Big Y Revamps 5 Stores
Big Y Foods Inc. has completed renovations costing more than $13 million at three of its locations in Massachusetts’ Hampshire County. The stores, located in Amherst, Northampton and Hadley, all underwent extensive renovations and will celebrate their grand reopenings on May 3. The Springfield, Mass.-based grocer has additionally remodeled two Connecticut stores.
The Massachusetts reopening events will feature the company’s official cake-cutting ceremony with complimentary slices of cake handed out, as well as free coffee and doughnuts, with store-wide sampling to take place throughout the week.
As part of a nearly $900,000 overhaul, the Big Y Express fuel station in Hadley has received a new red metal roof, a spruced up exterior with fresh landscaping, improved restrooms, a self-service fresh food case, and refreshed décor. The car wash’s renovation, which started in July 2017 and included a hot-wash application, a wheel blaster, LED tunnel lighting, a tire shiner, a triple foamer and five new free vacuums, wrapped up with the installation of an auto-pay system. Big Y acquired the location in December 2015, along with two other former O’Connell Convenience Plus stores in Massachusetts.
The Amherst World Class Market’s $3 million plus renovation includes a brand -new Living Well Eating Smart area offering all-natural, organic and gluten-free foods and other products, as well as a ready-to-eat chicken wing bar and a stir fry station at which shoppers can order personalized creations to take out or eat in the store’s new café area, redesigned to impart more of a coffeehouse ambiance and now providing phone- and computer-charging stations. Also new to the café area is “The Local Bean,” a station showcasing Rao’s Coffee, a local coffee bean-roasting company. Among the store’s other upgrades are a relocated and rebuilt floral department, new fixtures in produce and bakery, new cases in meat and seafood, and new décor throughout. The Amherst store originally opened in 1998 and was last remodeled in 2005.
Big Y’s $7 million investment in the Northampton World class Market also includes an all-new Living Well Eating Smart section. Among its other new features are the relocation of its wine, beer and liquor sections into a dedicated Table & Vine section in the center of the store, a chicken wing bar, an upgraded bakery coffee bar and updated produce displays. Cosmetic enhancements such as new décor and interior paint add a fresh touch. The store, which originally opened back in 1960, was substantially rebuilt in 2007, at a cost of $20 million.
The company has also rolled out similar renovations in its Monroe and Norwich, Conn., supermarkets. Both will hold their reopening events on May 4.
One of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in New England, Big Y operates 77 locations throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut – 71 supermarkets, 39 pharmacies, Fresh Acres Market, Table & Vine Fine Wines and Liquors, and five Big Y Express gas and convenience locations – throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts, with more than 11,000 employees.