The Market Report

Wilkins Farm Stand Opened: 1984 Owner:  Greg Wilkins Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  20 South Rd, Pepperell, MA Photographed:  October 8, 2023 Yesterday we saw the Pepperell Quality Market , the small supermarket in the middle of Pepperell. Now we're about two and a half miles south of there, to see a small farmstand near the border of Groton. The 7000 square foot store isn't a supermarket for sure, but there's a lot of produce (locally grown and mainstream), along with some gourmet foods and specialty items, plus flowers, in the 7200 square foot roadside store. The store, like many produce stands, has a rustic feel and lots of produce from northeastern Massachusetts, some from very close by. But there's also a selection of regular produce, things not grown in the area, like citrus and so on. Tomorrow we're off to another small supermarket about five miles south!

Pepperell Quality Market Opened: ca. 2020 Owner:  Gohal and Mohanbhai Patel Previous Tenants:  Donelan's (1994-ca. 2020) Cooperative:  none Location:  75 Main St, Pepperell, MA Photographed:  October 9, 2021 In our last few stores, it definitely didn't feel like Worcester anymore, but everything we saw in the Wachusett and Montachusett regions was still in Worcester County. Now we're just over the border in the town of Pepperell, population around 11,000. In 1994, local chain Donelan's built a store of just under 14,000 square feet, it seems replacing an older building on the same property (not sure if it was a grocery store or not). Donelan's operated the store until about 2020, when they sold this location to independent owners, Gohal and Mohanbhai Patel, who renamed the store Pepperell Quality Market. In an interesting twist, in 2021, they also acquired the other Donelan's locations, which continue to operate as Donelan's (and we'll be seeing a coupl...