The Market Report

Woodbery Food Market Opened: 2014 Owner:  Amit Patel Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  157 Essex St, Beverly, MA Photographed:  May 14, 2022 Welcome to the Woodbery Food Market in northeastern Beverly! This independent grocer of just 3000 square feet or so was built in 2014. The name might seem unusual -- Woodbury or Woodberry would be the more common spellings, and in fact there's a historic Woodbury/Woodberry House across town. But there's another historical Woodbery house, the William Woodbery house, just a couple blocks away from this store at 111 Essex St. Woodbery Food Market, an attractive and extensive store for its small size, is part liquor store, part convenience store, and part grocer. Beverages, including beer and wine, are in the first aisle along the front wall, with a few additional aisles of groceries. Meat, deli, and produce are on the back wall of the store with registers on the right-side wall. I didn't see a lot of stor...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 377 Cabot St, Beverly, MA Opened:  by 1951 Closed:  between 1979 and 1985 Later Tenants:  Medi-Mart (opened 1985) > Walgreens (open by 1994) > Brooks Drugstore (closed 2007) > Rite Aid (2007-2018) > Dollar Tree (opened 2021) Photographed:  May 20, 2025 Near downtown Beverly, and just east of one of the town's Stop & Shops , is this 20,000 square foot former supermarket. You can probably recognize it as a former A&P centennial store, as the facade today is mostly original. After A&P closed around the early 1980s, it became a Medi-Mart drugstore (owned by Stop & Shop) in 1985, then a Walgreens by 1994, then a Brooks Drugstore. Brooks would've installed the facade we see today, and closed by 2007. Rite Aid took over Brooks and occupied the space for 11 years, closing in 2018. Dollar Tree then opened in 2021. An interesting note about the A&P that originally occupied the building: it predated the...

Stop & Shop Opened: between 1995 and 2001 Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  224 Elliott St, Beverly, MA Photographed:  May 14, 2022 Welcome to Beverly, the suburban town of roughly 43,000 just north of Salem, where we've spent the past few days. There are two Stop & Shop stores in town, so today The Market Report tours the one just outside of downtown towards the southern end of town. It's not a terribly exciting store. It was built between 1995 and 2001 in the standard style of stores of that era, around 65,000 square feet. I don't know the full remodel history here, but we do know that it had the yellow and purple decor before being renovated in 2022. As you can see from the YAY sign above, I visited right as they were having their grand reopening. I don't know about you, but a picture of a balloon always gets me excited for a grand reopening. I am, of course, joking. This was undoubtedly the saddest grand r...

New Market Opened: 1984 Owner:  Huong Le Previous Tenants:  Kuszmar's Market (open in 1961) > Cal's Market (open in 1991) Cooperative:  none Location:  109 Bridge St, Salem, MA Photographed:  May 14, 2022 Today's visit is a quick one: New Market in northern Salem, on a peninsula that extends north of downtown. This store is right around 2000 square feet, and clearly has been a grocery store for a long time. Historical information is limited, but looking at Newspapers.com, the building was Kuszmar's Market in 1961 and Cal's Market in 1991. Other than that, I don't have much more information to offer. Today, the store is a pretty updated liquor and convenience store . Tomorrow, The Market Report crosses the Essex Bridge over to Beverly for two stores in the southern part of town!

Daily Table Grocery Open: 2023-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  135 Lafayette St, Salem, MA Photographed:  March 29, 2025 Previously, we've spent some time checking out nonprofit Daily Table Grocery locations in Boston and Cambridge, and now it's time to see the shortest-lived location. The roughly 6000 square foot Salem Daily Table opened in September of 2023 , closing with the rest of the locations in May 2025. The Salem store, like the others, was small but bright and clean with a simple selection of low-priced foods including a produce department as the centerpiece. The store was oriented with the registers at the right side, next to the parking lot, and groceries on the front wall with produce and a few aisles in the middle. Dairy, frozen, and cold cuts/prepared foods lined the left-side and back walls of the store. As you can see, the store is small and simple but bright and clean. It was a good concept and goo...

Los Amigos Supermarket Opened: 1991 Owner:  Cesir Euerrero Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  122 Lafayette St, Salem, MA Photographed:  March 29, 2025 There are a few small grocers here in downtown Salem, and one small supermarket -- Steve's Quality Market , just a couple blocks northwest of here. Los Amigos is quite a bit smaller than Steve's, at only around 1000 square feet, so it's closer to a corner store or bodega than full supermarket. It's been here since 1991, but if I had to guess, I wouldn't be surprised if a corner grocer has stood at this corner, directly across from a small park or common, for many decades longer. A larger but still small-format grocer was briefly located across the street, which you can see here in today's other post. And tomorrow, The Market Report visits a small store at the northern edge of Salem!

Steve's Quality Market Opened: 1932 Owner:  unknown Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  36 Margin St, Salem, MA Photographed:  May 14, 2022 One look at that sign tells you this store has been around for a while! In fact, it dates back to the early 1930s, when Steve's Quality Market first opened at the corner of Margin and Gedney here in downtown Salem. The store was expanded and remodeled in the 1960s, which is also likely when the sign went up. Today, Steve's is 4000 square feet -- a small store, but definitely a supermarket, not a convenience store. Its decades-old neon sign has garnered it some attention (you can even buy a print of a photograph of this store from Bed Bath & Beyond! Or from here ) but glimpses inside the classic supermarket are limited online. So let's check it out here on The Market Report! The nighttime pictures you can see online are really spectacular. The effect is less cool during daytime hours, but still, th...