Big Y World Class Market
Opened: ca. 2000
Owner: D'Amour Family
Previous Tenants: none; Finast, Price Rite Market, and Iandoli previously on this site
Cooperative: none
Location: 100 Mayfield St, Columbus Park, Worcester, MA
Photographed: September 21, 2018; November 11, 2018; January 20, 2019; and November 16, 2020
Let me preface this post by saying I'm honestly not sure what neighborhood this Big Y is really in. I'm going with Columbus Park, which is primarily to the south, but I wouldn't be mad if you called it Main Middle or Tatnuck or Newton Square or even Main South. But this 55,000 square foot store was constructed around 2000 on a property formerly home to a few other supermarkets -- first a Finast by 1969, then what I assume is an independent called Price Rite Market ten years later (I don't believe there was any relation to
Price Rite), then an Iandoli around the 1980s. A puzzling entry in the 2000 Worcester city directory lists this address as a Big Cleaning Foods, but I assume that is somehow a typo for Big Y. (My many searches for "Big Cleaning Foods" have turned up nothing, and come on, would someone really name a store that?)
The store is very attractive on the outside, and although the address is on Mayfield Street (a tiny side street that barely exists anymore) the store and its parking lot face May Street, a much more major street that runs from Main South at the east to the campus of Worcester State at the west.
I have quite a few rounds of exterior pictures of the store, but the majority of the pictures here come from my fall 2020 visit. To my knowledge, the store hasn't changed much since then.
There was once
another Big Y in Worcester across town near the Shrewsbury border. Although that one seems to be slightly older, it doesn't look like this one was ever intended to replace that one since there was a significant gap between this one's opening in the late 90s and that one's closure in 2014.
We enter to the grand aisle on the right side of the store. Bakery is in the front right corner, with produce on the right side of the grand aisle. Prepared foods are on the left side in an island, with a cafe at the front. Deli and seafood service counters line the back wall of the grand aisle, with meats on the rest of the back. Frozen/dairy are on the left side; natural foods and customer service in the front left corner; and pharmacy between the entrance and the exit on the front wall.
Big Y stores seem to me to have a similar feeling to some ShopRites. That's likely because Broden Design Group
Broden Design Group is responsible for both Big Y and several ShopRite operators.
This is not the
newest Big Y decor package, but this store likely opened with the same decor we saw in
Southbridge.
Looking up towards the front of the grand aisle...
Many of the people I knew who lived in this neighborhood went to Big Y for seafood. You can see here (despite the blurry picture) it's a very nice selection. They also had certain cooked seafood specials, such as fish and chips on Fridays.
Meats continue down the rest of the back wall.
HABA is here in the first few aisles, with the pharmacy at the front.
Some of the newer merchandising we saw in Southbridge is here too.
And the Center Market, which is used for various sale items.
Dairy begins on the back wall and then continues down the last aisle.
It was really interesting to see Big Y change over the five years I shopped there. The perishables improved drastically, the prices improved also, and one other big change -- they discontinued the Big Y brand around 2021 or so. It was replaced by Food Club, from TopCo, along with the various other brands (Full Circle for organic, Culinary Tours for specialty products, and so on). In the past, Big Y was supplied at least in part by Bozzuto's, but I don't know if that has changed.
As we see, the fixtures are not that old but not brand-new. The entire store is in excellent condition, though, and feels much newer than its approximately 25 years of age.
Here's a look at where the dairy department transitions to natural dairy/frozen in the front corner, with a few short aisles of natural and specialty foods next to it.
And then a look across the front-end...
Tomorrow, we're going a couple blocks north for a look at a former supermarket near Hayward Square!
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