TOUR: CTown Supermarkets - Parkville, Hartford, CT

CTown Supermarkets

Owner: Ruddy Fernandez

Opened: unknown

Previous Tenants: Finast (1940s-1970s)

Cooperative: Krasdale Foods

Location: 1744 Park St, Hartford, CT

Photographed: July 9, 2023

Welcome back to the Park Street CTown! We stopped by the 10,000 square foot store in 2020 with pictures from a contributor but I've actually gotten here myself to check it out. My friend, who sent the pictures to me, used to live just across the highway from here and would walk to shop at this store. Once a store opened immediately next to his apartment, he started going there instead -- more on that soon.

The store is definitely a full supermarket, but it seems like the opening of the Key Food in a former Save-A-Lot just about half a mile east has taken its toll on this store. It appeared to be slightly past its prime, and for the most part, it was stocked and clean but there were notable maintenance issues and some areas of very thin stock, like in the freezer department. We enter to produce in the front left corner with meat in the back part of the first aisle. Dairy is on the back wall and frozen is in the last aisle on the right side. Deli is in the front right corner.

I don't know when the CTown opened, but Groceteria let me know that the building was originally a Finast from the 1940s through the 1970s. I don't know what was here between Finast and CTown, but I assume at least one other tenant was here.

I would estimate that CTown opened between 2000 and 2005 and most of the decor and fixtures around here are from that time. Nothing looks that old, but nothing looks that new either. That could, though, be a suggestion that there was no grocery store here between Finast and CTown, and that the space was occupied by a different business: CTown would've needed to start from scratch when outfitting the place.

The aisles are well-stocked, but the store is pretty small so selection is limited.

A weirdly large number of the freezer cases were empty, though:

And in the front corner, we have the deli and the customer service counter...

This supermarket has a distinctly New York City-style feel to it, partially because it was designed by DY Design, which also does plenty of NY-area stores.

That's all for now, but on Monday, we're going to be seeing the new Key Food along with a former supermarket nearby!