The Market Report

Original Grocery Tenant: unknown Address: 139 West St, Ware, MA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Rite Aid > Dollar General Photographed:  March 13, 2022 Here's another building like the one we saw in Palmer that looks a lot like a former supermarket to me. The space is around 19,000 square feet and, like the Palmer store, was previously a Rite Aid. Notice the similarity in facade, too. Totally a shot in the dark here since I know nothing about drugstores, but is it possible both pharmacies were previously Brooks? I know they had at least some stores in these small central MA towns, and my understanding is many became Rite Aids. Anyhow, we know this building was built in 1966 and, in historical aerial photos, looks an awful lot  like a supermarket. You can even almost read a sign in the 1971 aerial photo. It's also possible, I suppose, that this was the original Big Y in town , though I suspect the original Ware Big Y was what's now the pet...

Big Y World Class Market Owner: D'Amour family Opened:  ca. 1970 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  148 West St, Ware, MA Photographed:  March 13, 2022 You can tell this store is an older model than the more familiar newer stores , and generally, Big Y runs a fleet of up-to-date, well-maintained, and pretty newly built stores. (I would say typically their standards for store operations are higher than the big chains that are in the area. Big Y has around 75 stores in MA and CT.) The roughly 40,000 square foot Ware store is an exception to that, although it still looks quite nice inside , just smaller. The store was built at some point between 1967 and 1971, and it almost looks like the building just to the left of the supermarket could have been the previous location (it's much smaller at just about 15,000 square feet). There's also a building across the street that vaguely resembles a former supermarket, too, which we'll be seeing tomorrow!