The Independent Edition

Citarella Gourmet Market Owner:  Joe Gurrera Opened:  2015 Cooperative:  none Location:  600 W Putnam Ave, Greenwich, CT Photographed:  May 2019 Our final Connecticut store is this 22,000 square foot gourmet market near the New York border. We've previously seen a Citarella , although that was a much smaller store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This former office building (with attached parking garage) has become Citarella on the upper level, which is grade-level for Putnam Avenue; the lower level, which is grade-level in the back, is multiple smaller businesses . It's an impressive gourmet grocery store with attached liquor store, and I think I visited at an off-peak time because it was empty. There are kind of two "aisles" here, with the second extending farther back than the first as a dead-end -- think the letter h. Produce and deli are in the front half of the first and meat/seafood in the back part; the second aisle has bakery ...

Grade A Market Owner:  Tom Cingari Opened:  2001 (?) Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  563 Newfield Ave, Newfield, Stamford, CT Photographed:  May 2019 The other Grade A Market, also a former Grand Union, is just over half a mile from yesterday's Grade A . While I do know this one is also a former Grand Union, it seems to be an earlier conversion to Grade A given the logo on the outside. The Hope St location's sign seems much more recent than this one, and to my knowledge it never had this older sign. At about 24,000 square feet, this store is slightly larger than the Hope Street location. The store model resembles an A&P Centennial , but it is not. Let's head in -- here's a look at the layout from a diagram posted on a wall inside: You enter in the bottom left with produce in the first aisle. An alcove towards the back has deli/bakery on the side wall, with seafood on the back wall. Meat runs along the back wall with bu...

Grade A Market Owner: Tom Cingari Opened:  2001 (?) Cooperative:  Wakefern Food Corp. Location:  495 Hope St, Glenbrook, Stamford, CT Photographed:  May 2019 Today's snapshot is one of two Grade A Markets in Stamford, although there are also three ShopRites owned by Grade A in Stamford, along with several more in the suburbs including Danbury . After Grade A joined Wakefern in the mid-90s, two of their stores were deemed too small to be converted to the ShopRite branding -- or perhaps, two stores were acquired later that were too small to be ShopRites, I'm not sure of the timing here. This one is under 20,000 square feet. Both of the Grade A stores are former Grand Unions but I don't know whether they closed before the 2001 bankruptcy. As the crow flies, it's only about 0.6 miles between this store and the other Grade A, which we'll tour tomorrow. But in reality, it's kind of hard to get between the two stores, and you kind of have to wind...

Palmer's Market Owner:  Joseph R. Palmer, Jr Opened:  1921 Cooperative:  IGA Location:  264 Heights Rd, Darien, CT Photographed:  May 2019 Just around the corner from the Stop & Shop in Darien is this IGA, Palmer's Market. At 24,000 square feet, it's slightly smaller than the now-closed Stop & Shop, but clearly the preferred choice. A fifth-generation family business, it's possible that the supermarket has moved from across the property from an older building (with a brick tower that makes it look an awful lot like a supermarket!). Now into the present-day supermarket! The first aisle, which lines the wall facing the parking lot, is dairy with deli on the back wall. Past deli, in the back right corner, is a meat alcove with a service butcher. Bakery lines the right side wall in the last aisle, with produce in the front corner opposite the entrance. The store is clearly very upscale. It's a little odd, though, that there's not ...