Fairway signs tentative deal for store in South End development - The Advocate.
Excellent! Stamford gets another shopping option -- that should give us more selection and perhaps lower prices, as the existing competitors -- Stop & Shop and Grade A -- have to seek our business.
When I moved to Stamford in 1975, there were at least 18 grocery stores from 10 competitors:
Grade A (1) - Shippan
Daitch Shopwell (1) - High Ridge
Pantry Pride (3? 4?) -- Elm Street, Newfield, West Broad, another?
Grand Union (2) - Town & Country SC, Hope Street
Gran(d) Central (5? 6?) - East Main, South End, Ridgeway, High Ridge, Forest Street, others?
A&P (2) - Hope Street, High Ridge
Gristedes (1) - Bedford Street
Palmers (1) - Hope Street
Bongiorno (1) - Exit 6
First National (1) - Bulls Head
Today?
Grade A: 4
Stop & Shop: 2
A&P: 1
Have I missed any?
Not much for a population of 120,000 people. A strike or a delivery-chain problem at either of the first two could disrupt life for many of us! And not much competition, which leads to high prices. (Check out A&P if you want to swoon!)
How many of us could walk to a grocery store -- a full-line grocery store -- in 1975? And how many of us can do so now?
I'm all for competition and for walkability.
And I hope that the store will be designed so that truck access and recycling are integral parts rather than afterthoughts. I'm glad it is pretty close to I-95.
Now, could we please have a Wegmans, and a Trader Joe's? (Whole Foods doesn't excite me much, based on the Greenwich store.) I hope that the landlord's contract with Fairway does not preclude other food stores. That's a problem with one landholder owning large swaths of land. I know that Grade A and Bongiornos, through their real estate acquisitions, managed to keep down the competition over the years. Large enough properties are not easily come by.
Perhaps some of the east side site being vacated by Clairol could be the site for another fine grocery store.
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