The Market Report

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address:  194 North St, Bennington, VT Opened: ca. 1960 Closed: unknown Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed: August 8, 2021 Just across from yesterday's former Grand Union is this former A&P. Behind all these multiple generations of facades, there's actually an A&P centennial store buried, constructed around 1960 at about 11,000 square feet. The space was later expanded (possibly in the 1970s) to around 30,000 square feet, though I'm not certain whether A&P occupied the whole building. Eventually, this store came under A&P's WEO discount brand before closing, though I'm not sure exactly when. You can get a little bit of a sense of the centennial facade peeking through here, but it's much more apparent in aerial photographs. You can also see a little from the back, which has more recently gotten a stucco-type facade similar to what's now on the front. If I had to guess, I would say th...

Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union Address: 215 North St, Bennington, VT Opened:  ca. early 1950s Closed: by late 1980s Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed: August 8, 2021 This was certainly Grand Union territory at one point. The New Jersey-based chain developed a stronghold in much of Vermont as well as the I-87 corridor across the border in New York, and while many of those locations are still selling groceries these days , some have been repurposed. This 15,000 square foot store has been split between a Goodwill and a bank. It doesn't seem like the bank has anything left over from Grand Union, but the Goodwill definitely does. Below, you can see the soffit around the perimeter of the store, possibly over the produce department or dairy here on the perimeter wall. If you look really carefully at the flooring, too, you can see evidence of where grocery shelving was removed. You can see tiles that don't quite line up and are a slightly different col...

Original Grocery Tenant: Buffum's Supermarket Address: 112 Rockingham St, Bellows Falls, VT Opened: between 1956 and 1962 Closed: after 1995 Later Tenants:  Rite Aid > Walgreens Photographed: August 10, 2021 Bellows Falls, Vermont is a quaint small town along the Connecticut River, where the water cuts through a gorge on the border between Vermont and New Hampshire. For decades, the town was served by an A&P supermarket (later Grand Union) as well as this independent, Buffum's Supermarket. This space is around 15,000 square feet, apparently constructed by Buffum's between 1956 and 1962, though it looks like it might've replaced an older building on the same property. From the closure of Buffum's until 2010, Bellows Falls didn't have a full-size supermarket, it seems, though there was a small corner grocer called Lisai's Red & White. In 2010, Lisai's moved into the former A&P building, and that'll be tomorrow's post! But befor...

Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union Address: 766 Putney Rd, Brattleboro, VT Opened: 1970s Closed: 1998 Later Tenants:  Hot Dot Discount (1998-1999) Photographed: August 10, 2021 In the same mall as yesterday's ALDI is this former Grand Union. Grand Union built this store of around 33,000 square feet in the 1970s, though I haven't been able to pinpoint an exact year, and it closed in 1998 as the chain struggled. One strategy Grand Union attempted, to save their failing locations, was converting them to a discount format called Hot Dot Discount. Unfortunately, here Hot Dot only lasted a year, closing in 1999, two years before the rest of the chain declared bankruptcy. A new Hannaford had just been constructed up the street, opening in 1996, and it's possible that store put this one out of business. The space has subsequently been split up. Grand Union was headquartered just outside of Paterson, New Jersey, but had a large base of stores in upstate New York and then acr...

Original Grocery Tenant: Brattleboro IGA Address: 23 Marlboro Rd, Brattleboro, VT Opened: 1994 Closed:  by 2009 Later Tenants: non-grocery tenants Photographed: August 13, 2021 This Dollar General just to the northwest of downtown Brattleboro was the Brattleboro IGA, opening in 1994 and closing no later than 2009. It's just under 20,000 square feet. An illustrious character named Jason Bushnell also owned an IGA in West Brattleboro for decades in the first part of the 20th century, but it doesn't look like that store was connected to this one in any way. This store is just west of Brattleboro on VT-9, the highway that runs along the southern part of Vermont from Brattleboro to Bennington, then becomes route 7 in New York and goes to the Capital Region. We'll see lots more stores on and near VT-9, but for now, we're headed north to see a couple more spots in Brattleboro!

Original Grocery Tenant: Ernest Shopwell Supermarket Address: 262 Main St, West Orange, NJ Opened: unknown Closed: ca. 1980 Later Tenants:  Tory Corner Market (ca. 1980-ca. 1990) > Rite Aid (early 1990s-2019) > Walgreens (2019-2024) Photographed: February 24, 2025 This somewhat unremarkable former Rite Aid/Walgreens in downtown West Orange, NJ is actually a former supermarket. I don't know the entire history here, but by around 1970, it was the Ernest Shopwell Supermarket (not apparently related to the Daitch/Shopwell chain of New York), and around 1980, it became the Tory Corner Market affiliated with Fine Fare. Rite Aid was open by the early 1990s. The store is just under 10,000 square feet, and has been vacant since Walgreens closed in 2024. So why bother looking at this store now? A proposal that's gone all but completely under the radar is to demolish the former Rite Aid building along with a vacant former diner next to it to build this new, two-floor supermarke...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 47 Western Ave, Augusta, ME Opened:  ca. 1960 Closed:  by 1983 Later Tenants:  U-Haul (open by 1983) Photographed:  August 12, 2019 I hardly even need to say what the original tenant here was as this store design is instantly recognizable. it's amazing how well it's been preserved, too, more than 50 years after it was built. A&P closed here no later than 1983, and U-Haul was open no later than that year. The full building is a little over 20,000 square feet, but A&P's size was a few thousand square feet smaller as I assume this section was previously another tenant... The cupola on top of the building is looking particularly good! It's rare to see these buildings maintained with such meticulous detail. Tomorrow, we're headed just down the street for a look at another supermarket here in Augusta. Stay tuned!

Hannaford Opened: 2009 Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  118 Cony St, Augusta, ME Photographed:  August 12, 2019 Welcome to one of the Hannafords in Augusta! Of the chain supermarkets in town, this is actually the smallest, coming in around 50,000 square feet (the Shaw's in town is closer to 70,000 square feet and the other Hannaford is even larger, at just under 75,000 square feet). It's also the newest supermarket in Augusta. This store was built from the ground up in 2009, replacing an older location a couple blocks away. More on that soon. I assume, though I'm not sure, that it hasn't been renovated since opening, and I'm not sure whether it's been remodeled since I took these pictures in 2019. As we can see, even a decade after its opening, it still looked practically like a brand-new store. I don't know how it's held up in the subsequent years, but it's a really nice supermarket. It's a standard H...