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TOUR: Key Food Marketplace - Waterbury, CT

Key Food Marketplace Owner: Saleh Hassen Open: 2019-2022 Previous Tenants:  Town Plot IGA (1960s-2019) Later Tenants:  Banana Fresh Market (2022-2023) > Key Food (2024- ) Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  286 Fairfield Ave, Waterbury, CT Photographed:  July 9, 2021 Oh boy. This is one of those  stores. For a long time, it was the Town Plot IGA, opening in the 1960s and finally closing after a good long run in 2019. Later the same year, Key Food opened up in the spot, owned by Saleh Hassen. The Hassens were also working on a store across town at the corner of Grove and Cooke, next door to a former CTown  that burned down. That store was supposed to be called Waterbury Farms and was projected to open in 2017, but as of 2023, the store is up for sale or lease . The family's other Waterbury store, this Key Food, was short-lived, perhaps deterring them from pursuing the Waterbury Farms store. The Town Plot Key Food opened in 2019 but closed in 2022, shortly thereafter becomi
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TOUR: Cherry Valley Marketplace - Waterbury, CT

Cherry Valley Marketplace Owner:  Martin Espinal Opened:  between 2012 and 2016 Previous Tenants:  Pathmark > Compare Foods Supermarket Cooperative:  Retail Grocers/General Trading Location:  155 Thomaston Ave, Waterbury, CT Photographed:  July 9, 2021 Welcome to Waterbury! I've mentioned that it's the larger city in the area, with a population of just over 110,000. Waterbury is about 25 miles southwest of Hartford, 20 miles northwest of New Haven, and 25 miles northeast of Danbury. It feels like a long distance between those cities, but Connecticut is small -- 25 miles due west of Waterbury is the New York border, and 65 miles due east is Rhode Island. The 60,000 square foot store was originally built as a Pathmark, which by the early 2000s had become a Super Compare Foods. I believe Pathmark opened here in the 1980s, as in 1972 they were located at 451 Bank St in a building I believe no longer exists. (The Pathmark of Manchester opened in 1972, and later became a ShopRite

TOUR: LaBonne's Market - Watertown, CT

LaBonne's Market Owner: Bob LaBonne Opened: unknown Cooperative:  IGA Location:  639 Straits Tpk, Watertown, CT Photographed:  July 9, 2021 We've seen some excellent independents around Connecticut so far, and today's tour is no exception. The four-store LaBonne's Market chain runs higher-end but complete supermarkets with lots of specialty items but not crazy high prices. Like so many other stores in this area, they are IGA-affiliated and supplied by Bozzuto's -- whose home base is in Cheshire, just about ten miles from this store. We enter the 30,000 square foot store on the left side to produce in the left part of the grand aisle. It opens up to prepared foods up next, with a sushi island in the middle of the grand aisle and the rest at the back. The salad bar we see here was closed not permanently, but due to the coronavirus when I visited. The deli is at the back of the grand aisle with meat and seafood taking up the rest of the back wall. Dairy and frozen ar