Update: Gala Foods Supermarket - Worcester, MA

Gala Foods Supermarket
Opened: 2018

Owner: Aurora Grocery Group

Previous Tenants: department store > Santiago's Supermarket > Compare Foods

Cooperative: Key Food Stores

Location: 664 Main St, Downtown, Worcester, MA

Photographed: October 9, 2018; November 18, 2018; April 14, 2019; and October 18, 2020

We're coming back to Worcester's Gala Foods (previously Compare Foods) in downtown Worcester to see the final stages of the conversion fully finished. Long ago, of course -- Aurora Grocery Group converted their New York and New England Compare Foods stores to Gala Foods back in 2018, when they joined Key Food but couldn't keep their name. (I find it absolutely hilarious that Gala Foods' new slogan is "Beyond Comparison," a joke not that many people will get.)

The 27,000 square foot building was originally a department store, which in 1965 was The Mart. I believe it became Santiago's Market around 2000 (incidentally, my former boss's father was the contractor responsible for the build-out when Santiago's opened). Shortly thereafter, no later than 2007, the store was sold to Aurora Grocery Group (it's a funny coincidence that the building immediately next door is the Aurora Apartments, previously the Aurora Hotel) and switched to Compare Foods. In 2018, the store changed over to Key Food-affiliated Gala Foods. This was the first Key Food-affiliated store in Massachusetts, although there are now four others (a Key Food each in Holyoke, Chicopee, and Indian Orchard, and a SuperFresh in Holyoke).

The facade was fully painted shortly after I made my first post, although some Gala Foods locations remained blue.

In the back of the store, facing the parking lot, this sign remains (as far as I know) with a Compare Foods sticker over the original Santiago's name.

And one more shot from 2020, showing everything all done. The store's branding was fully updated after a long time, and the banner advertising the transition from Compare Foods to Gala Foods was removed from the front windows.

That's all on this Gala Foods for now, and tomorrow we're headed one block north to a very interesting building with a lot of history!