[Daffynition]

A few are still around.

Back in the day, they were one of the *first* supermarkets in town ....caused quite a flutter, I remember, those wide isles and massive variety of goods, seemed to be a wonderland. My mother loved their coffee.

Ours looked a lot like this....along with Finest's arrival, it pretty much put the era a mom&pop grocery stores on every corner, to an end.

[4Runner]

It was FINAST (acronym for FIrst NAtional STores) not FINEST. My parents shopped at one every weekend, and they drove fifteen miles away to do it. I remember we drove around to the back of the store to have our trunk loaded up with the purchased groceries that had been conveyor-belted out there for the part time college kid workers to load into your car. My father always tipped them. You didn’t carry the bags out of the store by hand.

Also, it was the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, not the Atlantic Pacific & Tea Company as the author of the article mistakenly wrote.

[Dr. Sivana]

Ours looked a lot like this....along with Finest's arrival, it pretty much put the era a mom&pop grocery stores on every corner, to an end.

I grew up in Wallingford, CT, and we had a similar setup. But it was FINAST, NOT Finest. FINAST had been called "First National Stores". Later they became BIG BUY (with a bomb logo), then FINAST before being bought out by Edwards. Our mid-sized town had A&P, First National, Everybody's (local), Food Fair (now a Staples, but was once on the TV show Supermarket Sweep) and Stop and Shop. Only Stop and Shop is around from that list, and in a big, new location.