Supermarket history question
 

I read today that the building that houses Hunter’s market was built about 50 years ago. I can remember it as the only supermarket around. Where did people do their grocery shopping before that market came into being?

My parents always brought tons of food when we came up for our requisite two weeks in July. I had assumed anything they needed came from Hunters. Apparently not. It was a staple of my childhood and I am terribly saddened by its loss.

Anyone know?



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Where Dive Winnipesaukee is now was once a First National. The A&P was also downtown and there were multiple little markets. First National moved to where Harvest Market is now. Stinchfield's was across from Brewster field. So there were three decent sized markets back in the day.

Harvest was DeVylders from mid-1990s to 2008
 

I think but am not sure that Dennis DeVylder opened the farm stand mini-market and nursery on Pleasant Valley Road when he sold the supermarket on Center Street in or around 2008.

Stinchfield's...
 

...and three hardware stores within a stone's throw of each other. (Back in the day when even part time residents knew how to fix things!)

We shopped at Stinchfield's which I recall replaced Benjamin Franklin's 5 & 10. (Later, Stinchfield's became a "package store" around 1959).

Stinchfield's grocery was there first and the family replaced it with the 5&10.

First National


https://www.winnipesaukee.com/photop...lwolfeboro.jpg

I remember when we'd go to Alton Bay for a week in August we.'d usually bring food. Then sometime in the early 70's I think a McGrath's Market opened
up out on Rt 11. This in addition to the smaller store they had right in Alton Bay at the docks. Not sure if they're still there.

McGrath's Market
 

McGrath's was the biggest market in the area when we first started spending vacations in Alton Bay in 1959. They had a great meat and produce selection. I remember pushing the shopping carts on the bumpy wooden floors. The right side of the building had a gift shop and clothing store. It burned down around 1970 and Irwin Marine now occupies that spot. McGraths built a smaller market in Alton where Bun and Bowls is located. Once Hannaford came to town, McGraths became a 5 & 10.

The original McGrath's that GH mentioned above

Do you have a picture of it when it was downtown?

My memory may be fuzzy but I am pretty sure Market Basket was across from Brewster field in the 60's. The state liquor store was across from the Basket store near the Wolfeboro Falls Post Office. There was also a Minnetonka Moccasin store next to that PO.

You're memory isn't too fuzzy.

No..... but I just saw this on FB. Thought you'd enjoy seeing it.

Yes, I have been following that too. Thanks for posting here though.

I only remember McGrath’s as an amazing gift shop, but the explosion took place when I was ten or so. My dad grew up with Peter McGrath. It was a gas explosion. The new building was not where the old one was, but next door. The wooded lot between Irwin Marine and Busy Corner was where the store was. Funny how the new place failed so quickly. The old place was great. The new supermarket in the village was, well, a little dicey. The 5&10 that came after was fabulous. Sorry it closed.


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My parents always brought everything they needed in the 69’s and early 70’s. We bought essentials like milk and bread at the East Alton General Store up on Route 28A near the intersection with route 28. The store at the docks was a soda shop, Victoria’s Pier. It is now Shibley’s. The McGrath’s in the village opened after the one in the bay closed sometime after 1976.


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From a Car Guy, JFWIW...
 

Those cars are from the 1940s and 1950s, but no newer than 1958.

No Interstates from Rhode Island back then, and a long drive in a 1954 Ford to attend Camp Wyanoke. :look: Any earlier, and I could have walked from Melvin Village to Camp Wyanoke. (Except for the year it took two days for a DC-4 airliner "direct" trip from Hawaii...!) :eek:

January 1971 ???
 

I was looking at some of my father's old 35mm slides this morning and came across this one. Blow the pic up and note the A&P sign where Hunter's is today.

I struck up a conversation with Jerry Hunter and wife Sue while having dinner at Nolan's earlier this summer and we reminisced a little about how he and brother Charlie bought the business in the late 1970's. My oldest daughter worked at Hunters IGA as a summer checkout cashier in late 80's / early 90's.

Ha Ha, just noticed the Christmas trees lining the sidewalks so I modified the Title. Only remnants of snow & ice. Only 38.9 for Good Gulf Gas. Yum Yum Shop was then on the opposite side of Main Street. See the colored letters spelling it out.

Love the old pictures. If you have more would love to have you post on FB group “you know you’re from wolfeboro nh if”. We do much history.

Can't forget to mention the Ford Dealership in the photo directly across the street from the Gulf station (you can barely see the blue Ford logo sign hidden behind the telephone pole in back of that white 1965 Chevrolet Impala). The Ford Dealership was in the old stable which still exists today but now as a bunch of various smaller shops.......