Special Report: Big Y - Westport, CT

Big Y
Opened: October 24, 2024

Owner: D'Amour family

Previous Tenants: Barnes & Noble > Amazon Fresh (planned, never opened)

Cooperative: none

Location: 1076 Post Rd E, Westport, CT

Photographed: October 31, 2024

If this is the first post of the weekend that you're seeing, welcome and get ready because we have a really great collection of stores today. If it's the last -- because I'm aware that the first store I post becomes the last to appear chronologically on the home page -- I hope you had fun looking at the other stores and I'll see ya tomorrow. Either way, glad you're here and let's check out a spectacular new Big Y!

Here in Westport, CT, a former Barnes & Noble was being prepared for Amazon Fresh to move in. But when they paused their new store development in 2023, they also got rid of a few stores still in development but not yet opened. Two appear to have gone to ALDI, one in Plainville, CT and one on Staten Island. Three went to Big Y, a regional, family-owned chain of about 85 stores based near Springfield, MA. The first to open was Brookfield, CT, near Danbury, in May 2024. This store came next, opening on October 24, and a third store in Westborough, MA is still in progress. We'll take a look at that store shortly.

The store appears to be just under 40,000 square feet. I visited about a week after it opened (and pretty early in the day, so you won't see many shoppers). I've known Big Y for a long time -- and lived near their Worcester location for years -- and in the last few years, they have managed to totally transform their operation. They've gone from a well-run but somewhat inconsistent local chain to a top-notch regional powerhouse that's steadily expanding. They have advantages in that they're a smaller, family-owned chain, so they work with a lot of local producers and smaller, specialty brands, but they're big enough that they have a full selection of everything. This one is actually on the smaller end of their stores, which in some locations measure up to about 80,000 square feet, but it's so obvious that Big Y has nailed everything about the execution here. Because the store was originally planned for Amazon Fresh, it has that feeling and layout (not to mention exterior facade) -- but cosmetically and in terms of the offerings, it's entirely Big Y.

The gorgeous produce department greets us in the front-right corner, with meat and seafood in the back-right corner. (Amazon Fresh these days isn't putting service counters in for meat and seafood, but those are a cornerstone of the Big Y perimeter.) Dairy lines the rest of the back wall, with frozen in the middle of the store and deli, bakery, and prepared foods on the left side. Where Amazon Fresh would've put the Amazon returns counter and the other related Amazon services, Big Y has built a substantial but not huge HABA department. That would be the one thing this store has a smaller selection of.

As you can see, the place is absolutely gorgeous. The produce looked great, too, as did the rest of the perimeter.

You can feel the bones of the Amazon Fresh store, but Big Y has definitely made it their own. The meat and seafood counters are smaller than what we'd see in a typical Big Y, but still much nicer than what Amazon Fresh would've put in.

In an op-ed worth reading, a local columnist writes that Big Y will make a splash here in Fairfield County, which is a southwestern county of Connecticut closer to New York City than Big Y's home of Massachusetts. In fact, here in Westport, we're not even 50 miles outside of New York City. As the crow flies, Hartford is about 100 miles away and Boston closer to 200. (If you can't read the article because of a paywall, try this.)

This store feels much more lively than a comparable Amazon Fresh. Still, they've improved their operations in their latest locations -- which I wrote about on my post on their new Woodland Park store.

Big Y has their own storebrand for a few items. It used to be more extensive, but in 2022 or so, they switched the majority of their storebrand items to Topco's Food Club, along with the Full Circle and other Topco brands. That's helped their price, as they've been a slightly higher-priced store for a while. Now, their storebrands are much more competitively priced and much more extensive.

Big Y may have made the shelving here taller than what Amazon Fresh would've put in. It feels very tall, which is likely their way of compensating for the smaller footprint of the store.

This decor package has made it into the majority of their stores, actually, as Big Y is typically on top of renovations. The same day I visited this one, I also stopped by about half a dozen other CT Big Y locations and was thoroughly impressed with all of them. Among the stores I visited is a new-build location in Middletown, CT that was really beautiful.

Frozen foods towards the left side of the store but not on the edge of the store's perimeter.

Dairy lines the back wall. Here's what this would've looked like if it had opened as an Amazon Fresh at the time it was originally slated to open. In terms of both appearance and selection, Big Y is much better.

Beer and some other dairy in the back part of the last few grocery aisles.

And then the deli, prepared foods, and bakery departments line the left-side wall of the store.

And you can see Big Y isn't messing around with the perimeter here, even despite the smaller size.

Packed into the prepared foods area is the salad bar and a hot food bar, a counter for fried seafood and fish & chips, subs, sushi, and pizza. Not bad. That's the typical lineup for their stores, but here it's condensed into a much smaller space.

Even the deli counter is quite small, but still looks good.

And Big Y's bakery is typically really good, too, much better than what Amazon Fresh is running in their stores.

Here in this front corner, Amazon would've put their returns counter and "best of Amazon" department.

Instead, Big Y has used the space for a few short aisles of HABA. That also allows them to free up space in the regular grocery aisles for an expanded grocery selection. This store doesn't have a pharmacy, which nearly all other Big Ys do.

The selection here is abbreviated, too, because of the smaller size, but it's still a complete assortment.

Self checkouts and staffed registers, of course, but taking a tip from Amazon and others, Big Y has recently added a feature for customers to scan items using the Big Y app on their phone as they shop, then just scanning a QR code at the registers to pay. Seems like a simple, relatively low-friction way to do it (but it also seems like there's a big opportunity for dishonest people to, um, "forget" to scan their groceries).

You can see the mobile express checkout setup here, which I've also noticed going into several other locations. Big Y tends to move quickly, so just as this decor package is already in most of the other stores, so is the mobile express checkout. Similarly, Big Y now has branded themselves as Big Y - Your Family Market (with many signs simply saying Big Y) when they previously were Big Y World Class Market. And within a couple of months, nearly all of the stores had their World Class Market signage replaced with Your Family Market signs.

I am really impressed with what Big Y could do with this space and I am excited to see more Big Y locations closer to New York City (since that's closer to me, of course). 

For now, don't miss this weekend's other stops, including another store in Connecticut and a brand-new Amazon Fresh!

• Big Y opens in a space originally slated for Amazon Fresh near Bridgeport (this post)
• Key Food opens in an extensively-renovated former Save-A-Lot near Hartford
• Inserra Supermarkets' first The Fresh Grocer opens in a former Stop & Shop
• Amazon Fresh opens a long-dormant site in north Jersey
• ShopRite completes a major renovation at one of their oldest operating stores