The fifth Connecticut Market 32 location is opening its doors this week.
Market 32 will officially unveil its new 43,078-square-foot location at 3333 Berlin Turnpike, Newington at Meadow Commons shopping center at 6 a.m. Friday during a grand opening ceremony.
The Newington opening will coincide with the permanent closure of Price Chopper at 2985 Berlin Turnpike, which will close for good at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Market 32 and Price Chopper President Blaine Bringhurst said Sunday that the new Market 32 location will have more visibility on the highly traveled Berlin Turnpike. He said it’s about a mile and a half from the previous location, which was more hidden from main traffic routes.
The Golub Corporation operates supermarkets under the Price Chopper and Market 32 banners. The company is based in Schenectady, New York. and operates 128 supermarkets and has more than 15,500 in its workforce in Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Market 32 is the latest business to be added to Meadow Commons. The supermarket will have its grand opening on Friday.
Connecticut has nine Market 32/Price Chopper locations. After Friday, Market 32 locations will be in Bristol, Middletown, Newington, Oxford and Torrington. Price Chopper locations are open in Putnam, Southington, Storrs and Windsor. All Price Chopper’s will eventually be rebranded to Market 32 locations.
Bringhurst said the new Newington location will offer the same amenities of the other Market 32 locations in the state. The store will feature ready-to-eat prepared meals, fresh sushi made in store daily, hot food bars, olive bars as well as expanded offerings of cheese and artisan breads.
The Newington Market 32 will offer catering as well as a floral department. Other offerings include an area to sit and eat in the store with charging ports.
“It will be a state-of-the-art facility that’ll suit customers, no matter how they want to shop,” Bringhurst said. “Whether they want to come in. Get their stuff and prepare their food. Or if they want to come in and enjoy a quick meal or want to order from our full-service catering department as the main meal for an occasion. We also have floral arrangements for that occasion as well as the cake.”
Bringhurst said the change from a Price Chopper to a Market 32 makes the store a “more contemporary experience” with a focus on open sight lines.
“We continue to look for potential opportunities to grow and expand in Connecticut because our other Market 32s in Connecticut have been fantastic for us,” Bringhurst said. “Torrington, Bristol, Middletown and Oxford have been received very well by the local communities in those Connecticut towns and cities that we’ve opened up in.”
According to the developer’s website, Grossman Development Group LLC, Meadow Commons is just over 24 acres and has 269 luxury apartments as well as “more than 35,000 square feet of lifestyle retail, dining and amenity tenants.”
The newest Market 32 to open in Connecticut is the 43,078-square-foot Newington location. The grand opening is Friday.
The mixed-use development is on land previously occupied by Eversource Energy.
In addition to Market 32, Meadow Commons tenants include Shake Shack, Cava, P.J.’s Coffee and Sally’s Apizza and more.
Bringhurst said Market 32 takes the responsibility of being one of the anchors of Meadow Commons “very seriously.”
“We will make sure that we are running a great store with great prices and great offerings and keep it exciting. The location of this store is just a high traffic area, easy to get in and out of. The other tenants that are, or will be, in this shopping center with us will help share the burden of driving customers to that parking lot and into each other’s store. We’re really excited to be a part of this development,” Bringhurst said.
The Newington Market 32 opening has been in the works for more than two years. Bringhurst said the building was constructed by Amazon with the expectation of an Amazon Fresh moving in.
“Plans changed leaving it vacant and the plaza developer came to us,” Bringhurst said. “We took a hard look at it and ran our economics as far as traffic, co-tenants and decided it would be a really good fit.”
Bringhurst said the building was already in place and Market 32 was confined to the size and shape of the building. The new location is roughly half the size of the closing Newington Price Chopper. It will also be the smallest Connecticut Market 32 location. Bringhurst said Market 32 average store sizes are in the 65,000- to 70,000-square-foot range.
“Because we were able to design it the way we want it. It also has a lot less wasted space. It’ll be more efficient. It’ll be more intuitive from an adjacency perspective for the customer and the customer flow. Although it is a smaller store, we will have a tremendous offering for our customer base in this store,” Bringhurst said.
Bringhurst said Friday’s grand opening will begin with Newington store manager Mike Pauley singing the national anthem. The Newington Fire Department Company No. 2 will be displaying the American flag from its ladder truck.
“We raise a flag and sing the national anthem at every grand opening. We are a USA-based company,” Bringhurst said. “Customers can expect to find some great new exciting offerings with some really tremendous values in a store that I think will be very aesthetically pleasing and very intuitively laid out. It will be an easy shop. Things will make sense where they are. They will flow from the right department to the next department.”
Bringhurst said the company is focused on being a great community partner under its Market 32 Cares platform. He said the three pillars of that program are helping the customer eat healthfully and making the right choices in their lifestyle; eradicating hunger as well as supporting childhood education and athletics.
“The folks of this community can look for us to be giving back in these areas,” Bringhurst said.
The grand opening was initially planned for July 12 but was rescheduled to July 17 to “complete final preparations.”
Customers who received grand opening coupons in the mail could redeem the Week 1, $8 off an $80 purchase coupon at Price Chopper at 2985 Berlin Turnpike until the store closure and also at the 3333 Berlin Turnpike Market 32 location on July 17 and 18.