Look Inside: Plaza Supermarket - Worcester, MA

Plaza Supermarket
Owner: Robert de Fernando Monegro

Opened: 2008 under current ownership

Cooperative: Krasdale Foods

Location: 1000 Main St, Main South, Worcester, MA

Photographed: April 21, 2018; April 22, 2018; September 5, 2018; September 15, 2018; November 9, 2018; March 27, 2021; April 23, 2021; April 28, 2023; May 8, 2023; and September 15, 2023

So I've only photographed this store 10 times, not the extravagant 11 like the Shaw's at Webster Square Plaza. But again, I lived nearby and went frequently, so we've got an extensive look at Plaza Supermarket here in Main South Worcester! This grocery store dates back all the way to 1925, when Abraham Glass owned a grocery store at 998 Main Street (that's somewhere around the middle of Plaza Supermarket, whose address is now 1000 Main St). First National Stores was next door at the same time at 988 Main St, now the far-right side of Plaza (where you can clearly see what used to be a separate storefront). By the 1950s, the space had become the King Super Market, then in 1973, it was listed as GKM Inc. City directories are blank for this space between then and 2017, when it was listed as Santiago Meat Supermarket. Santiago's was still in business in 2011, but by 2016, the space had become Plaza Supermarket (meaning the directory was slightly outdated). The Santiagos owned at least two other supermarkets in Worcester, one at 286 Pleasant St and the other downtown which later became Compare Foods and eventually, Gala Foods.

The supermarket totals just 6300 square feet, but it's definitely a full supermarket. It's gone through a few different suppliers and cooperatives, starting out as White Rose-supplied, then when White Rose folded into ASG, they joined ASG and briefly became a Pioneer in 2018, then switched to Krasdale. They've been under both the Shop Smart and Market Fresh groups within Krasdale since then.

The outside was a very distinctive teal color for several years, but in 2023, the exterior was redone to be the loud red, yellow, and blue design you can see in the first picture.

The interior has always been small but well-stocked, with plenty of groceries. The aisles run side-to-side and the front-end is on the side of the store. The first aisle, running along Main Street, has produce in the front part, then packaged seafood and meat behind it. Frozen foods are on the right-side wall (which is essentially the back wall of the store) then running down part of the last aisle, where dairy takes up the rest. Deli/bakery is in the back left corner, with customer service beyond the registers.

Here's a look down the last aisle, with dairy and frozen on the outside.

The store has always been extremely clean and well-stocked, and they have a surprisingly large selection for their size. In addition to the neighborhood residents of Main South, we're just about two blocks over from Clark University, and student housing spreads several blocks in all directions, so this store also gets a fair number of Clark students.

When the store officially switched from Super A and White Rose over to Avenue A, the new ASG brand designed to consolidate those other two, they did a lot of promotion on the new brand, which I also saw at other ASG stores.

They also briefly used the Pioneer name for ads, but it never actually appeared on the outside of the store.

You can see here that the awning faded to the point it couldn't be read, so it was eventually replaced. But before that...

Krasdale came in by late 2018. Shortly after the coronavirus, in 2021, they began some renovations in the store. New meat and frozen seafood cases came in here in the first aisle. I believe they're secondhand from a Price Rite (although I'm not sure which one), as the freezers for frozen seafood actually still have the Price Rite category markers on them.

By the spring of 2021, they replaced several fixtures inside and installed a new floor and new lighting. It looks really good inside these days! In the picture below, you can also see the Price Rite-style seafood labels on the freezers.

The building was painted in the spring of 2023 to its current red, yellow, and blue color scheme, and the long-faded awning was removed.

Shortly thereafter, a new and very bright sign was installed...

Even after I took these pictures, there was one more step to be done: there's now a small red awning running below the sign. You can see that in the first picture of the post.

And here, you can see the tiny part of the old facade that hadn't yet been redone, just to the left of the Plaza sign...

That's all for Plaza, and I think the renovations inside and out are pretty much done by now! Main South has quite a few small independent grocers of various kinds lining Main Street, so tomorrow we'll be headed about 10 blocks northeast on Main to look inside another one!