Caldor

[TRU7536]

Stew Leonard's Trying Turnpike
February 4, 2006
By MARYELLEN FILLO, Courant Staff Writer  NEWINGTON -- Stew Leonard's, the family-friendly retail food store known for its fresh milk and produce and its country-fair type atmosphere, is coming to the Berlin Turnpike.

The Norwalk-based company announced Friday that it has signed a lease to open a new store in the former Caldor building at 3475 Berlin Turnpike.

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"We can't wait," said Stew Leonard Jr., who heads the supermarket chain, which has been recognized as the "Disneyland of Dairy Stores."

"All you have to do is drive up and down the turnpike, and every great retailer you know of is there," Leonard said about Newington. "It's a real destination area, and the community has a lot of appeal."

Plans for the 113,000-square-foot facility include an in-store scratch bakery, a specialty cheese-aging room and a prepared-foods area with indoor seating, a cafe with coffee roasted in front of the customer and an ice cream parlor serving freshly made soft-serve ice cream.

The chain, which has stores in Danbury, Norwalk and Yonkers, N.Y., is considered a distinctive, niche food store that offers fresh meats, baked goods, dairy products and produce by buying from area farms and dairies, and limiting its inventory to ensure quick turnover. Listed in the 1992 Guinness Book of World Records for having the world's fastest-moving stock, and Ripley's Believe It Or Not for the world's largest sales of orange juice, it racks up $100 million in sales each year from about 100,000 customers a week.

Stew Leonard's is known for its entertainment accoutrements, including audio-animatronics that roam the aisles, and staff who dress as milk cartons, fish, vegetables or barnyard animals to greet customers at the front door. The store has been touted in such publications as Fortune, Sylvia Porter's Personal Finance, New York, The New York Times, Successful Meetings, and Tom Peters' "A Passion for Excellence."

Leonard said he expects to hire about 400 employees, and the store could open in early 2007.

The building, constructed in 1994 for Caldor, was vacated several years later when Caldor closed. It has been vacant since. It is owned by American National Insurance Co.

Town officials were ecstatic Friday, calling Stew Leonard's the right kind of addition to the turnpike that will benefit the tax rolls and the community.

"Stew Leonard's is well-known for the altruistic work it does in its communities," said Mayor Rodney Mortensen. "Our planning and zoning office is ready to provide the one-stop help the company will need to get an application in front of our planning and zoning commission. I am so impressed by the business's operation. It is totally customer-oriented and a good addition to town."

Officials said they hope to have an application for site plan changes to the planning and zoning commission in the next few weeks.

The arrival of the renowned store is not the first time the town has grabbed the retail spotlight.

In 2002, Krispy Kreme, the acclaimed doughnut maker, broke ground for its first New England store on the Berlin Turnpike. Politicians, residents and a brass band were there to celebrate the occasion. For months, Newington police were so overwhelmed with traffic that they sought help from Berlin, Farmington, New Britain and Rocky Hill. Later, neighbors caught shop employees baking doughnuts for other retail outlets, in violation of Krispy Kreme's zoning permit, and the store closed last year.

The Leonards' family business dates to 1924, when Charles Leonard began bottling milk. His son, Stew Leonard Sr., took over the operation and founded the first store in 1969. The chain has other openings planned in East Farmingdale, N.Y.,and Orange, but zoning approval for the store in Orange is being appealed.

"We had a nice talk Thursday about our lives on a dairy farm," said Mortensen, who owns an ice cream shop and restaurant that will be within a mile of the new store. Mortensen said he and Leonard shared stories about their own experiences growing up in a farming family.

"This is actually a little nostalgic for me," said Stew Leonard Jr., who recalled that his father took the Berlin Turnpike to the agricultural school at the University of Connecticut. A graduate of the Westminster School in Simsbury, Stew Leonard Jr. said he also has fond memories of the Hartford area.

Leonard sees only success for the new store, saying it will easily hold its own despite the recent proliferation of niche supermarkets in the area, including the discount gourmet Trader Joe's at Corbins Corner in West Hartford and the more chic Whole Foods in West Hartford Center.

"I think we have our own niche," he said, "and none of those stores can offer the fresh milk or produce that we do."


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[Caldor1999]

any more caldor pics?

[d_fife]

here is a closer pic of the caldor in riverhead ny. see a possible labelscar.  the store was 78,000 square feet and now a wal-mart that may move.

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/t_snapshot.pl?subNum=10204000377&tenNum=10204000377.0054

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by d_fife
here is a closer pic of the caldor in riverhead ny. see a possible labelscar.  the store was 78,000 square feet and now a wal-mart that may move.

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/t_snapshot.pl?subNum=10204000377&tenNum=10204000377.0054

i hatew it when wal marts tears doiwn a old store and then moves away to make a super center mean wile that caldor looks like it was a woolco before and i see a lable scar that looks like a c maby it was a old caldor logo

[Anonymous]

That store did have the old orange logo.  It is currently a Wal-Mart, has been for quite a few years now.

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by Anonymous
That store did have the old orange logo.  It is currently a Wal-Mart, has been for quite a few years now.

i liek dthat loo my caldor in bedford hills NY had the rainbow logo on the outside and it had the orange logo on teh inside untill the early 1990's when the rentcvated teh store and they did a good job to  that caldor is now a kohls i wish someone had a pic of it:(

[Caldor1999]

this caldor in cnorth brunswick NJ looks like mine only with  the newer logo thios caldor became a ames

[Caldor1999]

hears a caldor down in NYC

[Caldor1999]

hears a pic of the Stamford CT one

[Caldor1999]

hears a diffrent pic of it

[Caldor1999]

and it had its own parking

[Caldor1999]

hears a pic of the Norwalk CT location i still think this caldor muight be vacant but idk its probley a kohls or a wal mart or a kmart

[Caldor1999]

hears anouther caldor pic

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by TRU7536
Stew Leonards is moving into the old Caldor Building in Newington, CT. I was watching the news, NBC this morning and they had a report that Stew Leonards is going to be taking over the building. I want to see that clip again, they showed the building, the roof is leaking , they showed water coming from the roof. The store is suppopse to open Jan 2007.

Wow!! Stew Leonard's in Newington? That'll kill the two A&P Foodmarts in Berlin and Newington. Oh by the way, Anyone in Newington -- is the old Office Max (near Shaw's) still empty?

[d_fife]

Originally posted by Anonymous

Originally posted by TRU7536
Stew Leonards is moving into the old Caldor Building in Newington, CT. I was watching the news, NBC this morning and they had a report that Stew Leonards is going to be taking over the building. I want to see that clip again, they showed the building, the roof is leaking , they showed water coming from the roof. The store is suppopse to open Jan 2007.

Wow!! Stew Leonard's in Newington? That'll kill the two A&P Foodmarts in Berlin and Newington. Oh by the way, Anyone in Newington -- is the old Office Max (near Shaw's) still empty?

from the officemax excess real estate, it is still vacant

[d_fife]

Originally posted by Caldor1999
hears a pic of the Norwalk CT location i still think this caldor muight be vacant but idk its probley a kohls or a wal mart or a kmart

it is not vacant and is a kohl's.

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by d_fife

Originally posted by Caldor1999
hears a pic of the Norwalk CT location i still think this caldor muight be vacant but idk its probley a kohls or a wal mart or a kmart

it is not vacant and is a kohl's.

i really wish kohls dident gobble them up so much

[Caldor1999]

hears anoutehr caldor that ios now a kohls

[Caldor1999]

hears more caldor

[Caldor1999]

hears my pic of the middle town caldor one of the few casldors that are still vacant today

[amesman]

Originally posted by Zayre88
31 years, 79 Caldor stores :roll::yup:

I have that same matchbook.

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by amesman

Originally posted by Zayre88
31 years, 79 Caldor stores :roll::yup:

I have that same matchbook.

hey i want that :P lol

[Anonymous]

here is them reconstructing the old caldor in naunet new york that became kohl's.

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/p_snapshot.pl?lm=listing&resbox=1139968894&subNum=12208000006

[d_fife]

Originally posted by Anonymous
here is them reconstructing the old caldor in naunet new york that became kohl's.

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/p_snapshot.pl?lm=listing&resbox=1139968894&subNum=12208000006

this is my picture. Do any of you remember this caldor?

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by d_fife

Originally posted by Anonymous
here is them reconstructing the old caldor in naunet new york that became kohl's.

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/p_snapshot.pl?lm=listing&resbox=1139968894&subNum=12208000006

this is my picture. Do any of you remember this caldor?

that old caldor use to look like the one in west harftford im gussing it was a old starts it use to ahve the rainbow logo untill the ealry 1990's that A&P is now a babies  r us

[d_fife]

here is the caldor in Portchester new york (now kohl's). see the cafe there!

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/t_snapshot.pl?subNum=10214000408&tenNum=10214000408.0005

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by d_fife
here is the caldor in Portchester new york (now kohl's). see the cafe there!

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/t_snapshot.pl?subNum=10214000408&tenNum=10214000408.0005

\

now thats how my caldor looke d liek only with out the white

[d_fife]

tihs caldor is in ledgewood nj. it is now kohl's

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/p_snapshot.pl?lm=listing&resbox=1140220688&subNum=50208000184

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by d_fife
tihs caldor is in ledgewood nj. it is now kohl's

from http://www.siteride.com/srpl/p_snapshot.pl?lm=listing&resbox=1140220688&subNum=50208000184

yet anouther caldor that was a woolco got anymore?

[Caldor1999]

i finally went to the caldor in Newington CT Today and i got some great shots to