Bermuda's Largest Supermarket: From Piggly Wiggly to The Market Place
Welcome back to Retail Forever, and wow, it sure has been a while, hasn't it? While on vacation in Bermuda a few weeks ago, I managed to learn a bit about the Bermudian retail landscape (which, no surprise, is pretty much the same as here in the United States). Today, I'll be walking y'all through the history of The MarketPlace, taking you on a tour through two of their stores, and talking about other Bermudian stores they own, including the last Sears Hometown on earth! Let's start by exploring their history.
History of The MarketPlace
As you could probably guess from the title, The MarketPlace started out as Piggly Wiggly. The Crisson family opened the first store in 1939, and called it Piggly Wiggly Limited. In 1946 and 1950 respectively, the company was purchased by the Pimental family and Fernance Perry. By March 1979, Piggly Wiggly Limited had four stores, and was purchased by Alvin Ferreira, who owned the existing Modern Mart. It was in 1981 that the company was renamed to The MarketPlace Limited, and all five stores were rebranded accordingly. In 1987, The Market Place acquired the two A-1 stores. Unfortunately, in August 1993, Alvin Ferreira passed away, and his wife Pamela took over operations. In 1994, the Shopping Centre grocery in Hamilton was acquired, marking the company's final acquisition.
Store Tours
While in Bermuda, I was able to visit two of The Marketplace’s stores, the store at 48 Somerset Road in Sandys and The Shopping Centre at 35 Victoria Street in Hamilton. Let's start with the Sandys (also referred to as Somerset) store.
Somerset
The second MarketPlace store to open, the chain's Somerset store opened in 1964 as part of what was then called the Piggly Wiggly Plaza
Upon entering, you're greeted by a small selection of beach items to the left. Continuing into the store, you'll find the decently-sized produce department straight ahead.
View of the produce department from the entrance area. Dairy and bread is straight back this side wall, and frozen foods are along the back wall.
The packaged food and general merchandise span five aisles, each split into two parts.
International foods and baby products. You can see part of the frozen foods department along the back wall.
Paper products and canned goods. In the back of the photo, you can see the checkout lights at the front of the store. Beyond the checkouts, there’s a small alcohol section.
The last aisle in the store, with snack foods and meat. Behind this, (as in behind me, when I was taking this picture), there’s a small deli.
Looking down the center aisle that separates the two parts of each aisle. At the far end, you can see a bit more of the meat department.
The beverage aisle.
Another view of the split-up aisles, as well as the pet food aisle.
The MarketPlace also sells ShopRite’s brands of products (although at a huge markup of course). More on that later on.
Here’s my receipt, and The Marketplace’s sales flier for the week of my visit.
That’s all I have for the Somerset MarketPlace, now let’s take a look at the Shopping Centre location.
Shopping Centre
As I mentioned in the history portion above, the Shopping Centre supermarket was acquired by The Marketplace in June 1994.
The Shopping Centre’s logo before being acquired by The MarketPlace
The produce department at Shopping Centre. Upon walking into the store, the checkouts are immediately on your right, then following that is the produce, which takes up a decent portion of the store.
Aisle one contains snacks, dairy, and frozen foods.
This aisle contains mostly just things used for baking.
Here’s my receipt from the Shopping Centre, as well as their shopping bags. A bit of a minor detail, but on the receipts at the store, it’s “shopping center”, while on advertising and the website, it’s “shopping centre”. I know it’s a small thing, I just find it interesting.
Affiliation with ShopRite + Sears Bermuda
Affiliation with ShopRite
As I mentioned above during the Somerset tour, The Marketplace sells ShopRite brand products. This isn’t really as complex as it may seem. The Marketplace is simply supplied by ShopRite’s owner, Wakefern.
I found this to be a bit funny, if anything - found on The Marketplace’s website, this banner says that Bowl & Basket products are available exclusively at The Marketplace - even though it says A SHOPRITE BRAND right above it. Another thing- it’s easier to see on this version of the image, but every product except the canola oil is blurry. Turns out they just took this image, and slapped the oil right over the milk! You can even still see a bit of the milk if you look closely enough. Alright, that’s enough for that. Now onto Price Rite Bermuda!
PriceRite Bermuda
In 2007, Wakefern-owned Price Rite opened its first international location, in Pembroke, Bermuda. But this store wasn’t actually owned by Wakefern, but by The Marketplace under a franchise agreement with Wakefern. On January 20, 2016, a second Price Rite was opened in Warwick. Unlike the American Price Rite stores, which are similar to Aldi or Save-A-Lot, the Bermudian stores are more like warehouse clubs, selling bulk-size products. The stores sell BJ’s Berkley Jensen brand products, Costco’s Kirkland Signature, their own Price Rite branded items, and of course many large American brands, like Bounty and Tide.
One more quick thing I wanted to add before we move on - is it just me or does this PriceRite “shop smart” logo seem awfully similar to Family Dollar’s “smart coupons” logo?
Dollar Depot
Dollar Depot is basically Bermuda’s version of Dollar General and owned by The Marketplace. They operate four Dollar Depot stores, near the Marketplace locations in Heron Bay, Shelly Bay, Shopping Centre, and Somerset. I visited the Somerset location, and it wasn’t really anything special. That’s why I don’t have any photos.
Sears Bermuda
Now it’s time for the part you were probably waiting for: the LAST Sears Hometown Store on earth! The store opened in early March 2012, and is coincidentally owned by none other than The Marketplace.
Despite opening in 2012, the Hamilton Sears Hometown sports the Sears logo used between 1994 and 2004. Additionally, their website and advertising uses the ‘swoosh’ Sears logo used from 2004 to 2010.
Upon entering the store, you’re greeted by the customer service and checkouts in the front of the store. Hardware and tools are on your right, and directly behind the checkouts are the appliances.
The appliance department. Note the 2004-2010 Sears logo used on the signs.
Gardening department, in the front right corner of the store, next to the entrance.
The tools department, located directly behind the gardening supplies.
Looking towards the front of the store from the appliances department.
Behind the appliances, there’s another room which includes camping and outdoors supplies, home electronics (eg. coffee makers and vacuums), and some other miscellaneous tools and other items.
Camping supplies and some of the vacuum cleaners.
The aisle dedicated to home electronics.
And here’s just some more outdoor products, which I assume is overflow from the front.
View of the store from the parking lot, which it shares with the Shopping Centre supermarket.
And to end the tour, here’s my receipt, as well as their ad for the week. Also I think I overpaid for the tape 😆.
MarketPlace List of Locations
Hamilton Marketplace
Address: 42 Church Street, Hamilton, Bermuda HM 12
Open Date: 1961
Other Information: Originally located at the corner of Parliament & Reid streets, then Parliament & Church streets, relocated to its current location in 1961. It’s home to The MarketPlace’s headquarters, and is the largest supermarket in Bermuda.
Photo by Google Maps contributors
Photo by Google Maps contributors
Somerset Marketplace
Address: 48 Somerset Road, Sandys, Bermuda MA 03
Open Date: 1964
See above for more!
Shelly Bay Marketplace
Address: 110 North Shore Road, Hamilton Parish, Bermuda CR 04
Open Date: 1965
Other Information: Fell victim to an arsonist and was burned to the ground in 1977, but was rebuilt by 1978.
Photo by Google Maps contributors
Photo by Google Maps contributors
Heron Bay Marketplace
Address: 227 Middle Road, Southampton, Bermuda SN 04
Open Date: 1974
Photo by Google Maps contributors
A1 Paget
Address: 1 Valley Road, Paget, Bermuda PG 02
Open Date: September 1978
Other Information: Acquired by The Marketplace along with A1 Smiths.
Photo by Google Maps contributors
A1 Smiths
Address: 10 South Road, Smiths, Bermuda FL 05
Open Date: September 1978
Other Information: Acquired by The Marketplace along with A1 Smiths.
Modern Mart
Address: 104 South Road, Paget, Bermuda PG 04
Open Date: March 1979
Other Information: Previously owned by Alvin Ferraira, who purchased The MarketPlace in 1979, and Modern Mart was absorbed.
Shopping Centre
Address: 35 Victoria Street, Hamilton, Bermuda HM 12
Open Date: June 1994
Other Information: Acquired by The Marketplace in 1994.
See above for more!
Thanks so much for reading, see you next time!
-RF
Very interesting stuff here, great coverage!
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