The Independent Edition

Caraluzzi's Market Owner:  Mark Caraluzzi Opened:  1949 (current store constructed 2001) Cooperative:  none Location:  98 Greenwood Ave, Bethel, CT Photographed:  May 2019 We are here today in the small town of Bethel, CT to tour the original Caraluzzi's Market, an incredibly attractive 32,000 square foot independent which is serviced by Bozzuto's Food Distributor of Cheshire, CT, which also serves regional IGAs and other chains, including Big Y World Class Market and Food Bazaar . There is in fact a Big Y at the north end of Bethel, about 3.5 miles as the crow flies, but Caraluzzi's has anchored downtown Bethel since 1949, when former Gristedes executive Anthony Caraluzzi Sr. purchased the Bethel Food Market. In 2001, the store was replaced on the same spot with the existing building, which has been expanded again since (most recently in 2018 to its present size). At the time, the store was rebranded from Bethel Food Market to Caraluzzi'...

Up next: the state of Connecticut! We have a few stores scattered across the northern part of the state, with three in the greater Danbury area (the first city you enter when you cross the border from Brewster, see  here  and  here ), six in the Hartford area, and the remainder along the southern coast of the state (where it borders the Long Island Sound), stopping in the cities of Bridgeport, Norwalk, Stamford, and Greenwich with a few others in between. Most of our stores are going to be here on The Market Report, with a few over on  The Independent Edition  and one on  Grocery Archaeology . So generally we're starting on the western end of the state, crossing the middle of the state, then circling down to the southern end and completing the circuit back to the southwestern corner of the state. Tomorrow we have a store tour at the ShopRite of Danbury, the store in the above graphic!

Kobacker's Market Owner:  Frank Milano Opened:  1999 Cooperative:  IGA Location: 570 N Main St, Brewster, NY Photographed:  May 2019 Our final stop on the Northern Westchester - Putnam group is this store just four miles from the Connecticut border. It's quite a different story from the DeCicco & Sons we saw yesterday, being just 10,000 square feet, or a quarter of the size of the DeCicco. The store is actually a barrel-roof building, with multiple expansions. It's hard to tell whether that part to the right was originally a barn or if it's just designed to look like that. Heading in, we find an extremely pleasant and well-taken-care-of small-town supermarket. And the barrel roof is exposed inside, with wood beams extending across the approximately 55' wide main store. The barn section to the right holds dairy, beverages, and beer, with produce and the rest of dairy in the first aisle. Meat lines the back wall with deli in the back co...

Red Mills Market Owner:  Junior Zayed Dabashi Opened:  2018 under current ownership, 1960 under original ownership Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  575 NY-6N, Mahopac Falls, NY Photographed:  May 2019 Grand Union stores in Beacon , Mahopac , and Milford were taken over by a Key Food operator whose identity I haven't quite tracked down yet when the stores closed in 2001. This operator sold these stores to fellow Key Food operator Junior Zayed Dabashi, whose family owned Key Food stores in New York City. Well, while Beacon and Milford are going strong (in fact, when I visited Milford it was so packed that Dabashi himself was on a register), Mahopac was bought out by Stop & Shop in 2016, then promptly demolished to make way for a new store we'll tour tomorrow. Shortly thereafter, as luck would have it, Red Mills Market owners Ron and Regina Jedlicka announced they were retiring and selling the business. The Dabashi family quickly jum...