Market Basket Could Be Next In Connecticut’s Grocery Evolution

Good for you Norwalk and Fairfield County, you have the first and only Wegmans in all of Connecticut. We are once again in the middle of a New York/Boston grocery store battlefield, with New York-based Wegmans dipping its beak into the well of Stop & Shop and Big Y of Massachusetts' majority of wealthy little Connecticut shoppers.

With Wegmans Connecticut Has Almost Every Major Grocery Retailer, Except..

There are over 80 Stop & Shop and 47 Big Y locations in Connecticut, with Whole Foods, Aldi, Trader Joe's, and Walmart among the major players, and Caraluzzi's, Stew Leonard's, Highland Park, LaBonne's, and Key Foods in the mix too. Who are we missing? Especially in Eastern Connecticut? Market Basket and Hannaford.

We'll never see a Hannaford in Connecticut, Hannaford and Stop & Shop are owned by the same global parent company. Danbury is close to a Hannaford, there's one on Rt. 22 in Pawling, NY, and many locations through the Hudson Valley through New England. That leaves Market Basket.

Market Basket is a chain of 95 grocery stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine, and within the last 10 years were the national runner up to Wegmans in Consumer Reports supermarket rankings. Wegmans has fired the opening shot and staked their claim in Norwalk as of July 2025. Will 2026 be the year that Market Basket dips their beak into New London County? Tolland County? Dare I say Buckland Hills or Evergreen Walk in South WIndsor or Manchester? Middletown?

The dividing line of Yankee/Giants/Rangers vs Red Sox/Patriots/Bruins fan base is usually I-91 or Rt. 8 in Connecticut. Eastern Connecticut is so ready for a Market Basket.