TOUR: Price Rite Marketplace - Indian Lake, Worcester, MA

Price Rite Marketplace
Opened: between 2000 and 2007

Owner: corporate

Previous Tenants: Iandoli Super Market > Food Village > Shaw's

Cooperative: Wakefern Food

Location: 117 Gold Star Blvd, Indian Lake, Worcester, MA

Photographed: November 4, 2018 and October 11, 2019

Even though we're seeing today's store after yesterday's Shaw's, we're actually going in reverse chronological order: this building previously housed a Shaw's until that location opened in the mid-00s. Originally constructed as a department store back in the 1960s, it joined a neighboring Iandoli supermarket that we'll be taking a closer look at tomorrow. I'm not entirely sure on the history of this exact location, but at some point (probably around the 1970s) the supermarket moved into the Mammoth Mart space. The store changed from Iandoli to Food Village, which Iandoli owned, in the mid-1970s. I assume it became a Shaw's in 1987-88, although city directories list Food Village all the way up to 1991. Then in 2000, a city directory lists a Shaw's at 112 Gold Star Boulevard across the street. Looking through Historic Aerials, it doesn't look like that property (now a car dealer) was ever a supermarket, much less around 2000.

So let's review: here's my theory of this store's background. Iandoli opened next door in the early 60s, then moved to this space and changed their name to Food Village in the mid-70s. The store was taken over by Shaw's in 1987-88, which stayed here until the mid-00s when they moved to the existing store a block or two south. Then, shortly after Shaw's left this spot but no later than 2007, Price Rite moved in.

As with the Price Rite we toured across town, there was some back-and-forth with the decor and branding. It opened with the classic discount decor and logo, then in 2018 was rebranded to Price Rite Marketplace with new decor inside. The following year, it got yet another renovation with new decor, a slightly modified layout and fixtures, but no branding change.

We enter on the right side to produce and meats, along with frozen seafood, in what amounts to the grand aisle. Dairy lines the back wall with frozen on the left side, and this store actually has a service deli in the front left corner. Baked goods are also in that corner.

I'm still not entirely clear on why Price Rite did these two remodels, so similar but actually with different decor, so close to each other. Typically, if customers aren't responding to a decor package well (and it's hard to even track that), you might modify the decor package in subsequent remodels but it's highly unusual to redo the store all over again almost immediately thereafter.

The grocery aisles are set up in true discount-store fashion, with cases of items placed on warehouse-like shelves.

Not unattractive at all, in fact I do actually like Price Rite quite a bit, but it's not a high-end experience. Very different from the Shaw's nearby, and my guess is there are enough customers looking for both sides to sustain both of the stores just fine.

Price Rite also focuses a bit more on international foods than many other discounters like ALDI or LIDL.

Bread displayed on the bakery distributor racks rather than shelves...

This first round of decor is simple and attractive enough, but it definitely got better for round 2. So why even bother with this first redo?

Frozen foods transition into deli and baked goods in the front corner...

This is one of just a handful of Price Rites with a service deli. A location in Providence not too far away also has one, and was the first store branded Price Rite Marketplace when it opened around 10-15 years ago because it's a much larger store (over 65,000 square feet, an extremely large footprint for a discount supermarket). That store is also a former Shaw's.

And a look across the front-end...

Now let's return to the store after they redid it once again!

Right away, we can see the interior is improved. The produce department before looked cluttered, and it was hard to even see the produce. Now, we have longer, straight rows of colorful (unpackaged) produce with better lighting and clearly more thought put into display.

The Drop Zone, a section for weekly sales and discounts, was also added during this remodel. You can see here how the layout changed in the most notable way -- before, there was a row of dry produce shelving running from front to back here, funneling all customers to the back of the store (so that to get from produce to the rest of the supermarket, there was only a pass-through at the back, not the front, of the grand aisle). That entire display has been removed, with a much more open setup. I do wonder how much (or if at all) the selection was cut back, though, because it seems you'd have to remove at least an aisle or two to make this happen.

New simple but nice enough dairy signage at the back.

Here you can see a lot of examples of the new signage. Notice that the walls were also all painted to a darker, less saturated blue color. I prefer this version but it certainly looked just fine before, too.

And the deli and baked goods in the front corner...

That's all for this Price Rite! (As an interesting aside, a large office building just up the street was constructed on the site of a former A&P.) Tomorrow we'll take a look at the original Iandoli supermarket here!