A Bunch of Big Y Grocery Stores Are Moving Closer to Boston

Big Y Grocery Store by Mike Mozart on Flickr/Creative Commons

A Western Mass supermarket chain wants shoppers further east to come home to their grocery stores. Big Y has just announced it’s taking over eight Hannaford locations in the eastern part of the state, moving closer than ever to Boston.

The 80-year-old Springfield-based company said in a news release it will convert grocery stores in Kingston, North Quincy, Norwell, Milford, Norwood, West Peabody, Saugus, and Easton. Each location will have to close “for a few days” to make the switch once the sales are final, and will probably open sometime in September, according to the announcement.

The homegrown chain plans to “hire as many current Hannaford employees as possible,” according to the release.

Big Y, like the unrelated but similarly named Big E, is a Springfield institution, and it hasn’t really broken into this part of the state yet. Its TV commercials, it should be noted, are delightful.

Once the new supermarkets open, it will have 79 store locations in Massachusetts and Connecticut. It also runs a chain of pharmacies, wine outlets and gas station convenience stores. The Big Y’s closest to Boston right now are in Franklin, Walpole, and the Worcester area.

The stores being taken over went up for sale as the European parent companies for Stop & Shop and Hannaford are in the midst of a $60.6 billion merger.

Hannaford is a much larger operation than Big Y. It spans five states and is run by a subsidiary of a company called Delhaize Group, which is based in Brussels and, according to its website, has “more than 3,400 stores in eleven countries on three continents.”