TOUR: SuperFresh - Providence, RI

SuperFresh

Owner: unknown

Opened: May 2023

Previous Tenants: Save-A-Lot (closed 2020)

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 699 Hartford Ave, Hartford, Providence, RI

Photographed: November 19, 2023

It's time for another Save-A-Lot to Key Food conversion! We're also here to tour the only SuperFresh in New England. (When A&P owned the SuperFresh brand, they were focused on the Philadelphia area, but following Key Food's 2016 acquisition of the brand, Key Food has made the banner available to all of their members and the stores are mostly in New Jersey and New York City, with one each on Long Island and here in Providence. This is the only Key Food store in Rhode Island at the moment.

The approximately 25,000 square foot store is clearly cut out from part of a larger building, which I suspect was likely originally a department store. It's even possible the Dollar Tree next door was originally a grocery store. BD's Discount, a local chain of discount/dollar type stores, has taken around 30,000 square feet to the left of the SuperFresh.

Until 2020, the supermarket space was a Save-A-Lot, but it wasn't until 2023 that SuperFresh opened here. Like converted Save-A-Lots in Hartford, East Hartford, and New Britain, there's little left from the discount supermarket, and the new supermarket is fairly mainstream in its approach.

One thing that is left from Save-A-Lot: this shelving on the left, which is now used for nuts and bulk foods. Produce is in the first aisle, with meat on the back wall and frozen on the right side. Deli and bakery are in the front right corner. I will say that while this store is quite pleasant and definitely very attractive, it doesn't seem to be gaining traction the way the Connecticut stores are. It's in a mostly residential neighborhood close to two Stop & Shops, two Price Rites, and a Market Basket, so it's not a slam-dunk location for Key Food.

That said, it's a very attractive renovation of the former Save-A-Lot. Packaged meats are in the back half of the first aisle. We can see here that although the store is not that large, it's extremely well-stocked.

Service butcher -- obviously something Save-A-Lot wouldn't have had -- at the back of the first aisle.

There's a large selection of Latin American foods here, but also a full line of regular mainstream groceries.

Dairy runs across the back wall with milk in a built-in cooler in the back corner, left over from Save-A-Lot, and in the back right corner. Frozen foods are in the rest of the last aisle and a little bit in the second-to-last aisle.

A mixture of newer and older fixtures here.

Service deli in the front right corner...

Customer service and, it seems, the store's offices are in the front right corner in front of deli.

I mentioned some of the other supermarkets in this area, but there was another one we'll be taking a look at on Monday that has been repurposed as something very different!