TOUR: Donelan's Fresh Market - Littleton, MA

Donelan's Fresh Market

Opened: 2021 under current ownership; 1957 previously

Owner: Gohal and Mohanbhai Patel

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 236 Great Rd, Littleton, MA

Photographed: October 9, 2021 and December 10, 2023

We recently saw the Pepperell Quality Market, and in that post I mentioned that the owners of that store acquired the Donelan's chain after buying that location around 2020. The four-store chain started here in Littleton back in 1948, eventually building today's Littleton Donelan's in 1957 and expanding and renovating several times, most recently expanded in the 1970s and renovated in the early 00s or so.

Following the sale of the chain, the new owners rebranded slightly to Donelan's Fresh Market, with a slightly new logo. The picture below shows the store in December 2023 post-rebrand; the rest of these pictures come from October 2021.

Today, the store is around 40,000 square feet, quite a bit smaller than the Market Basket in town. But I'm pretty confident in saying that this Donelan's has held its own despite the newer, larger Market Basket opening nearby -- that was 10 years ago, and this Donelan's is still going strong. 

We enter to the grand aisle on the right side of the store, with prepared foods, deli, and seafood in an island on the left side. There's a cafe in the front-left corner. Produce is in the front-right corner, with bakery behind that. Dairy is in the back-right corner with meat in the back-left corner, and frozen (in a slightly strange setup dictated by the many expansions) is in the middle of the left side of the store. A relatively newly-expanded liquor store and floral department are on the far left.

There are a few places where the decor is on the older side, such as the (apparently not working) neon lettering over some of the grand aisle departments. But otherwise, this is a beautiful store that feels more premium than, say, Market Basket, especially on the perimeter.

I'm not sure if some of these prepared foods counters are permanently closed or if they were just closed at the time of my visit. (Remember that these pictures were taken back in 2021, when the coronavirus was still very much ongoing. Zoom in and you can see the people in the pictures wearing masks.)

The produce department is particularly well-designed and well-lit, with an upscale feel.

Bakery is at the back. I love the details in the decor here, such as these rounded beams over the bakery.

Service seafood is at the back of the deli island. Because of the store's setup -- it's very deep but narrow -- the grocery aisles are divided into two sets, front and back.

Sale items and dairy are in the rest of the first aisle, with the rounded beams continuing out from the grand aisle.

I like these shelves, and I can't say I've seen anything like them for groceries previously. I wonder if originally, the liquor store was in this area and the fixtures were repurposed when it was moved to the left side of the store.

This store is aging a little bit, and for instance could use a new floor and a paint job on the ceiling. But in the majority of the store, it's as clean and good-looking as ever.

Service butcher and packaged meats on the back wall.

Here's a look across the middle of the store towards the frozen department on the left side.

Donelan's isn't a member of any cooperative, but like many New England independents, they're supplied by C&S and use Best Yet and Full Circle storebrands.

The meat cases, which are designed around the angled wall, are very interesting. I rarely see anything like this -- which must have been custom-built -- outside very small, cramped urban stores that use designs like this to maximize limited space.

Frozen foods line the last aisle, and in the middle part of the aisle, several short freezer aisles extend out the left side of the store.

This couldn't have been a cheap decor package. Notice that even the category markers here are pretty extensive. My guess is that this decor dates back to the early- to mid-00s, but it could be later than that.

The liquor store and floral department extend in front of the frozen foods department in the front left corner of the store. This area looks slightly newer, and I believe the new owners rearranged this when they took over.

Also in this corner is the customer service counter, with the front-end extending from there. You can see the grand aisle, with the darker ceiling, on the far left side.

I found this store to be a really pleasant, well-run small-town supermarket. That seems to be par for the course for Donelan's, and we'll check out one of their other locations soon. But now, we're headed closer to Lowell -- the larger city in the area -- and tomorrow's post is to the northeast in Westford!