The Market Report

Seabra Foods Opened: unknown Owner:  Antonio Seabra Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  440 Stafford St, Fall River, MA Photographed: October 14, 2024 It's been quite a while since we've toured a Seabra Foods! The one here in Fall River is the last stop in town before we start heading east and north, after we've visited Portugalia and Amaral's (it goes without saying that there's a large Portuguese community here). The store is around 30,000 square feet and, while I'm not sure when it opened, was renovated around 2020. It also appears to have been expanded since it first opened, given a somewhat unusual layout. We enter and turn 90 degrees to the left to walk along the front of the store for the produce department. Seafood, meat, and deli/prepared foods line the left-side wall and grocery aisles run side to side, with dairy and frozen at the back. Bakery is in the back right corner, and in the expansion out the right side, several aisles ...

Amaral's Central Market Opened: 1978; ca. 2010 in this location Owner:  David Amaral Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  872 Globe St, Fall River, MA Photographed:  October 14, 2024 I mentioned on yesterday's post about Portugalia Marketplace that there's a large Portuguese community in this part of southeastern MA, and today's store is no exception. Amaral's Central Market opened in 1978 in a smaller store (a picture of which you can see below, posted on the storefront), specializing in Portuguese foods. When they moved from the 4300 square foot store to this newly-built store of 22,000 square feet around 2010, the supermarket was of course able to sell a wider range of foods and is now a general supermarket with a lot of Portuguese items. The best thing about the history of Amaral's? The old store is directly across the street, today occupied by Dave's Pizza. Let's tour the new location! Although it's much larger, it's also ...

Portugalia Marketplace Opened: 1988; ca. 2014 in this location Owner:  Fernando and Michael Benevides Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  489 Bedford St, Fall River, MA Photographed:  October 14, 2024 Fall River, MA (and this area of southeastern Massachusetts) is known for its Portuguese community, and so it won't come as a surprise that there are many Portuguese grocers here in the area. One of the most interesting stores is Portugalia Marketplace, located in downtown Fall River. The store is only 16,000 square feet, but it's located in a spacious building that appears to have been formerly industrial, making it feel larger. Portugalia opened up here around 2014 -- you can see this building prior to Portugalia on past Google Maps street views -- but originally opened in an older location in town, in 1988. You enter the store to a giant rooster statue, which I love, greeting us to the small produce department in front of the store. A cafe an...