The Elm City Market in the big new building at 360 State Street has received more fanfare even than Stop & Shop’s recent takeover of the vacated Shaw’s supermarket in Dwight Plaza on Whalley. Since well before it was a sure thing, ECM had style and attitude and confidence. Now that you can look through the windows and see what’s in store when the store finally opens. Organizational and financial issues have delayed the project, but it clearly hasn’t lost its focus. As planned, it will be a “community owned food co-op” with paid memberships and an involved, aware clientele who are invited to serve on the market’s various committees.
The store is living up to its hype as a mecca for progressive, earth- and health-conscious yuppies. Signs in the aisles point out where you can find soy milks, energy bars and bottled teas. Another sign, touting “Beer and Wine,” has been a point of consternation for some. But one suspects that the Night Train guzzlers won’t be comfortable in these environs and will continue to imbibe elsewhere.
The new Stop & Shop on Whalley will likely be unaffected by Elm City Market, all the way on the other side of downtown, just as Whalley’s own health-foods supermarket, Edge of the Woods seemed unchanged when they was a Shaw’s just down the street, and equally unchanged when there wasn’t a Shaw’s down the street. Some markets are simply good identifying their market base. Elm City Market’s base is the ground floor of 360 State.