Gala Foods Supermarket
Owner: Omar Jorge Peña
Opened: 2018
Previous Tenants: Compare Foods
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 1050 E Main St, Bridgeport, CT
Photographed: May 2019
We've previously toured the Gala Foods in Worcester, and we're now here in the East End of Bridgeport to tour one of two in Bridgeport. The other, which I have not been to, is in the West End and has recently gotten a nice exterior renovation. This one looks much more like Worcester, although it has not been painted beige. At 19,000 square feet, it's a substantial center-city store but not enormous. You enter on the right side of the store with produce in the first aisle, meats on the back wall, and service butcher and deli in the last aisle. My photos are a little limited based simply on how busy the store was.
Interesting that frozen foods actually line the first aisle. I'm going to say the conversion to Gala Foods was a little more successful than Worcester but the wood paneling actually predates the Gala renovation.
Interesting that, even though the signage is nearly identical to Worcester's, it looks so much better here. What a difference some lighting and some wood paneling can make!
Slightly more deluxe meat decor on the back wall. We'll see, oddly, that there are several fixtures running parallel to the back wall that kind of interrupt the flow of the grocery aisles.
Dairy cases along the back. Meat is behind these cases.
I would say that although this store is very similar to Worcester, it's held up better over the years. Very nicely stocked too.
The blue inside and outside is left over from Compare Foods.
It's hard to tell, but I'd assume this store was some other supermarket before Compare Foods. Some fixtures, like these meat cases, look rather old. This store clearly does a big business on meat, and cuts a lot of meat in-store (maybe even meat that's then sent over to the West Side location). The butcher area is visible from the sales floor, with huge windows facing into the last aisle. A very cool feature I've never seen before!
Up next along the last aisle is deli...
Unlike Worcester, this store doesn't have a bakery, a hot food bar, or a seating area. There is a corner to the left of deli, which you can see a tiny bit of above, that isn't used for much of anything except sale items, so I wonder why they haven't repurposed that area.
And a look across the front end. This store's floor is in better shape than Worcester, that's for sure! While we won't be seeing the other Gala Foods on the West Side, we do have two stores up next in the Brooklawn neighborhood. Come back soon!
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