The Market Report

New Market Opened: 1984 Owner:  Huong Le Previous Tenants:  Kuszmar's Market (open in 1961) > Cal's Market (open in 1991) Cooperative:  none Location:  109 Bridge St, Salem, MA Photographed:  May 14, 2022 Today's visit is a quick one: New Market in northern Salem, on a peninsula that extends north of downtown. This store is right around 2000 square feet, and clearly has been a grocery store for a long time. Historical information is limited, but looking at Newspapers.com, the building was Kuszmar's Market in 1961 and Cal's Market in 1991. Other than that, I don't have much more information to offer. Today, the store is a pretty updated liquor and convenience store . Tomorrow, The Market Report crosses the Essex Bridge over to Beverly for two stores in the southern part of town!

Chansky's Super Market Opened: 1985 under current ownership; ca. 1950s previously Owner:  Doug Labb Previous Tenants:  M. Winer/Elm Farm Food Co. (opened late 1930s, converted to Elm Farm ca. mid-1940s, closed by mid-1950s) Cooperative:  none Location:  161 Sunderland Rd, Brighton, MA Photographed:  July 20, 2019 A grocery store has been here at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Sutherland Road in Brighton for nearly 100 years. By the late 1930s, this 1500 square foot space was a location of M. Winer, a chain grocer in the Boston area that eventually rebranded as Elm Farm Food Co. It looks like that chain either expanded or became a cooperative with multiple owners across New England, but here in Brighton, the Sutherland Road location became Chansky's Super Market by the mid-1950s or so, which it's stayed ever since despite changing ownership at least once. It's also been expanded to its present 3300 square feet, including a small smoke shop next to the gr...

Oakley Spa Open: 1949-2021 Owner:  Harold Boyajian Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  979 Washington St, Newtonville, MA Photographed:  December 17, 2022 As I've mentioned before , "spa" is a very old-school New England term for a small grocery store. There aren't many stores left with that in the name, but there are a handful around. The Oakley Spa, located at the corner of Washington and Walker in Newtonville, is one of those that was in business until very recently. The corner store, which became more of a liquor store in its later years, was in business up until 2021. I was able to still capture a look at the inside through the front windows, though, when I walked by in late 2022 -- and the store's interior was actually still mostly intact, including products on the shelves and the lights on. I don't know the story here. Was the closure abrupt? Why was so much inventory left behind? Browsing comments on a Facebook post, it looks like...

Brookline Superette Open:  unknown-2020 Owner:  Chung & Soon Lee Previous Tenants:  unknown Later Tenants:  demolished Cooperative:  none Location:  18 Pleasant St, Brookline, MA Photographed:  August 3, 2019 Welcome to the Brookline Superette, a small corner grocer of 3000 square feet. As you can clearly tell from the outside, it had been here for quite some time when I visited back in 2019, and while I haven't been able to pin down an exact opening year, it's definitely been here since at least the 1980s. The Caldor Rainbow says the store was "likely opened in 1965" . In 1985, it was put up for sale, for $350,000. "Much foot traffic," according to the sale ad! And that's true -- this store was just a block from Coolidge Corner , the main business corner of Brookline. After decades in business , the building housing this corner store was demolished in 2024 as the site is set to be redeveloped amid concerns of deteriorating building conditions. Th...

Green Basket Market Opened: 2005 Owner:  Hinh Pham Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  186 Green St, Jamaica Plain, MA Photographed:  November 13, 2021 Welcome to the Green Basket Market, a longtime independent grocery/convenience store on Green Street. It was previously the Green Supermarket and is also sometimes called the Green Street Supermarket. The current owner took over the store in 2005, but I suspect it was a grocery store for quite a bit of time before that. You can tell it's an old building, and you can also get a sense of where it is here. Green Street is decidedly a side street, although it gets its own T stop just a couple blocks west of here. We're in Boston, but we haven't gotten too much of a sense of the historic charm of the city (in large part because, well, there's not much charming about a 90s Star Market ). We've also been in the southern part of the city, which are not the areas you think of when you think of Bosto...

CM Petti Market Opened: 1913 Owner:  Matthew & Kathy Petti Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  216 Belmont St, Brockton, MA Photographed:  November 11, 2022 One of the main retail areas of Brockton is west of downtown, home to a Shaw's , an America's Food Basket , and a recently-closed Stop & Shop . A couple blocks east on Belmont Street from that cluster is this longtime grocer, a small store only 2500 square feet. It's been faithfully open for over 110 years, having opened way back in 1913 . Its main focus is the deli , but there's also a few short aisles of groceries, something a little more substantial than a convenience store but not a full supermarket. The deli and a small butcher line the back wall, with the grocery aisles opposite that. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the original wood floor! As we wander around the city of Brockton, we're now headed east of downtown to visit the other Shaw's in town. We'll the...

Kennedy's Butter & Eggs Opened: 1995 under current ownership; unknown previously Owner:  Gunjan Patel Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  13 Merrimack St, Lowell, MA Photographed:  October 8, 2023 Downtown Lowell is a beautiful, historic former mill town, and its downtown is situated right on the confluence of the Merrimack River, the Concord River, and Pawtucket Canal, which runs through the city . Merrimack Street , one of the main thoroughfares, is lined with historic buildings and small businesses -- among them Kennedy's Butter & Eggs, a convenience store that actually goes back decades. I can't find an actual opening date, but Kennedy's appears to have been a significant chain with locations here in Lowell, Worcester (paywall), Jamaica Plain (Boston), Salem , Waltham , and Medford . That City Data forum has the most historical information I can find about the company, though, so unfortunately I don't have much more history or...

Village Variety Store Opened: 1982 Owner:  Pankaj Desai Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  1301 Pawtucket Blvd, Pawtucketville, Lowell, MA Photographed:  August 20, 2023 Contributor:  Jenna W. The city of Lowell spans the Merrimack River, with the bulk of the city including its downtown south of the river, on the same side as Chelmsford . But today we're north of the river to check out a variety store of about 4000 square feet at the far western edge of the city. It looks like today Village Variety is mostly a liquor store, although they do seem to sell some food, and although it appears to have opened in the 1980s under its current ownership, I wouldn't be surprised if it dates back much farther than that. This area of Lowell, known as Pawtucketville, does have a supermarket and we'll be taking a look at that tomorrow!

Bringing back the way I did the smaller stores in Worcester, it's time for a quick roundup of some of the independent grocers in the Wachusett region! Sterling, MA Appletown Market Owner:  Mohammad Chaudry Opened:  1995 Location:  9 Main St, Sterling, MA Photographed:  November 15, 2020 This store is about 2500 square feet, and part liquor store, part convenience store, and part grocery store. Sterling doesn't have a full supermarket, so there's quite a bit of grocery stuff in this little store. And to be sure, Sterling is definitely an apple town. In the fall, you can stand in town and smell the apples in the air -- many being crushed into cider. A massive former mill in town, now called the Cider Mill Building, has been repurposed into a sprawling antique mall called Oh My Gosh . That building is located at the northern end of the Central Massachusetts Rail Trail.

Fitzgerald's General Store Opened: 1984 under current ownership; ca. 1850s previously; renamed 2024 Owner:  Roman Potty Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  110 Southville Rd, Southborough, MA Photographed: March 18, 2022 Fitzgerald's is quite the store! It's a general store dating back to around the 1850s , still going strong as a convenience store today. Fortunately and unfortunately, the roughly 3,000 square foot store has been recently renovated and is today Cordaville's Market . It's situated at the Southborough train station on the Framingham-Worcester line, which dates back to the 1830s, so it's likely this location was chosen even over 150 years ago because of its proximity to the train station. (In case you couldn't tell, I took the above picture from a train window.) That's a fun way to end our look at the route 9 area (although, of course, we're about a mile and a half south of route 9 itself here), and tomorrow we'...

Perry's Market Owner: Loc Win Opened:  2005 under current ownership; 1930 originally Cooperative:  none Location:  196 Stafford St, Webster Square, Worcester, MA Photographed:  August 20, 2020 Just a few blocks away from Webster Square Plaza , we start to feel like we're out in the country a little bit as Worcester starts to give way to its more rural western neighbor, Leicester. A couple blocks in from the city line is this tiny grocer of about 1600 square feet, which appears to have been built in the 1920s by Community Stores Co. In 1930, Community Stores moved next door to 194 Stafford , and Louis Perry opened a grocery store in 196 Stafford. The store would keep Perry's name on the building for almost a hundred years, although the Perry's Super Market name didn't come until around 1960. The original family is no longer involved with the business and it appears to have been sold several times, most recently in 2005. Inside, the tiny market functions as a conveni...

ST's General Store Owner: unknown Opened:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  110 Mendon St, Uxbridge, MA Photographed:  April 16, 2022 Today's snapshot is a quick look at ST's General Store, a small store of just about 1100 square feet (that's a very rough estimate) just outside of Uxbridge, where we toured the Hannaford yesterday. ST's looks like a small convenience/general store that's definitely been around for many decades. We only have one more store in this part of Worcester County, and we'll be taking a look at that tomorrow!

Original Grocery Tenant:  unknown Address: 311 Providence Rd, South Grafton, MA Opened:  before 1938 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  South Grafton Mini Mart (closed by 2007) Photographed:  September 4, 2021 Today's snapshot is a quick look at the former South Grafton Mini Mart, taking up the ground floor of a building that appears to have housed a grocer since the early 20th century. The store is around 3200 square feet and, if you look carefully, you can just barely make out the lettering "DELI    BEER/WINE   GROCERIES" on the red awning. The space has been vacant since at least 2007, but lately it's gotten some renovation (see here previously). Tomorrow we're headed about three miles west of this store for a totally different one in Sutton!

Crossroads Marketplace Owner: Zahoor Tariq Opened:  2005 Cooperative:  none Location:  1060 Main St, Leicester, MA Photographed:  October 14, 2019 and October 2, 2020 Crossroads Marketplace is a small convenience store/deli right in the center of Leicester, MA. It looks to me like it might have previously been more of a grocery store and now it's more of a liquor store/deli/convenience store. It also looks like new ownership has added a pizzeria inside the store. At about 8,000 square feet, the store is larger than the average convenience store, too. Hard to say how old the store is, but the building dates back to the 1970s, and prior to its construction an independent called Leroux's Market and, before that, an A&P had been in a smaller building on this property. If you're interested in grocery history like that, you're in luck! Tomorrow we have a new feature to check out the history of grocery stores in Leicester!