucopia Natural Foods Opening: TBA Owner:  Drew Alexander Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery stores Cooperative:  INFRA Location:  565 Millburn Ave, Millburn, NJ Photographed:  August 4, 2024 A former bridal shop just outside downtown Millburn, New Jersey is soon to become a natural food store! A document from Millburn's township government at the end of last year made mention of the grocery store coming soon, but shortly after that this page appeared . Cornucopia Natural Foods is a small natural food store in the Long Island community of Sayville, on the south shore not quite halfway across the island. They're also preparing to open in this 7000 square foot, long-vacant space on the border of Millburn and Springfield. When I visited back in August, the space had been cleared out but renovation to open the grocer hadn't yet begun. I'm not positive whether the construction has started yet or what the timeline looks like. INFRA, or the Independent Natura...

Nature's Food Markets Opened: May 3, 2024 Owner:  Heddy Tabet Previous Tenants:  A&P (mid-1990s-2015) > Shop Fresh Marketplace (Mar 2023-Sep 2023) Cooperative:  INFRA Location:  7 Naughright Rd, Hackettstown, NJ Photographed:  May 10, 2024 One more special report today! (If you're reading these in the reverse order I posted them, welcome to Saturday's post, there will be more coming your way. Here's the full list. ) But anyway, this is the last store I visited yesterday. Like the Food Universe in Passaic , this store held its opening on May 3, but it's not fully open just yet. The 40,000 square foot store is located in part of a former A&P , which opened in March 2023  as Shop Fresh Marketplace and closed in September 2023. ( Here's my post from June 2023.) Shop Fresh was affiliated with Great Valu Markets , but they lost their affiliation shortly after their opening. In early 2024, it was announced that the owners of New York-based A Matter of...