The Market Report

Belfast Variety Opened: unknown Owner:  Muhammad Ahsan and Nasir Hameed Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  326 High St, Belfast, ME Photographed:  June 12, 2022 Belfast actually has two small general store-type markets called Belfast Variety, and this one is north of town on High Street. ( The other is on Route 52 south of town.) Longtime owner Ronald Benjamin sold this store in 2021 after more than four decades running the 3800 square foot grocery store. Speaking of grocery stores that recently changed ownership, tomorrow's tour will be in the next town along the coastline and Route 1!

Belfast Community Co-op Opened: 1993 in current location; 1976 previously Owner:  cooperatively owned Previous Tenants:  Finast (opened ca. 1960) Cooperative:  National Co-op Grocers Location:  123 High St, Belfast, ME Photographed:  August 12, 2019 New England has at least dozens of co-op grocers , most of which are members of the National Co-op Grocers cooperative -- that is, basically a cooperative made up of cooperatives. In a co-op supermarket, the owners (usually just regular people who've bought a small share of the co-op) co-own the business, and then in this case, the business itself co-owns the retailers' cooperative. Belfast, Maine has had a community co-op for a couple decades, which opened here in a former Finast in 1993. I photographed the approximately 10,000 square foot supermarket back in 2019, but since then, it's gotten a major renovation. It was also rebranded from the Belfast Co-op Store to the Belfast Community Co-op. When I visited, the p...

Hannaford Opened: between 2001 and 2003 Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  Shop n' Save (opened ca. 1980; converted to Hannaford between 2001 and 2003) Cooperative:  none Location:  93 Lincolnville Ave, Belfast, ME Photographed:  August 14, 2019 In Massachusetts and Connecticut, one of the grocery chains uses the slogan "It's no big surprise, it's my Big Y." But here in Maine, a significantly less catchy slogan could be "It's no big surprise, it's another freakin' Hannaford." The Maine native chain has around 70 stores in the state (almost a third of the supermarkets in Maine, more than any other chain). And here we are at another location -- built around 1980 as a Shop n' Save but converted to Hannaford in the early 2000s. This store measures about 55,000 square feet, and was probably most recently remodeled on the outside when it switched from Shop n' Save to Hannaford. This is the largest grocery store in Belfast, but on Mo...