290 Turnpike Rd, Westborough, MA

Original Grocery Tenant: Stop & Shop

Address: 290 Turnpike Rd, Westborough, MA

Opened: 1980s

Closed: 2021

Later Tenants: Amazon Fresh (planned, never opened) > Big Y (opening soon)

Photographed: October 23, 2021

Stop & Shop's struggles have been very well-publicized lately (and their misfortunes pile up -- after recently closing 32 stores, they've been hit with a cyberattack that has left stores barren), but they've closed quite a few stores in the last few years too, even before that more major announcement. One of the stores closed recently was this Westborough location -- a store of roughly 60,000 square feet built in the 1980s and then expanded and renovated in the late 1990s or so. This store was likely closed to drive traffic at their other location in Westborough, which is just about two miles east. This store was in a bit of an odd location, outside of the main town center area and close to a big, bustling Wegmans, not to mention a Target and a Walmart practically across the street.

The store closed in 2021, then began a renovation (which we can see here) to convert the store to an Amazon Fresh. But as Amazon Fresh stalled in 2023, the company negotiated to sell three stores to Massachusetts-based Big Y. Two of the three has opened to date, the Brookfield, CT location and the Westport, CT location, which still have the bones of an Amazon Fresh but with the very attractive touches of Big Y. Big Y, which has around 80 stores, is also preparing a new-build location in Uxbridge, where we saw a Hannaford.

Amazon Fresh was only going to take about 40,000 square feet of the 60,000 square foot Stop & Shop, and it looks like Big Y will also be sticking with the smaller footprint.

It's funny that, at the time of my visit back in 2021, only this one small part of the facade remained from Stop & Shop's time here. The rest of the store had already been stripped.

And the interior was gutted, too, in preparation of Amazon's arrival.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get back once Big Y opens here, but since I don't live in the area anymore, it might be difficult. New Jersey to Westborough is not exactly an easy partial-day drive. Speaking of Westborough...

Original Grocery Tenant: unknown

Address: 166 Milk St, Westborough, MA

Opened: unknown

Closed: unknown

Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants

Photographed: October 23, 2021

This strip mall is located on Milk Street at route 9, called the Westmeadow Plaza. My gut tells me once there was a supermarket here -- we know that there was once a Bradlees, I believe at the far-left side (south side), and until 1999, the far-right space (north side) was a clothing store called Raschel's. That far-right space almost has the look of a Price Chopper (before its renovation), but I don't believe they were here after Raschel's but before Ocean State Job Lot. Does anyone know if any of these spaces were originally supermarkets?

Tomorrow we're off to the Westborough Shopping Center to check out the remaining Stop & Shop in town!

Also, if you didn't see all the many posts from this past weekend, don't forget to check them all out here. Scroll down to the end of that post for the full list!