The Market Report

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Snapshot: Alves Grocery - Brockton, MA

Alves Grocery Opened: 2001 Owner: Maria Depina Alves Previous Tenants: unknown Cooperative: none Location: 274 N Main St, Brockton, MA Photographed: November 11, 2022 Where there aren't a lot of big supermarkets, small corner grocers fill the gaps. Here in northern downtown Brockton, Alves Grocery has been selling Spanish and Portuguese food in a 3000 square foot store for a little over two decades. Shortly after I visited, the small store got a new sign . The focus here seems to be on take-out prepared foods, but there are some groceries too. The only supermarket in this part of town is about 2/3 of a mile northeast, which we'll be touring tomorrow!

Snapshot: V&D Variety Store - Brockton, MA

V&D Variety Store Opened: 2018 Owner: unknown Previous Tenants: assorted independent grocers Cooperative: none Location: 94 N Main St, Brockton, MA Photographed: November 11, 2022 On the north end of downtown Brockton is this small grocer, V&D Variety, and before that, the 5000 square foot market (and laundromat) was the Day & Night Market . It appears to have been a variety of independent small stores for a very long time. Tomorrow is a similar store just to the north!

TOUR: Vicente's Supermarket - Brockton, MA (Pleasant St)

Vicente's Supermarket Opened: 2014 Owner: Manuel Vicente Barbosa Previous Tenants: A&P > Star Market > Shaw's Cooperative: none Location: 160 Pleasant St, Brockton, MA Photographed: July 6, 2019 Vicente's Supermarket started as a small international grocer here in downtown Brockton, later acquiring a supermarket on the south side of town . Then in 2014, Vicente's opened their second location -- at over 35,000 square feet, it was almost double the size of the Main Street store. Vicente's pulled out all the stops for this store, using various loans and incentive programs designed to bring supermarkets into lower-income areas that needed them. The 2014 opening was high-profile and hailed as a fundamental change to this neighborhood. This is the only supermarket in downtown Brockton. There are others just outside downtown, but as is the case with many cities, a lot of the population doesn't drive. The new Vicente's and neighboring health cente...

597 Centre St, Brockton, MA

Original Grocery Tenant: Brockton Public Market Address: 597 Centre St, Brockton, MA Opened: 1950s Closed: ca. late 1980s Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed: July 6, 2019 In the late 1980s, a new Super Shaw's opened at the Crescent Plaza in eastern Brockton. The chain moved from their 1950s-era location on Centre Street about half a mile north. The original location, here in a strip mall that's now very quiet, opened as a Brockton Public Market, later branded as BPM Grocers and then eventually Shaw's. Part (or maybe all?) of the roughly 20,000 square foot former supermarket later appears to have become a movie theater, which closed by the time I visited the property in 2019. Interesting that the pitched roof is also visible inside, even though there's a drop ceiling. I don't know what this store's layout would've been, but perhaps the produce department was here on the left side. The storefront is clearly an old supermarket. A Do...