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...
ALDI Opened: 2014 Owner: ALDI Sud Previous Tenants: none Cooperative: none Location: 762 Putney Rd, Brattleboro, VT Photographed: August 10, 2021 One of Brattleboro's big chain supermarkets is this ALDI, opened as a new-build store right around the time the Brattleboro Food Co-op also opened its present location. It seems to be a very straightforward ALDI of around 16,000 square feet, but the Green Mountain State only has three ALDIs (the others are in Rutland and Bennington). Tomorrow, we'll check out a former supermarket right next to this one!