Pepperell Quality Market
Opened: ca. 2020
In our last few stores, it definitely didn't feel like Worcester anymore, but everything we saw in the Wachusett and Montachusett regions was still in Worcester County. Now we're just over the border in the town of Pepperell, population around 11,000. In 1994, local chain Donelan's built a store of just under 14,000 square feet, it seems replacing an older building on the same property (not sure if it was a grocery store or not). Donelan's operated the store until about 2020, when they sold this location to independent owners, Gohal and Mohanbhai Patel, who renamed the store Pepperell Quality Market. In an interesting twist, in 2021, they also acquired the other Donelan's locations, which continue to operate as Donelan's (and we'll be seeing a couple). Most recently, they also acquired an independent supermarket in Rhode Island.
Inside, the new owners did very little to the store, and although it was looking very good from the Donelan's days, there were a few notable places where it showed its age. We enter on the left side of the store to the grand aisle, with bakery, deli, and seafood on the left and produce opposite. Meat and dairy line the back wall, with frozen on the right side and in the front right corner.
You can see some simple maintenance issues, like the burnt-out lights here. But generally, the store looked solid.
Deli and a tiny little seafood counter. But it's still looking good!
The decor is very minimal in the rest of the store, especially because of the low ceiling, but it's a good look. Many of the fixtures are older, probably original to the store, but may have been painted at some point.
The grocery aisles are fairly unremarkable, but well-appointed for a small town store. Notice the Donelan's signage. The Donelan's name remained everywhere inside the store when I visited, and I suspect now that this store's owners also own Donelan's, they're probably not in a hurry to rebrand the interior. I don't know where it stands now, since I haven't been back.
I like these triangular signs over the dairy cases, which look like older cases with newer doors. You can see some other maintenance issues here, though, like the water stains on the ceiling.
As we'll see soon, this store definitely still has the look of a Donelan's, but this store is smaller than the remaining Donelan's locations.
I'm not entirely sure why these cases were covered, and we can see flooring issues likely caused by leaking cases, and the lights in the freezer cases were mostly burnt out, making the freezer section look... not great.
But the decor is nice, and I like the window given that we're on an exterior wall here.
And the front-end...
And as we exit the store, we're once again reminded of its heritage...
Still, signage at the time of my visit -- which was within a year of the store's ownership change, although I can't nail down exactly when ownership changed -- welcomed customers to the new store.
But it seems like the conversion from Donelan's to Pepperell Quality Market was a bit lethargic, with Donelan's branding still abounding around the store.
As of 2023, real signage still hadn't been installed on the outside of the store, instead just using these temporary banners over the Donelan's labelscar.
Opened: ca. 2020
Owner: Gohal and Mohanbhai Patel
Previous Tenants: Donelan's (1994-ca. 2020)
Cooperative: none
Location: 75 Main St, Pepperell, MA
Photographed: October 9, 2021
This is the only supermarket here in Pepperell, but there are other places to buy food! We'll check out a small one tomorrow.
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