TOUR: Vicente's Supermarket - Pawtucket, RI

Vicente's Supermarket
Opened: 2021

Owner: Manuel Vicente Barbosa

Previous Tenants: Finast > Ocean State Job Lot

Cooperative: none

Location: 470 Pawtucket Ave, Pawtucket, RI

Photographed: October 14, 2024

One thing that's for sure: as a lot of forms of brick-and-mortar retail suffer, supermarkets benefit enormously with available space. The most common conversion is a drugstore to a supermarket, but here in Pawtucket, a closed Ocean State Job Lot (which, for those unfamiliar, is a discount general merchandise store in the vein of Ollie's Bargain Outlet) has become a Vicente's Supermarket.

The store is around 18,000 square feet and is located just south of downtown Pawtucket, a city of 75,000 north of Providence. Back in the 1960s and 70s, this was a Finast, later becoming Ocean State Job Lot for a few decades. Vicente's opened up after an extensive renovation in 2021. Vicente's earns a distinction as the only Cape Verdean supermarket chain in the United States -- at least, as far as I know. (Cape Verde is an archipelago country in Africa.) Vicente's started as a small ethnic store in Brockton, MA, 25 miles northeast of here, later expanding into a closed chain supermarket in Brockton. Over time, they've added a second location in Brockton in 2015, this one in 2021, and a New Bedford store in a former Save-a-Lot last December. The chain is also preparing a store in a former Walgreens in Roxbury, a neighborhood of Boston.

Here in Pawtucket, Vicente's outfitted the former discount store location as a brand-new supermarket. It's hard to tell inside that it's not a new-build store. Even the concrete floor is, for the most part, even and smooth. We enter in the front-right corner to the produce department, with bakery, deli, and prepared foods on the right-side wall. Service meat and seafood are at the back of the first aisle, with meats on the back wall. Dairy and frozen are on the left side.

There is of course a focus on international foods -- particularly Latin American, African, and Caribbean -- but Vicente's also has a full line of regular groceries, and they use the Best Yet storebrand from C&S Wholesale Grocers.

This is also, notably, the only supermarket in southern Pawtucket. There's a Stop & Shop a mile and a half south in Providence, and several stores including an America's Food Basket and a Price Rite in downtown and northern Pawtucket.

There is an in-store bakery and a service counter just to the right, but most of the baked goods are in this case here. Deli and prepared foods are just behind this.

In the back-right corner is frozen seafood and salted cod, a staple in several cuisines represented in the store.

(They also get extra points for the fish-scale texture behind the signage. Well done.)

And service meat and seafood are at the back of the first aisle. I do love this decor, too.

The rest of the meat department and dairy are on the back wall.

As we can tell, all of the fixtures in this store were brand-new when the store opened.

Lots of international foods here, and in this aisle we're in the Latin America section...

I think big-chain stores could take some tips on decor from these smaller stores. Most of the most fun and exciting decor I see is in small stores like this one.

Eight aisles in total, including the first aisle with deli and produce. Sale items are stacked along the last aisle.

And a look across the front-end. Customer service is in the corner to my right in the below picture.

I do love Vicente's, and while I haven't been to the New Bedford store (since it's so recently opened, and I have only been to New Bedford once in my life...), I have been to both Brockton stores and we'll see them both in a couple weeks when we're in Brockton. For now, we're off to Providence for another independent grocer tomorrow!