Big Y, Waterford, CT

Big Y, Waterford, CT

  January 17, 2018    Robby S.

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©LoopNet

BIG Y
128 BOSTON POST ROAD
WATERFORD, CONN
OPENED AUGUST 8 2002
CLOSED: MAY 2009

For those of you living in the Connecticut-Massachusetts area, you are most likely very familiar with the Big Y supermarket chain, but for those of you who are not aware of the chain, let me give you a quick run-down:



Big Y is a New-England based chain of 'World Class' supermarkets known for their decorative and upscale products and interior design. One such store was located in my hometown of Waterford, Connecticut

This particular Big Y location opened replacing the Shaw's Supermarket in 2002. Shaws was only open for a year or two, opening sometime in 2000. Big Y was open for about 8 and a half years before finally shutting its doors in May 2009. This location was clearly meant to last for much longer as Big Y acquired a lease in 2001 for the property until 2022. What most likely happened is the competition with the Super Stop & Shop (Also known as Giant in other regions) was too tough for the upscale retailer and it was more practical for them to lease the estate to another franchise. Today, half of the property is occupied by Ocean State Job Lot (A popular New England liquidator) with the other half remaining vacant since Big Y abandoning their store. While researching for my article, I heard from the VP of Corporate Communications for Big Y that the reason the store closed, much like the Shaw's Supermarket before it, was a lack of easy accessibility (so there you have it mystery debunked!).

The property while Big Y still occupied the store ©LoopNet

Information on this particular location is pretty scarce due to its short life having lasted only a mere 7 years. I did, however, find this screenshot of the Waterford store's information page using Archive.org's Wayback Machine:

© Archive.org   © Big Y Foods | Screen capture circa. 2002

Out of curiosity I revisited the currently Ocean State Job Lot to uncover any remnants of the former Big Y

Right off the bat I was able to find an old map of the sprinkler system still on the front of the building. All of the labels remained from the Big Y era, highlighting features such as the refrigeration coolers and the kids club Little Y (which I have fond memories of)



What I found most interesting about this sprinkler map was that it also showed the upstairs of the building, which I actually was unaware of until finding it on the map.
I put this map together based off of the sprinkler map and what I remember about the store to show where exactly each department was within Big Y



The exterior of the building on the vacant side was in alright condition. I can't ever recall seeing people taking care of the vacant side of the building but everything was in very good shape considering there has been minimal upkeep on it since the store's closure in 2009. Of course it could use a good power-washing, though.

A view of the occupied half of the building

The vacant part of the building hiding behind some greenery. This was the produce department entrance

A full shot of the vacant half of the building

The vacant side of the store at night.

The front side of the store

The middle exit vestibule, now closed off for public use

It's common on Big Y stores for each department to have a small sign on the outside of the store (much like Stop and Shop does on their newer stores). When the signs were removed upon Big Y's closing, little marks were left behind, which can still be found if you look really closely today:

See those little dots in the semi-regular pattern? It's leftover from the sign that said "Hearth Baked Pizza"

When approaching the doors on the vacant side of the building, there were a few shopping carts that accumulated from the aforementioned Stop & Shop across the road (which is US Route 1 by the way).

Some views from inside the former Big Y's once grand entrance:

A close-up of the entryway

Inside the produce entry arch

Luckily for me, no one went through the hassle of covering up the windows, so I was able to get a fantastic view of the abandoned inside.

You can see the old deli way in the back where the opening is in the wall

That door on the right lead to the produce section restrooms.

The lights on the left are for the occupied side of the store, which is now Ocean State Job Lot

These shots were taken in what would have been the former "Y Cafe", a small eating area for the fresh food that Big Y often served in their Produce department at their full service bakery and pizzeria. The glassed-in area on the left was the produce section entrance vestibule, and the wall in the back is what would have been the pizzeria with the pharmacy on the rear side of the wall.

A typical Y Cafe. This is the one found in Groton, Conn.

The Waterford store in particular had a smaller produce section than other stores due to its small(er) footprint. You could normally expect stores to have produce sections about 1-and-a-half to 2 times bigger. 

The wall in the back was the pizzeria, which served, you guessed it, pizza, alongside ICEEs and other Grab-and-Go meals such as Rotisserie Chickens.
To the left of the pizzeria was what used to be the pharmacy. Nothing too special.

What I did have a hard time taking a picture of, however, was what used to be the bakery department. This was directly next to the Y Cafe on the right when looking at it form the outside. The seafood and deli departments were in the back of the store... better pictures of those later on.

I was also able to take some pictures of the produce section vestibule (The area where the doors to enter are). They're nothing super crazy but it was odd to see how the store still had their hours posted in the window 9 years after they closed.

UPDATE: In the weeks following my photo shoot here, this CLOSED sign was removed (or maybe it just fell down)

Accompanying the vestibule were a few hastily made signs saying that the store was closed (duh) and that all prescriptions for the Big Y pharmacy were moved to the neighboring CVS/pharmacy (which was built sometime in 2006... I'll cover that one one day).

The most direct relic of Big Y was the sign that once hung in the window of the Bottle Return room. It read The Big Y Bottle Room is Closed Permanently. The room was mostly empty with the exception of the small pile of garbage that remained in the corner. Due to the angle of where it was at, I couldn't get a great view, but I was able to identify a 2L bottle of ShopRite Lemon-Lime Soda, various A&W bottles, an (old style) case of Pepsi, and the box for some Natural Light.

Some trash leftover in the bottle room. Take a close look and you can see how dated some of the packaging is.

Inside the abandoned bottle room. You can see the outline of where the old bottle machines used to be

A sign on the bottle room floor saying that Big Y was now closed.

That about sums it up for the front side of the building.
I walked around and was disappointed to see that Big Y did a good job of hiding any markings or remnants they may have left behind. The most interesting thing was the big refrigerator entrance that still remains the back of the store.

The right side of the building

The rear right side of the building

A view of the back of the store: currently used for Ocean State Job Lot recieving

This was the produce receiving for Big Y

OSJL Receiving

Storage room exit for OSJL

Freezer Entrance

A view from the left side of the store facing US 1. That is ALDI in the background (a story for another day)

A lot of nothing in the back left of the property

This strange field was behind the store

A view of the left side of the store

Left side of the store. This ramp leads from the Ocean State Job Lot emergency exit pictured later

Store offices

A missing brick

OFFICE PLANT!

NOW LET'S TAKE A LOOK ON THE INSIDE OF THE BUILDING

After examining the outside of the store, I went into the Ocean State Job Lot side of the store to take a closer look at what remains inside, and it's a lot more than whats on the outside.



The floors retained their original criss-cross pattern of the Big Y. As a kid I remember always trying to jump from one blue square to another (which I still do from time to time whenever shopping in a Big Y store that has this style tile). Lots of Big Y stores today, such as the one in nearby Groton, Conn., still retain this iconic tiling.

The walls of the store also retain that polished wooden motif that was present in the pictures of the vacant half of the store.

Here's the emergency exit that leads to the exit ramp on the left side of the store

The emergency exit on the left wall of the store. This leads out to the metal ramp on the left side of the building (pictured earlier).

The pictures below were taken where the frozen food section would have been (on the leftmost side of the store). You can tell where the freezers one were as the tiles on the floor were replaced when OSJL moved in and no one bothered to complete the criss-cross pattern of tan and teal tiles. Note how the tile patterns abruptly stop at random places. This outlines where the freezers would have been

On the rear of the store, the tiles are white where the refrigeration coolers once were. I believe that these pictures were taken in what used to be the alcohol section of the store.

Over here the tiles were completely replaced when OSJL moved in.

Other remnants in the still-operational Ocean State Job Lot include the "Little Y" booth which is still present. In their stores, Big Y operated a series of child care centers for parents to drop off their children while they shopped. I remember playing a fair share of Crash Team Racing on the computers that probably ran Windows 95 or something old like that...

What a typical Little Y location would look like © The 413 Mom

The Waterford Little Y turned into Ocean State Job Lot's customer service desk

The customer service desk at Ocean State Job Lot... Look familiar?

SO I KNOW YOU'RE ASKING WHAT'S ON THE EMPTY SIDE OF THE STORE?

Well, wonder no more! When OSJL moved in, a temporary wall was built only half way to the ceiling, leaving this huge gap to peep over. It's my understanding that Big Y still owns the other side of the store as the map in the back of the store has the right side of the building labeled 'BIG Y'

It very clearly says Big Y on the map... Understandable since OSJL leases the property from Big Y

Back to the wall... This first set of pictures is from my first visit to the store. There's a small access door with a window I took some pictures through. There was quite a bit of glare, so the pictures didn't come out the best. I put a little bit of description with each of these photos.

This first image is kind of dark, but it shows the area where all the shelving etc. has accumulated. I may be incorrect on this one, but I think this is the excess shelving leftover from the Big Y that the company had nothing to do with. It may have just gotten left behind.

This picture is much clearer than the last. You can see how at the bottom there is the remnant of what once was a shelving unit. In the back is what used to be the deli and the butcher shop.

Totally unrelated but interesting nonetheless: when Big Y opened their Waterford store in 2002, their deli had an electronic ordering kiosk, which was extremely innovative for 2002!

This picture shows more of that tiling pattern on the floor and the scars left behind on the floor. The wall on the other side is actually the reverse side of the pizzeria where the health and baby foods were. You can see a bit of the old pharmacy to the right.

Something else that's interesting about this picture is that the watermelon box (yes that's really what it is) I think is from the Big Y era. Ocean State Job Lot has never sold watermelons (to the best of my knowledge) and I think that's leftover from Big Y.

Lastly, take a look at the ceiling. See how the lights are actually flat with the ceiling tiles? This is different than the half of the store on Ocean State Job Lot's side. I believe that when OSJL moved in, they needed to rewire the lights so that way OSJL would only power the lights on their half of the building. The original Big Y lights looked WAY better in my opinion as opposed to the basic tube lighting on the OSJL side.

This photo is much the same. You can see more of the pharmacy and former sales floor, and all the way to the right is the Y Cafe area we took a look at earlier. Next to the vestibule on the other side from the Y Cafe would have been the florist and Customer Service desk, which you can see in the next set of pictures.

ONTO THE NEXT SET!

So I took these pictures about a month-and-a-half later when I returned with a selfie-stick to hoist my camera over the wall... What I found was interesting because a) I got much better pictures and was able to see lots more and b) some of the stuff moved! That's right! Someone was over there moving stuff around between photo shoots! What that means... I don't know, but it's interesting to see that there's still some action on the vacant part of the store.



Just to save some explaining, I labeled this picture to highlight some of what's left.



Also, take a look at where the watermelon box is (way to the left) and compare it to the picture I posted before of it... Those shelves in front weren't there the first time! Someone's moved them! Again... I'm not sure what it means, but interesting nonetheless.



Here's a photo aimed more directly in the back of the store. The area on the left closest to us is where the butcher used to be. You can also see the scarring left on the wall from when Big Y removed the big sign for the butcher department (that brown strip above the opening). Further back in that second opening is where the Deli used to be. Refrigerator units used to be lined up against that far wall by the deli and held the perishable produce goods.

As a little bonus, I'd like to add some information about a conversation I had with Johnathan Wilson, who is the Internal Communications Specialist and self proclaimed 'Big Y historian' for Big Y foods. He was able to supply me with this picture of the store on its opening day, August 8, 2002

Waterford Big Y upon opening, 8/8/2002  ©Big Y Foods

Well, that about sums up this post on the Waterford Big Y store. Stay tuned for more awesome posts from BrandHistoryUSA!

Until next time,