History 1996 - Big Y® World Class Market™

In 1996, its 60th anniversary year, Big Y acquired five former Edwards supermarkets in the towns of Avon, East Hartford, Guilford and New Milford, Connecticut and Chicopee, Massachusetts. In that same year, the first Little Y Kids Club, an in-store supervised play area for children, opened in the Manchester, Connecticut World Class Market. This was the first of its kind in Connecticut and only the second in New England.

Big Y went live on the World Wide Web with the release of bigy.com in 1998. And, after more than a year of demolition and construction, the Corporate Headquarters moved into its new 133,000 square-foot home on Roosevelt Avenue in Springfield and became the Store Support Center. This move brought together all store support functions at one location – administrative, distribution, and facilities management. Also in 1998, Big Y Wines & Liquors was transformed into Table & Vine, a 14,000 square-foot gourmet food, fine wine and liquor store in Northampton, Massachusetts. This store boasts the largest temperature-controlled wine cellar on the East Coast of the United States.

In January 1999, the second round of Education Express ended, awarding an additional $2.5 million in much-needed educational equipment to the more than 1,800 participating schools. A total of $7 million worth of equipment has been awarded since the inception of the Education Express Program. The third and most recent round ended in May 2002, awarding more than $3 million in equipment to local schools.

The new millennium brought more advances in technology. A new interactive computerized register system with a touch screen was installed in two stores, with plans to roll out to the entire chain by fall 2001. This new system displayed the customers’ purchases on a screen as they were being rung up, showed a running total of purchases and savings, and grouped purchases on the printed receipt by category. This innovative system made the check-out process more efficient, while allowing the customer to learn more about Big Y by choosing options on the touch screen.

In its 20th year, the Big Y Scholarship program awarded almost $150,000 in scholarships to 200 deserving students. Since its inception, the program has awarded nearly $1 Million dollars in scholarships to over 2,000 applicants

In 2001, Big Y opened its first in-store pharmacy, The Y Pharmacy, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Staffed by experienced pharmacists, Y Pharmacies offer shoppers the convenience of filling their prescriptions while they do their shopping. Y Pharmacies will be opened in every feasible Big Y location.

In July 2002, Big Y acquired the assets of Town & Country Liquors in West Springfield, Massachusetts. A division of Table & Vine, Town & Country will enable Big Y to reach an even larger and broader market.

In March 2003, Big Y acquired four former A&P Super FoodMart stores in the towns of South Hadley, Springfield and Westfield, Massachusetts and Enfield, Connecticut. The Massachusetts stores were renovated and re-opened as Big Y World Class Markets. The Enfield, Connecticut location was closed following a market analysis and review. These acquisitions allowed Big Y to replace two of their smaller, out-dated and non-expandable markets, located in 16 Acres in Springfield and on Rt. 20 in West Springfield, with newer, larger and more modern facilities with all of the amenities of a typical Big Y World Class Market, as well as add 3 in-store pharmacies to the chain.

This year marks Big Y’s 68th Anniversary. With the September 2003 opening of their Walpole World Class Market – their first in the Boston metropolitan area – the total store count including the liquor division of Table & Vine and Town & Country is now 51. Of these locations, 37 are World Class Markets. Big Y currently operates 16 in-store Y Pharmacies and 10 Little Y Kids Clubs. One of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in New England, Big Y presently employs over 8,500 people.