The Market Report

Tiller & Rye Opened: 2015 Owner:  Sarah Morneault and Lindsey Levesque Previous Tenants:  Rite Aid > Brewer Discount Furniture Cooperative:  none Location:  20 S Main St, Brewer, ME Photographed:  June 13, 2022 I'll stop beating a dead horse someday soon, but there are so many supermarkets that have opened up in former Rite Aids and other drugstores in the last five years or so. Here's one from a bit before the current trend. This former Rite Aid in downtown Brewer briefly became a furniture store after closing, but since 2015 has been Tiller & Rye, a roughly 10,000 square foot specialty market. The exterior doesn't have a particularly distinct Rite Aid look, but my best guess is that the drugstore designed this facade to match the somewhat small-town setting. Neither the furniture store nor Tiller & Rye redid the outside extensively, but the inside has been remodeled. And as you can already tell from the outside, this is no typical supermarket...

Lincolnville Center General Store Open:  mid 1800s-2024 Owner:  Briar Lyons Previous Tenants:  none Later Tenants:  Owen's General Store Cooperative:  none Location:  269 Main St, Lincolnville, ME Photographed:  August 15, 2019 We're kind of out here in the country in this part of Maine, although it's far from the most remote area. But that means this is general store country. The Lincolnville Center General Store opened around the mid-1800s, and I took some pictures in 2019. Five years later, it was sold and rebranded as Owen's General Store (it's still open under that name today). This upscale general store was actually acquired about 20 years ago by Briar Lyons, the wife of drummer John Fishman of the band Phish . There's a little bit of everything here, including a bulk department, some local produce, and a cafe in the back with some really good homemade pizza. The basics and some higher-end items populate the shelves. Once again, we're not exactly...

Main Street Markets Opened: 2014 Owner:  Jennifer and Rick Rockwell Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  435 Main St, Rockland, ME Photographed:  August 13, 2019 and June 16, 2022 Here in downtown Rockland, a few storefronts have been combined to become Main Street Markets, a gourmet grocer and cafe that opened in 2014. I actually visited the store twice, once back in 2019 and again in 2022, so we'll see pictures from both times. This isn't exactly a grocery store, but more of a specialty food and wine store with a small cafe. The interior has been beautifully renovated with a nod to the building's past with wood floors and brick walls. There's an emphasis on local and specialty products on the grocery shelves here, with a counter for food and beverages to order. There's also a small seating area. And in the back of the store is a beer and wine department. These days, the business seems to be in the beer/wine and cafe si...

Golden Harvest Produce Market Opened: 1975 Owner:  John and Juliana Flintosh Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  47 State Rd, Kittery, ME Photographed:  March 6, 2025 Welcome to Maine! Our first stop in the state is right over the New Hampshire border, just across the river from Portsmouth . This 6500 square foot produce market and gourmet food store has been in business since 1975. The produce department extends across this middle part of the store, with some coolers for dairy on the right side, then the rest of the store to the left. Baked goods, cheese, and prepared foods are over there on the left. It's not a full supermarket, but the store is packed with unusual items and local produce... ...such as these freshly-harvested local mushrooms. There aren't traditional grocery aisles here exactly, but the grocery shelving is to the left of the produce. Fruit lines the back wall, and wine and grocery are opposite. There are a number of full sup...

Tendercrop Farm Opened: 1995 Owner:  Matthew Kozazcki Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  108 High Rd, Newbury, MA Photographed:  July 7, 2023 A quick look today at another Tendercrop Farm, whose Wenham location we recently took a look inside. The Newbury location is the original Tendercrop, opening in 1995. Like Wenham, this is part greengrocer, part farmstand, part butcher, part greenhouse/garden center, and part working farm. Unfortunately, I don't have any interior pictures of this store, but you can see inside the produce barn here . (I was only driving by, unfortunately, and it was after the store had closed for the day when I took the above picture.) We're a couple miles outside Newburyport here, which is the larger town in this area on the Merrimack River. That's where tomorrow's store will be, so come back to check it out!