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07/19/2016 12:00 AMFerraro’s Market, a Grand Avenue, New Haven-based grocery and meat market, is opening up a small satellite location on the Post Road, offering residents a new place to stock up on routine and specialty items.
The new store, which will be located at 181 Boston Post Road—formerly Rick D’s restaurant—has been completely renovated and will hopefully open as soon as next week, according to Ferraro’s New Haven General Manager Al Lauro, Jr.
“We are still under construction, but we are trying to open a week from this Monday,” July 18, he said. “We changed the flooring, we added cases throughout the store, we are painting the outside, so really we did it from top to bottom.”
Lauro said the idea of expanding the store to new locations came from one of the Ferraro sons after they began to believe that many customers felt it was difficult to make it into New Haven regularly.
“We always hear that it is not easy for people to get to the New Haven area, we close at 6 each night and we are closed on Sunday,s so we thought we would bring part of the store to them,” he said.
Lauro said they first tried to expand with food trucks under the name Meat King, first parking in Wallingford and offering some of the specialty cuts the Grand Avenue store is known for.
“The thought originally was to use these trucks to go to different areas, but the trucks became to cumbersome to maintain the temperature and stock every day,” he said. “We thought of these smaller store fronts..A spot on the Post Road popped up and we grabbed it.”
While Lauro said they will be bringing the best of what the Grand Avenue store has to offer, the Madison location will be smaller than the New Haven location.
“We are going to have mostly meat and poultry and seafood, deli, some processed meats, things like that,” he said. “As far as produce and grocery items, [we’ll stock] staple items so if people are going stop at our store, they don’t have to stop at another store for dinner. So if it is hot dogs they are picking up, we will supply the rolls and the mustard and sauerkraut also.”
To staff the new store, Lauro said they might just shuffle current employees, but work applications can be obtained by inquiring in person.
“We always accept applications because we are always looking for good personnel,” he said.
Even before opening day, Lauro said he has already been pleased with the response from the Madison community.
“Very positive,” he said. “From everyone around the town, actually.”
The store will be open Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Sunday and Monday.