Like we've been seeing with former grocers, Worcester has a lot of small independent grocers and corner stores and the like. We're going to take a look at a few of them in the southern part of the city, in the neighborhoods we've seen for the past few days! And because (especially in cities) I have a lot of these small stores that would be really quick posts, from now on I'm going to condense some of them into posts like this.
In the little business strip of Quinsigamond Village is this small liquor/convenience store called Day Nite Store, a former supermarket of around 4700 square feet. I couldn't get any pictures of the inside (I was the only customer and the clerk was way too interested in what I was doing for me to be able to get away with that) but there's some grocery shelves and lots of liquor.
One of two Accra Supermarkets in Worcester, selling familiar food to Worcester's large Ghanaian community (a large Ghanaian community lives here in Quinsigamond Village, but other enclaves exist throughout southern Worcester).
From Ghana to Brazil, we now stop by the new Minas Market in Quinsigamond Village, which opened in 2021. You can see it under construction below in early 2021, and open above in 2022. I've never been inside, but the store is around 3500 square feet and was previously several different restaurants.
Moving to the west about two miles, we find ourselves in Hadwen Park near the Auburn border. The 3000 square foot HP Market was once more of a supermarket and today is more of a convenience store, and moved from a smaller storefront next door. More on that tomorrow!
Very close to where South Worcester borders the Main South/Webster Square area is this 2200 square foot greengrocer in what appears to have previously been a function hall or club of some kind.
The store's exterior has been decorated with hand-painted and only slightly creepy anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables. The entire building has since been painted with a more colorful set of fruits and vegetables that don't stare into your soul.
The store is cramped inside, with stock of various kinds piled on every available surface. In addition to lots of produce, there's some basic grocery items and lots of imported things. If I remember correctly, many of them are from Albania, the small country next to Greece where a large number of Webster Square-area residents came from. (A few of my former colleagues were Albanian, and described the cuisine as similar to Greek cuisine.)
A note on historical sources: To get "past stores" in each location, I've consulted Worcester city directories going back to the 1910s. Here in the city, I'm drawing from 1916, 1922, 1927, 1931, 1937, 1943, 1959, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1969, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1991, 2000, 2009, and 2017. Also of note: this is far from an exhaustive listing of all grocery stores that have been in this area, although I'll probably eventually post the full thing, this is just what I've been able to photograph.
Reading the captions: A caption such as the following...
| John Smith (1926-1937) > Joe Jones (1955-1982)
...means that John Smith appears in the directories in 1926 and 1937, and Joe Jones appears in all directories I consulted between 1955 and 1982. That doesn't mean that John Smith opened up shop in 1926 and closed in 1937, he might have started in 1920 and closed in 1941 but since I don't have those records, I don't know for sure. Any questions (or corrections), feel free to drop a note in the comments and I'll look into it!
Quinsigamond Village
Day Nite Store
Owner: Cindy Nguyen
Opened: unknown
Location: 26 Greenwood St, Quinsigamond Village, Worcester, MA
Photographed: March 26, 2022
Past Stores:
First Swedish Co-Operative Store (1916-1922) > Anderson & Sundquist (1943-1979) > Day Nite Store (1985- )
It's likely the First Swedish store was at this location but in a building demolished between 1922 and 1943.
Accra Supermarket
Owner: Vasco Oburoni
Opened: before 2007
Location: 48 Blackstone River Rd, Quinsigamond Village, Worcester, MA
Photographed: March 26, 2022
Past Stores: It doesn't look like any grocery store was here before Accra Supermarket.
Minas Market
Owner: unknown
Opened: 2021
Location: 35 Blackstone River Rd, Quinsigamond Village, Worcester, MA
Photographed: April 10, 2021 and March 26, 2022
Past Stores: It doesn't look like any grocery store was here before Minas Market.
Hadwen Park
HP Market
Owner: unknown
Opened: between 1952 and 1957
Location: 256 Webster St, Hadwen Park, Worcester, MA
Photographed: March 26, 2022
Past Stores: none; HP Market built this building in the 1950s
South Worcester
San Miguel Grocery
Owner: Flor Paredes
Open: by 2007, closed 2023
Location: 103 Canterbury St, South Worcester, Worcester, MA
Photographed: February 12, 2022
Now over to South Worcester. The neighborhood is formed, at least in my (very informal) definition, by two rail lines. Three lines that run together through downtown Worcester diverge just south of Green Island, and (if I remember correctly) the farthest-east is the Providence & Worcester, which passes through the Southbridge Yards in South Worcester, then continue down to Providence. The farthest-west is a CSX route headed west to Springfield and Albany. Then interstate 290 cuts off the bottom of the neighborhood, forming a triangle. It's a combination between industrial/transportation and residential, so just a few blocks from the rail yards are rows of houses and apartments. San Miguel Grocery is on one of those residential blocks. In 2023, the store became Sabiba Grocery. It's a small corner store, at just around 1200 square feet.
Past Stores: It doesn't look like any grocery store was here before San Miguel Grocery.
Best Price Farm
Owner: unknown
Opened: ca. 2016
Location: 188 Cambridge St, South Worcester, Worcester, MA
Photographed: September 9, 2018 and September 3, 2021
Past Stores: It doesn't look like any grocery store was here before Best Price Farm. There was previously a First National Stores location at 190 Cambridge (this is 188), and while it's possible this space is actually where that grocer was, I doubt it. 190 Cambridge was John T. Connor & Company, a local grocery chain (one of the only references to it I can find on the internet is this 1915 lawsuit, which is... an interesting read) in 1922, then First National from 1927-1949.
That's all for today! Come back tomorrow for a similar post on the various former grocery stores in these neighborhoods!
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