TOUR: Fruit Fair - Chicopee, MA

Fruit Fair
Owner: Samaita and Jared Newell

Opened: 1936

Cooperative: none
Location: 398 Front St, Chicopee, MA

Photographed: November 20, 2023

This Fruit Fair must be one of the longest continuously-operating supermarkets in Massachusetts! The store dates back to 1936 (although this building was likely constructed in the 1960s), and up until 1936, it was owned by Alvin H. Phillips, who according to Groceteria owned quite a few stores in Chicopee.

The store is a Chicopee institution, although it's only been owned by the current owners since 2021. And they've been working on modernizing and improving the store, too -- including adding a greenhouse on the supermarket's roof!

The old-school interior has been updated with new flooring and fixtures, but the feeling is still of an old-fashioned independent supermarket. It's very pleasant and very slow-paced.

There's an entrance and exit at each end of the L-shaped store. In the short part of the L is produce and a few grocery aisles, with a liquor store at the back. In the long part of the L, on the right side, meat and deli are in the back with dairy and frozen on the right-side wall.

The store totals around 12,000 square feet. I wonder if the shorter part of the L, which we see here, was the original building. That itself is around 4500 square feet.

Fruit Fair is not a member of any cooperative but is supplied by C&S and uses Best Yet and Full Circle storebrand products.

The Beer Cave is on the back of the left side of the store.

Here's a look at where the two parts of the building connect...

The meat department is in the back of aisle 3. There's no service meat counter here, but it looks like they do cut all the meat in store.

Deli -- with an older but painted sign -- is at the back of the right side of the store. Here you can see how narrow this area is, just three aisles I believe.

Dairy and frozen are in aisle 1, which is the right-side of the store. As we can see, all of the fixtures are new and the store is looking really good for its age.

And a look across the front-end...

Fruit Fair has been holding its own, too, despite the recent opening of a new supermarket just about a third of a mile west. We'll be checking out that store tomorrow!