The Market Report

Hannaford Opened: 2004 Previous Tenants:  Victory Markets (closed 2004) Location:  158 N Main St, Uxbridge, MA Photographed:  September 4, 2021 There are no Hannafords in the immediate Worcester area (a shame, since I think generally Hannafords are run quite well), but there are a few in Worcester County. Most are up in the Montachusett region, in Fitchburg/Leominster, but we saw one in North Brookfield acquired from Victory Markets and here's another acquired Victory store towards the southern part of Worcester County. This store is just over 40,000 square feet, or about 10,000 square feet smaller than the Shaw's (its nearest competitor) about three miles north. As far as I can tell, it still doesn't have the latest Hannaford decor package, but it looks really good with the older one. Hannaford, in my experience, does a really good job of running these smaller-scale, small town stores across New England. They also have plenty of large stores, and we'll see multiple ...

The Goodness Store Owner: Joseph Quintal Opened:  1975 Cooperative:  none Location:  328 Main St, Douglas, MA Photographed:  April 16, 2022 The Goodness Store is a small cafe, that used to be more of a general store, right in the tiny town of East Douglas (actually, an unincorporated community of 2500 ). It's about 1800 square feet and has been in business since 1975, although I suspect it was a store for many decades before that. Tomorrow, we're headed just east to Uxbridge!

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 185 Church St, Whitinsville, Northbridge, MA Opened:  between 1959 and 1966 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  offices Photographed:  September 4, 2021 Welcome to Whitinsville, within Northbridge, MA! Now I'm sure I don't even need to talk about this building's origins, but we know it opened between 1959 and 1966 as a 15,000 square foot centennial A&P.  Unfortunately, that's all I know, and I don't know when A&P closed or whether another grocer moved in after that, but these days, the space is filled by offices from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. Sadly, there's no A&P labelscar on the front, but what do we see around the side... ...a sign about refrigeration breakdown! This isn't a feature I've seen before on other A&P stores, but I have to assume it's original. Then again, it's possible this was put in by a later tenant that also ran a grocery store here. Now we...

Shaw's Opened: between 1985 and 1995 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  1177 Providence Rd, Northbridge, MA Photographed:  September 4, 2021 It's time for another Shaw's tour! Although the exterior logo is the older one we saw in Auburn (not like Sturbridge ), this store has actually been renovated more recently than either of those other two. The roughly 50,000 square foot store was built at some point between 1985 and 1995, although it's possible it replaced an older store in this strip mall. There's a slightly unusual but very nice awning and signage over the entrance, which I haven't seen in other Shaw's. Let's head in! We begin in the front left corner with floral and customer service in a small alcove next to the entrance, then the rest of the first aisle is produce. Service meat/seafood and deli are at the back of the first aisle, with packaged meats lining the back wall. Natural foods are (or were? Many Shaw's have removed separate natural ...