The Market Report

Remember when we were in Main South and Downtown along Main Street? I know that was a little while ago, but we're going from southeastern Worcester to central and northwestern Worcester in the Main Middle and Tatnuck neighborhoods, back towards Main South and Webster Square! Main Middle is roughly between Main Street and Park Avenue on the east and west, and May Street and Pleasant Street on the south and north. Then, Tatnuck is roughly to the northwest of that and Webster Square. Main Middle is home to the large Worcester Polytechnic Institute campus, along with several large institutions to the north including the Worcester Art Museum, and Tatnuck is home to the Worcester State University campus. Main Middle is the transition between the more urban Main South and downtown areas, and the very residential and suburban Tatnuck area. Tatnuck and its environs are green, with big old trees and large old houses lining beautiful suburban streets. We'll see a lot of former grocery sto

Yesterday we saw the independent grocers of eastern Worcester -- some going back decades -- and now it's time to see a few buildings that once were grocery stores but no longer are. 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 op

We're going to take a look at some (almost all) of the independent grocers in the southeastern part of Worcester -- we'll be starting in the Green Island/Canal District area, then Union Hill, Franklin Plantation, Vernon Hill, and finally way out to Grafton Hill. There's a lot of little grocery stores here, ranging from ethnic markets to convenience stores to produce markets, so let's check them out! 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...     

Original Grocery Tenant: Big Y World Class Market Address: 50 Southwest Cutoff, Worcester, MA Opened:  1994 Closed:  2014 Later Tenants:  Massachusetts RMV Photographed:  January 19, 2019 Can't miss that labelscar! Worcester once had two Big Y locations, with one here in the far southeastern corner of the city and the other up in Columbus Park, east of Webster Square (we'll see that in about a week). This one opened in 1994 and closed up 20 years later in 2014. The store faced route 20, or Southwest Cutoff. Three and a half miles west on 20 is Price Chopper , a mile and a half east is Market Basket , and a mile north is yesterday's Stop & Shop . The 55,000 square foot store is now home to the Worcester Registry of Motor Vehicles office, which moved from downtown right next to the Worcester Market Building in 2022, but when I was at this store back in 2019, it was still very much an abandoned Big Y. And we can get a good look inside from the large windows at the fron

Stop & Shop Opened: ca. 1990s Previous Tenants:  Finast > Valley Discount Foods previously on site Location:  949 Grafton St, Grafton Hill, Worcester, MA Photographed:  November 4, 2018 and March 31, 2023 It's time for a look at our first Stop & Shop in Worcester! There are three, and the other two are to the north. Don't worry, we'll get there. We're here at the Perkins Farm Marketplace, a large strip mall that borders the Perkins Farm Preserve between Grafton Street and the southern tip of Lake Quinsigamond. We're at the far southeastern corner of Worcester here, just under two miles from the new Market Basket in Shrewsbury . The mall was built in the mid-1960s and opened in 1967, with a Finast supermarket. That was still there by 1979, but in 1985, it had become Valley Discount Foods. City directories are mum on this property until 2017, when it was listed as Stop & Shop. But from the store model and Historic Aerials, we know Stop & Shop opene

Food Bazaar Supermarket Owner: Spencer An Opened:  September 6, 2024 Previous Tenants:  Pathmark (1970-2015) > Stop & Shop (2015-2024) Location:  2965 Cropsey Ave, Coney Island/Gravesend, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  September 6, 2024 Welcome to the first Stop & Shop conversion of 2024! This wasn't the first Stop & Shop of the 32 closures to actually close -- that was Newton, Massachusetts' location -- but the Stop & Shop right on the border of Coney Island and Gravesend closed for good on September 5 at 3:00 pm. Food Bazaar took possession of the space at 3:01 that day, and by 7:00 am the following day, had the store open for business. That in and of itself is an extraordinary feat (although they've done overnight conversions before, with an acquired Stop & Shop in Flatbush, Brooklyn and Fairway locations in Douglaston , Red Hook , and Westbury, NY). When I visited the store at 10:00 am last Friday -- just three hours after the store opened -- it w