Fruit Fair
Established in 1936, Fruit Fair is the oldest grocery store serving both Chicopee and Springfield. Owners Samita and Jared Newell bought the grocery store in September 2019. Samita’s experience with grocery store management at Price Market and Aldie helped prepare her for this successful transition. According to Julie Copoulus, Executive Director of the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, the owners of Fruit Fair are very community oriented and dedicated to helping their community. For example, Samita and Jared were the first to sign up for the Chicopee Center Food Force focused on addressing food insecurity issues. Fruit Fair’s produce department has increased by more than five times its original size. The Newells have updated signage, painted and installed new flooring making this an inviting shopping experience for all. New energy efficient refrigeration and shelving has allowed them to stock more products and save money at the same time. As a result of their hard work, sales have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fruit Fair created a curated “golden box program” that includes seasonal fruits, vegetables, and meat at affordable prices and are SNAP eligible. The store offers both delivery and pickup for the boxes and hopes to continue providing reasonably priced products that an individual can purchase without going over their SNAP benefits. They are selling 10 to 12 boxes per day.
Fruit Fair is located in a designated Transformative Development Initiative (TDI) area which means that it is an economically depressed and food insecure area. Out of 351 towns and cities in Massachusetts by income by capita, Chicopee is 329th and Springfield is 350th. Fruit Fair, est 1936, is the oldest grocery store serving both Chicopee and Springfield. The grocery store is located in a food apartheid with Fruit Fair being the only full-line grocery store in this area. 16% of Chicopee residents and 29% Springfield residents live under the poverty line. 90% of Fruit Fair customers walk to the store.
Fast Facts:
The oldest grocery store serving both Chicopee and Springfield.
600 customers served each day.
All twenty employees reside in the local community.
Employees earn $15/hour.
In order to make food more accessible to all clients, Fruit Fair also started delivering groceries for customers within a 9-mile radius and are giving customers rides home with a $40 purchase.