The Market Report

Li'l General Owner: Lisa and Mike Pestana Opened:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  659 Great Rd, North Smithfield, RI Photographed:  September 4, 2021 Li'l General might bill itself as a convenience store, but it's certainly more than your average 7-Eleven. The 2500 square foot North Smithfield outpost of the five-store chain packs a punch with a deli, a butcher, some seafood, a little produce case, prepared foods, baked goods, and groceries alongside the regular convenience store fare. Each section is, of course, quite small, but they actually run a one-page circular advertising, the week I wrote this, scallops, sliced ham and liverwurst, steak and chicken, tortellini salad, and beef roast. Can't say I've ever seen most of those things at other convenience stores. I found this place absolutely fascinating. And it was a delightful little store! By no means a supermarket, but way more to choose from than other similar stores, and we're not exactly out in t...

Brigido's Fresh Market Owner: Mike Fernandez Opened:  2023 under current ownership; 1999 previously Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  900 Victory Hwy, North Smithfield, RI Photographed:  September 4, 2021 It's time for our second Brigido's Fresh Market! Yesterday we had the location in Pascoag , and there are now two other locations in New Hartford, CT and North Scituate, RI (which we'll visit soon). This North Smithfield location was previously an independent called Eddie's Market until Brigido's opened up in 1999, but I don't know any further history beyond that. At 19,000 square feet, it feels much larger than Pascoag but there's only about a 7,000 square foot difference. This store is definitely higher-end, though, with a big focus on the fresh items. There's also plenty of regular groceries, but the perimeter is much more exciting than Pascoag. Like Pascoag, I visited this store back in 2021, before it was sold. These days, i...

Brigido's Fresh Market Owner: Mike Fernandez Opened:  2023 under current ownership; 1978 previously Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  54 Sayles Ave, Pascoag, RI Photographed:  April 16, 2022 Welcome to Pascoag, Rhode Island, a small village that makes up part of the town of Burrillville. In the middle of this village are a few small businesses, and the largest is this Brigido's Fresh Market. Built in 1978 as a Brigido's IGA, the store became independent and C&S-supplied by the time I got here in 2022. Then in early 2023, the store was sold to Mike Fernandez, who also owns two Foodtowns in New York City and the Brigido's (formerly Foodtown) in New Hartford, CT . Brigido's was a longtime Rhode Island chain of three stores, and when Fernandez purchased the three stores, the New Hartford one was switched. These days, Brigido's is the only Rhode Island member of the Allegiance Retail cooperative, which also represents Foodtown, Pathmark, Green ...

The smallest state in the union has only 105 supermarkets (for reference, that's less than half of the number of supermarkets in Manhattan alone). But we're going to be taking a look at a few of them, even though my coverage isn't too extensive. There's still a lot of fun things to see here! We'll be spending about two weeks in the Bay State, moving from north to south through Burrillville, North Smithfield, Smithfield, North Scituate, then a few stops in Providence (but of course nowhere near a full tour of all the stores in Providence), with two final stops in the Newport area in Portsmouth and Tiverton. Like Connecticut, Rhode Island has quite a few independent stores that are really fun to visit. In fact, we won't be seeing any big-chain supermarkets here in Rhode Island (but rest assured, there are plenty of Stop & Shops and Shaw's). We're starting with our first store tomorrow in Burrillville!

Price Chopper Opened: 2006 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  251 Kennedy Dr, Putnam, CT Photographed:  September 25, 2020 On a beautiful September Friday back in 2020, I decided I wanted to take a good long walk. I had the day off and it was sunny and gorgeous, why not? I love walking, and didn't have a car when I lived in Worcester so I walked everywhere. Well, that Friday I woke up around 5:30 to get my things ready and hopped on a bus to Webster, Massachusetts, about 14 miles south of Worcester. The fun began when I got to Webster. I headed south, towards Putnam, and walked for hours and hours until I reached the small Connecticut town. After stopping by this store and the Putnam Supermarket a couple blocks away, grabbing an Italian sub for lunch (or a grinder, depending on who you ask), and wandering briefly around an antique store, it was back off to Webster. The whole pilgrimage was over 26 miles -- the most I've ever walked in a day -- but hey, now we get to tou...