The Market Report

Shop 'n Save Opened: 2015 Owner:  Mike Szelest Previous Tenants:  Victory Markets (closed 2004) > Hannaford (2004-2015) Cooperative:  Hannaford franchise Location:  22 Fitchburg Rd, Ayer, MA Photographed:  October 9, 2021 Supermarkets are in all manner of converted buildings. Banks , theaters , drugstores , and more. And of course that results in supermarkets being in all kinds of strange shapes. But how many supermarkets do you know of that are round? Technically, the Ayer Shop 'n Save is a tetradecagon, with 14 sides that make it essentially a circle. Just check out an aerial photo -- it's basically round. Why is that? I truly don't know. The building dates back to before 1963, the first historic aerial photo of the area available, and it's unclear if it was originally a supermarket (but I assume it wasn't). It was a Victory Market by the 2000s, and Hannaford acquired Victory in 2004 . At some point between 2008 and 2016, Hannaford sold the store to an in...

Moving from Cape Cod to north central Massachusetts, we have a look at the small town of Ayer, MA! Unlike the Dennisport picture, I can definitely pinpoint where this picture was taken -- the train tracks give it away! (Those train tracks are now a rail trail, that I've biked up. Beautiful!) Unfortunately, though, most of these buildings no longer exist. And in case you missed it, take a look at that building on the left side of Main Street. That's the Union Cash Market! Now, Ayer doesn't have its Union Cash Market anymore, but they do have a strange  circular Shop 'n Save (well, technically the store is a tetradecagon, because it technically has 14 sides; had to do some Googling for that one). I hope you enjoyed this Back in Time feature, and I'll look for more opportunities to share old memorabilia, photos, and ads as I can!