The Market Report

Park 'n Shop Owner: Kevin Meehan Opened:  1960 Cooperative:  none Location:  14 Airport Rd, Dudley, MA Photographed:  October 10, 2020 It's finally time for us to tour a Park 'n Shop! Park 'n Shop is a small chain of currently two supermarkets (Dudley and Auburn), but there's a third on the way in Mendon. The chain originated in Webster in 1918 with a small grocery store, then ultimately building up to a chain with independent supermarkets in Webster, Auburn, Dudley, and Blackstone. As the chain began to struggle, Webster closed in the 1990s, then Blackstone closed in 2022. The chain's founding family, the Pappas family, sold Park 'n Shop in 2021 to Worcester County businessman Kevin Meehan, who has since renovated the two remaining stores. The Dudley one is tucked away in the back of a strip mall off the main street, but it still seems to do fine. It's the only supermarket in Dudley, and its nearest competitors are a Big Y five and a half miles west a

Charlton Food Mart Owner: Sonny Patel Opened:  2008 under current ownership Cooperative:  none Location:  109 Masonic Home Rd, Charlton, MA Photographed:  March 23, 2019 Charlton is a small town about halfway between Southbridge and Auburn, a Worcester suburb, and in its little quasi-downtown, a small 4000 square foot grocery store fills the local grocery needs with plenty of packaged goods, dairy, frozen, some produce, and a tiny bit of meat alongside a deli and some liquor. We'll see quite a few small grocers like this across New England, but tomorrow, we're headed back south to Dudley where we'll be touring an independent supermarket!

Big Y World Class Market Owner: D'Amour family Opened:  1996 Previous Tenants:  none Location:  505 E Main St, Southbridge, MA Photographed:  November 30, 2018 and March 23, 2019 We've seen a few Big Y locations so far, so let's tour another one! This roughly 57,000 square foot store opened in 1996 (although I'm not sure if it replaced an older store in town), and I don't believe it's been renovated since it opened although it's been repainted inside. (It was most recently redone this past spring, although I can't find any post-renovation pictures.) Notice that the exterior doesn't have the circle logo, like we saw in Spencer . It was snowing just a little bit on my first visit, way back in 2018 (although I've been back a few times). Here's the exterior on a sunnier day... Inside, the store is fairly straightforward for a Big Y. Bakery is in the front right corner, with deli and prepared foods in the island facing. Produce is on the right si