Full Text:

Big Y Gives First Shoppers A Big Welcome

(with cut)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

A team of window washers drew their squeegees down across the huge plate-glass

windows of the Big Y supermarket Thursday morning, making it clear to see that

the long-awaited food store had finally opened for business.

Inside, local shoppers traveled the store's many aisles, selecting produce and

packaged goods, salads and sandwiches. Grocery buyers queued up at the store's

array of checkout lines, plunking down their potatoes, rice and oranges,

having them electronically price-scanned, and then paying for them.

Store manager Rick Bossie and a contingent of store staffers stood in a circle

inside Big Y's main entrance, greeting shoppers who had risen for the

supermarket's 7 am opening. A grand opening event featuring a cake-cutting

ceremony started after 10 am.

The store's parking area was probably even more crowded than the store, as

vehicles cruised the lanes seeking out any available spaces in what appeared

to be a completely filled lot.

Numerous town and borough officials attended the grand opening.

On entering the building, which was decked with red, white and blue bunting,

customers encountered a colorful floral display and salad bar. A food court

and eating area flanks the grocery aisles.

Claire D'Amour, Big Y Foods, Inc's vice president for corporate relations,

said that although there have many delays in opening the store, it is finally

in business to serve the community. Big Y will be open Mondays through

Saturdays from 7 am to 11 pm, and Sundays from 7 am to 9 pm.

The supermarket's opening is the main element of shopping center's

redevelopment. The shopping center had fallen on hard times after the closing

of the former A&P supermarket. The former A&P building is being renovated for

use as a CVS discount store and pharmacy. The Big Y is more than five times

the size of the former A&P supermarket it replaces.

Big Y joins the Grand Union and Super Stop & Shop as supermarkets in Newtown.

Unlike Grand Union and Super Stop & Shop, Big Y's labor force is not

unionized.

Brian Petronella, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers labor

union, Local 371, said the union will stage an informational picket on public

property near Big Y to make its concerns about the non-unionized Big Y chain

known. Mr Petronella has said it is unclear when that public protest will take

place. Big Y officials have said their stores are good places to work, in

dismissing the union's criticisms of the firm.

The Kasper Group, which owns the Big Y building, received Borough Zoning

Commission approval for the redevelopment project in January 1996. The project

encountered various delays. The Big Y initially was to have opened in December

1996. Construction started in April 1997.

Big Y operates 42 supermarkets in Connecticut and central and western

Massachusetts. The local store is the 20th in the chain's "world class market"

format. The privately-owned chain was founded 62 years ago by brothers Paul

and Gerald D'Amour.