Look Inside: Produce Barn - Norton, MA

Produce Barn

Opened: 1978

Owner: unknown

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 72 Mansfield Ave, Norton, MA

Photographed: October 13, 2024

Welcome to the Produce Barn! It's one part hardware store, one part liquor store, one part grocery store all wrapped up in an 11,000 square foot building. We're going to focus on the grocery store part, which is in the middle of the building with hardware to the left and liquor to the right.

The store opened in 1978, and a lot of it might be original (such as this produce case, perhaps, along with the grocery shelving). Despite the name, the produce department is quite small and limited to this one part of the first aisle. Butcher and deli are on the back wall, with dairy and frozen on the right side.

There aren't a whole lot of grocery options in the immediate area, so this store probably fills a need for people who don't want to (or can't) travel about five miles to the next closest store. But within a couple minutes' drive, there's a Market Basket, three Shaw's, two Stop & Shops, a Big Y, and a Trucchi's.

The grocery aisles have the basics, but there's also some bigger packs like you can see with the sauces and dressings here. I assume the buyers of those items are mostly small businesses, but I couldn't really tell who the target audience is.

Some more produce, along with an assortment of convenience store-type items, at the front...

...and dairy and frozen in the last aisle.

We've now come to the end of our southeastern MA group, and it's now officially time to get into the greater Boston area. But we have a lot to see before we enter the city of Boston itself, so come back tomorrow to preview what's coming next!