TOUR: Assabet Co-Op Market - Maynard, MA

Assabet Co-Op Market
Opened: 2023

Owner: cooperatively owned

Previous Tenants: unknown

Cooperative: none

Location: 86 Powder Mill Rd, Maynard, MA

Photographed: September 16, 2023

Just up the street from the recently-closed Stop & Shop in southern Acton is this new small natural foods co-op, opened in 2023 in a space of just 6000 square feet. It wouldn't surprise me if the 20,000 square foot rectangle making up most of Victory Plaza was originally a supermarket, but I don't know for sure that it was.

We enter the store in the front-right corner, with produce in that corner and dairy on the rest of the right-side wall. There's a cafe in the back of the store, along with seating both indoors and outdoors along the Assabet River, which runs along the back of the building. Frozen, meat, and beer/wine are on the left side of the store.

The store feels brand-new, and as a matter of fact it was only a couple months after it opened that I visited.

It looks like all the fixtures in this store are brand-new. The finishes are high-end, and the selection is all natural foods but there is a complete line of groceries here. It's definitely a perfect supplement to the (now-closed) smaller Stop & Shop nearby and the Market Basket on the other side of Maynard, which we'll see shortly. (Market Basket is wonderful, but not exactly the place for specialty natural foods.)

I like the signage, too. It's not overwhelming but exciting enough to add some visual interest.

Assabet Co-Op doesn't appear to be a member of any cooperative (it itself is a consumers' cooperative, where customers share ownership of the store, but the store is open to anyone to shop). They're supplied by UNFI -- which is based in nearby Providence -- and sell Wild Harvest and Field Day products, both of which you can see on the shelves to the left.

Here's a look at the cafe in the back. There's no service departments here other than the cafe, which is fairly common for the smaller natural foods stores.

Let's head outside to see the beautiful waterfront cafe in the back...

What a spectacular use of the location! I don't know if this deck predates the supermarket, but it's definitely a perfect use for the setting. Now back inside for meat and seafood and frozen foods...

Frozen foods and beer/wine are in the last aisle here.

There are two sets of aisles, which are split front-to-back with this dividing aisle.

Here's a look at the whole store, including the front-end, from the front wall...

I do love these small natural foods stores, and I'm glad to see a new one opening! Tomorrow we're off to the Market Basket across town. Come back for that tour!