Finast/First National Stores/Edward's

[BillyGr]

Thought there was a post about this but I couldn't find it.

This is a former Finast store in Chatham, NY - it was taken over by Fays (now Eckerd) when they bought out a local store (Millers drugs) and moved to this (larger, but still smaller than a new) store.

[Caldor1999]

Yes i heard of them i had one in my town it became a Grand union after that and its now a Stop & Shop

[store215]

Finast is/was "still around".  The brand was owned by the same company that owns Stop and Shop, Tops, and the Giant PA and MD chains). These stores recently discontinued the "Finast" store brand products with another brand.

I think many older Tops stores were once Finast stores.

I have a bag somewhere with the logo on it i got from a dollar store, ill scan it in later.

[Caldor1999]

hears whatv my fromer finast looked like it was a Finast then a Grand aUnion and now its a stop & shop this finast closed back in the 70's before it became Grand union stop & Shop moved in in 2001 and a part of the logo is tilted :insane:

[Jag67]

OOHH better get down to Tops and stock up on Finast stuff!!

[Marc82]

In 1981 Finast opened in the former GE Madison Department Store Building (in a shopping center) on Queen Street in Southington, Connecticut. Sometime later they became Edward's. After Edwards was sold to Stop & Shop, they sold the Southington Edwards to Shaw's. Shaw's opened either right before or right after Thanksgiving in November 1996. And that brings us up tp today. Shaw's closes its doors for good at 6PM tonight.

Finast in Bristol, Connecticut on the property of the Bristol Centre Mall became WAZ's IGA in the late 1980s. After the guy that owned WAZ's died these stores became ADAM's IGA. (Bristol, Terryville, New Britain, and I'm not sure where else). A few years ago ADAMS's IGA in Bristol became Discount Food Outlet.

Finast in downtown New Britain on the property of the New Brite Shopping Plaza became Edwards like the one in Southington. When Stop & Shop bought Edwards this location became an ADAM's Super Food Store. (A much bigger store than Adams's IGA). Adams's Super Food Store closed this location in 2003, I think.  As far as I know the site is still vacant. There's a Dollar Dreams Store in the old Liquor Depot that was attached to the Edwards.

Anyone out there know if the Edward's In Waterbury was also a Finast? They were on Wolcott Street and were sold to Shaw's in 1996. Shaw's was there for about a year or so before they like Toys R Us moved to a new location at the new Brass Mill Commons. The old Edwards/Shaws and Toys R Us stayed vacant until 2003 when the whole shopping center was rehabbed. The old Edawards/Shaw's and Toys R Us became the 2nd Price Chopper in Connecticut.

[JimSawhill]

In East Hartford, First National had 3 stores - 1 was on Main Street in downtown,  another was at  the intersection of School St. and Ellington Road and the third was on Silver Lane.
     The School street location - became an Edwards and then with the old Mammoth Mart/Mars vacated, they moved to that location -- which is now a Big Y.
     The Finast store became an Arthur's Supermarket, then it became a Walgreen's (the Walgreen's is supposed to move across the street, so I don't know what will happen to the building.
     The Silver Lane store -- and it still has the old FINAST look - became a TOP NOTCH SUPERMARKETS in 1967 then in 1979 a Best Warehouse Foods (a Top Noth division), then it became a Three D Bed and Bath in 1984 and after Three D went out of business -- it was vacant for a few years until the Salvation Army store moved in.

     Finast also had a store in East Hartford Plaza south of downtown - when Food Mart left. Food Mart and Topps Discount City  was a cool place to shop, since it was open between the stores and up front they had a doughnut bakery.

Jim

[FearlessSwan]

Former Finast/Edwards/Stop & Shop in Stamford, CT. Now a Home Goods. Also, looking at Live Maps,  it looks like they finally (sadly) changed the ancient-looking signage of that Radio Shack.










Former Finast in Greenwich, CT. Closed down around the time of the Edwards switchover. The store actually carried the full "First National" name on its sign until the end.

[JimSawhill]

Originally posted by JimSawhill
In East Hartford, First National had 3 stores - 1 was on Main Street in downtown,  another was at  the intersection of School St. and Ellington Road and the third was on Silver Lane.
     The School street location - became an Edwards and then with the old Mammoth Mart/Mars vacated, they moved to that location -- which is now a Big Y.
     The Finast store became an Arthur's Supermarket, then it became a Walgreen's (the Walgreen's is supposed to move across the street, so I don't know what will happen to the building.
     The Silver Lane store -- and it still has the old FINAST look - became a TOP NOTCH SUPERMARKETS in 1967 then in 1979 a Best Warehouse Foods (a Top Noth division), then it became a Three D Bed and Bath in 1984 and after Three D went out of business -- it was vacant for a few years until the Salvation Army store moved in.

     Finast also had a store in East Hartford Plaza south of downtown - when Food Mart left. Food Mart and Topps Discount City  was a cool place to shop, since it was open between the stores and up front they had a doughnut bakery.

Jim

Update:

     I heard the old First National on Main Street is now home to Sav-A-Lot and the Finast on Silver Lane was torn down and they are building an ADLI in its place. The Salvation Army moved to another store at the corner of Main & Pitkin - where Highway Outdoors used to be!

Jim

[FearlessSwan]

This store in Stamford, CT started out as Finast, later became Grand Union and is now part of the local chain Grade A, even though they already have a store right around the corner on Newfield Ave.

[scottw73]

Here is a shot of the Bethel CT location circa 1970's. Location is now a liquor store.

[scottw73]

Here is shot ofthe location today

Credits: Livemaps

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qww94y8wf7k7&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=19800094&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=279%20Greenwood%20Avenue%2C%20Bethel%20CT&encType=1

[Joeg]

Finast was second to A&P in sales in the New England Market for most of th 50's and 60's.  I remember going to First National(that's what is was called then) shopping and getting our S&H greenstamps.  They were giving Stop and Shop alot of competion in the 80's and 90's and one of the reasons that Ahold bought them was to keep S&S out of New Jersey were Finast had strong market share.

[CTAmeshopper]

What happened to this store chain?

It seems my family shopped there since I came across a can of peaches for there in a cabinet full of non-perishable foods.

They had stores in Connecticut, but I BARELY remember anything about them.

[DerangedHermit]

It was bought by Ahold and changed over to Edwards in the mid-90's. Edwards was then switched over to the Stop & Shop name in 2000.

[AmesNewington]

There was a Finast/First National store in Newington, although it closed before I was born. That store and Waldbaum's Foodmart less than a mile away were the only choices for groceries until Stop and Shop came in 1992/93. It was on Garfield Street off Main Street, and was vacant for years until CL&P or some power company moved offices in to the building. Then it became empty again in the early 2000s. Today, it is now OFI, an office furniture gallery that moved from the Berlin Turnpike. They completely renovated the building, but didn't level it. It's currently one of the most attractive buildings in the Town Center.

NOTE: Sometime between Finast/CL&P/OFI's occupancies, supposedly a Marshall's was at this location. Again, I can't prove that as I wasn't born until the late 80s.

[torringtonstars]

I remember a Finast in the same plaza as Bradlees in Torrington when I was pretty young (pre school to kindergarten age, so 84-86 and maybe beyond, but those years for sure). I also seem to remember one somewhere in the Unionville area that we'd pass driving to New Britain but that wasn't our regular route, so it is a vague memory.

The early seasons of Roseanne show a lot of generic store brand soda pop, chips and such and the labels and fonts always remind me of Finast for some reason.

ETA -- there is a tiny Finast stub on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finast

[Joeg]

Finast also had another store in Newington off of Route 173.  It opened in 1963 and closed sometime in the early 70's.

Shop Rite took them over until they closed in the 80's.  One of the few Shop-Rites that did not have a bake shop(beside New Britain.)

[Crawford]

I vaguely recall 2 First National stores in Rhode Island, I am sure there was probably more but they were all gone by the late 70s. The first was in Riverside, my school bus used to go past the abandoned building which still had a legible label scar. The building and it's parking lot were demolished and apartments put up there. The second one was in a plaza with a Zayre (later an Ames) in Warwick. I remember there was a open doorway in the back of the closed market and one could enter it. Ever play Fallout 3? The ruined market in the game reminded me of the inside of that First National. All shelving, torn up floor, what was left the interior decor was like something frozen from the 60s. Both the First National and Zayre buildings were eventually demolished and a Shaws put up in their place.

[Marc82]

The Shaw's on Queen Street in Southington was a First National (and later Edwards) and I remember when I was working there the manager had a can of Finast brand something on her bookshelf.

[greg8370]

I think there was one in Meriden, CT on East Main Street

[CTAmeshopper]

Check this out! it seems there used to be a Finast right where the Cinerom Theatre is now in Ames plaza in Winsted!:o This may be the place where the peaches may have came from! Or it could be from the store where Stop & Shop is now! In 1994 where Stop & Shop is now used to be Finast!

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=114602148&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&Userid=0K26XDTVGK&Passwd=welcome

[torringtonstars]

Yes! I totally remember it now... and that would explain my remembering Finast brand stuff at my Nana's house. She lived in Torrington but much closer to the Winsted stores and had lived in Winsted and Barkhamsted before that, so she always shopped in those two plazas.

I love when all the memories fall into place. Good find!

[CTAmeshopper]

yep this his how the store name changed

Finast---------->Edwards---------> Stop & Shop.


I remember my grandparents shopping at that store! I have brief memories of what the packaging design look like (thanks to pictures), they  where all simplified with the white text in front  with the pictures of the the food on a dark black background, which was pretty cool.

here take a look this is from some Cruise Closeouts Warehouse site that documents history of stores.

http://www.cruisecloseouts.com/F%20Pics/Finast%20Products.jpg

[torringtonstars]

Originally posted by CTAmeshopper
 I have brief memories of what the packaging design look like (thanks to pictures), they  where all simplified with the white text in front  with the pictures of the the food on a dark black background, which was pretty cool.

That's the same styling as a lot of the generic items in the early Roseanne episodes, which always give me a warm, fuzzy, remembering Finast feeling. :D

[FearlessSwan]

There were a couple of Finasts in Stamford, CT.

One was in the same shopping center as the Woolworths on Hope Street. It closed some time during the late 80s/early 90s and became a Grand Union and is now the local chain Grade A Market.

The other was on High Ridge Road and survived the whole switchover to Edwards and later Stop & Shop. This store eventually moved down the road to a bigger location in the Ridgeway Shopping Center and became a Super Stop & Shop.

The old store site was a Filene's and is now HomeGoods.

There was also an old run-down Finast in Greenwich that carried the old First National signage. This one closed after Edwards took over.

Another supermarket (can't remember the name) replaced it for a while and it is now a Whole Foods Market.

[MikeRa]

Originally posted by torringtonstars
I remember a Finast in the same plaza as Bradlees in Torrington when I was pretty young (pre school to kindergarten age, so 84-86 and maybe beyond, but those years for sure). I also seem to remember one somewhere in the Unionville area that we'd pass driving to New Britain but that wasn't our regular route, so it is a vague memory.

The early seasons of Roseanne show a lot of generic store brand soda pop, chips and such and the labels and fonts always remind me of Finast for some reason.

ETA -- there is a tiny Finast stub on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finast

The "Finast" name actually lived on a while longer than the Finast stores, when "Finast" was, untill a few years ago, the storebrand label for Giant (PA).  Giant (PA) and Giant (MD) now uses the "Giant" storebrand label, which is replaced by the "Stop & Shop" storebrand label at Stop & Shop.

[jmcnamara96]

DISCUSS!
I found one of there carts at Building 19 1/15 today
<a href="http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/jmcnamara96/?action=view&current=JoesPictures214.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/jmcnamara96/JoesPictures214.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[DerangedHermit]

When Stop & Shop changed Edwards over to S&S, they ruined it. Edwards was much cheaper and more innovative than S&S, and it isn't until the past two or three years that Stop & Shop has gotten better.

[CTAmeshopper]

in 1994 we used to have a Finast in Winsted, then later on it changed to Edwards then around 2000 they changed to Stop & Shop. It used to have low hanging lights that connected together to form horizontally hanging rectangles,it was so cool. They were arranged to surround food and the cash registers.  These light rectangles stayed around until that Stop & Shop renovated around late 2005 to it's current look today. Sadly, today the lights are gone  :(