The Market Report

Asian Supermarket Owner: Lan Heung Ha Opened:  2017 Cooperative:  none Location:  50 Mill St, Webster Square, Worcester, MA Photographed:  August 28, 2018; September 19, 2018; and September 3, 2021 It's not uncommon to see an Asian supermarket set up shop in a former big-chain supermarket location -- and this building was a Stop & Shop -- but what's interesting is that Stop & Shop closed long before Asian Supermarket opened, and there was at least one other tenant in between. In this case, it was a thrift store, meaning that Asian Supermarket had to completely re-outfit the roughly 21,000 square foot space when they opened. Here we can see the clear original Stop & Shop building, and how Asian Supermarket takes up the left portion of the arched roof building along with the expansion out the left side. Savers, the thrift store previously occupying this space (which also occupies several other former supermarkets in the area), closed up shop around 2015, ...

Original Grocery Tenant: Stop & Shop Address: 50 Mill St, Webster Square, Worcester, MA Opened:  between 1952 and 1957 Closed:  between 1985 and 1991 Later Tenants:  subdivided / Save-A-Lot next door (open in 2007, closed by 2011) Photographed:  April 12, 2019; May 13, 2022; and October 22, 2022 Two posts in one today! This small strip mall at Webster Square, the Mill Street Plaza, is at Mill and Park and was constructed with a Stop & Shop anchor in the 1950s. That distinctive arched-roof prototype was only used on a few stores, including one in the Dorchester section of Boston . There's another one somewhere in Western Mass -- I think in a Springfield suburb -- that's still standing, but for the life of me I can't remember where. Does anyone have ideas? Although it's hidden behind the newer facade, the arched-roof store is still there. And actually, the Telegram & Gazette has a picture from just before Stop & Shop opened in their archives! Here we...

Original Grocery Tenant: Big D Supermarket Address: 195 Mill St, Webster Square, Worcester, MA Opened:  1960s Closed:  1995 Later Tenants:  Price Chopper (1995-2001) Photographed:  October 28, 2018 and October 9, 2020 To most people in Worcester, the hulking 30,000 square foot carcass of the former Big D Supermarket on Mill Street near Coes Reservoir is nothing but an eyesore. I think it's a cool part of the city's supermarket history. This store was constructed by Big D at some point in the 1960s, and it was open by 1969. (Using Historic Aerials, we can narrow it down further: open by 1966 but nothing there in 1960.) As a side note, according to the city directories, it seems that Big D was short for Big Discount . They were also related, it seems, to several other chains including Wonder Market. I wonder (ha) if there was ever a relation to the Wonder Market in Glen Rock, NJ , such as a long-gone cooperative or something. At the same time, it's possible Wonder Ma...