Big Y World Class Market history

By 1940, just prior to World War II, the Y Cash Market's sales had increased 20 fold, and the store had physically expanded to three times its originally size.

First Big Y Supermarket and Continued Growth: 1950-70

In 1952, the D'Amour family took a lease on a 10,000-square-foot store located close to the Westover Air Base in Chicopee.

In 1963, Big Y purchased a second location in Northampton, and opened Big Y Wines & Liquors, selling beer, wine and liquor.

1967: Big Y opens a store in Springfield, Massachusetts.

By 1968 the company had six stores and was in a mode of either expanding or buying a store every two to three years.

In 1972, the company acquired two Popular Supermarkets, located in Longmeadow and the Sixteen Acres section of Springfield.

In 1981, in a move that enhanced its image as a locally owned business, Big Y established its annual scholarship program honoring academic achievement and merit, a program that it would expand for the next several years.

The year 1984 was an important year for the D’Amour family, when Big Y expanded beyond the Springfield area to other areas of Western Massachusetts and into Connecticut.

Turning 50 years old in 1986, the company ranked #1 in Western Massachusetts with 22 stores and over 1600 employees.

Accordingly, in 1989, it leased new offices on Chestnut Street in Springfield, which thereafter became its corporate center.

In 1993, it also tied the Express Savings Club to Education Express, one of several education programs Big Y sponsored.

By June 1994, through Education Express, the company had awarded almost $2 million to over 900 schools in its market area.

The next year, 1996, Big Y marked its 60th anniversary by purchasing five additional stores.

Two years later, in 1998, Big Y opened a web site, offering to Internet browsers a range of data, including information on the individual stores in the Big Y chain, such as the various services that each of them offered to customers.

Big Y ventured into another service area when, in August 2001, it opened its first in-store pharmacy at its newly remodeled supermarket in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

Next, in February 2002, it partnered with Cognos Finance to help fill its need to provide up-to-the-minute financial information to its department and district decision makers.

The next big move for Big Y came in 2003 when the company decided to test its strength against the larger eastern Massachusetts supermarket chains in Walpole.

2019 also saw the expansion to a 425,000-square-foot Fresh and Local Distribution Center.