Westfarms Takes A Fresh Approach With Grocery Store Addition

Did you ever think you would see the day where a grocery store was one of the anchors of your local mall? It's happening everywhere, and there's another one on the way in Connecticut.

Westfarms Mall, one of the best malls that we have in Connecticut, is located in West Hartford, and according to nbcconnecticut.com they've just announced plans for a brand new Big Y World-Class Market on their property with a projected opening date of January 2027. According to the article, the new Big Y store will not be 'In' the mall, but in a 55,000 square foot parcel of land on the Southern side of the mall's property. Westfarms has a huge empty parking area along New Britain Avenue, that's where the new store will be built.

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Right now Westfarms has Nordstrom's, Jordan's Furniture, Macy's, and JC Penney as their anchors, the JC Penney inside Waterbury's Brass Mill Center has been holding on for dear life. I thought that Danbury Fair made an incredibly smart move by bringing Target in, but nearly every mall in Connecticut also has a Dick's Sporting Goods in or on their property.

The newest shopping center in Connecticut - Norwalk's SoNo Collection, has Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom as their anchors, while the nearby Stamford Town Center still has a Macy's.

The shift in retail from traditional department stores as anchors for our local malls still happens at most of our 13 major malls in Connecticut, but kudos to Danbury Fair and Westfarms for bringing in the unexpected to keep up with what we want.