With Eastside Marketplace closing, Mark Patinkin finds a replacement. Could it happen?

I have an embarrassing admission for a 401 longtimer.

I’ve never been to Dave’s.

You know, the grocery everyone adores – officially called Dave’s Fresh Marketplace.

The shame.

But I set out to correct that because I’m now on a mission to get them to come to Providence. None of Dave’s 10 stores are now in the capital.

But there’s about to be an opening.

You see, the corporate barons at Stop & Shop just announced they’re shutting down an iconic neighborhood grocery at 165 Pitman St. this November.

Eastside Marketplace.

It’s been there forever as a Providence mainstay near Wayland Square. But Stop & Shop, which bought it 10 years ago and kept the old name for branding, just announced they’re closing it. They explained it with the usual gobbledygook – you know, downsizing underperforming stores to optimize the portfolio, blah blah.

They’re also shutting down the Stop & Shop in Johnston, but there’s a Market Basket about half a mile away from that one, so locals don’t seem too heartbroken about the loss.

But Eastside Marketplace – different story. That’s been a go-to for generations.

Admittedly, it won’t create a grocery desert – there’s a small Whole Foods just blocks away, which I like. But it’s good to have a mainstream grocery, too, because you need to get your name-brand Coke, Cheetos and Oreos somewhere.

So I called Dave’s to see if they plan to swoop in.

We’ll get to what they said in a second.

But first, I should add that a lot of folks have thought Stop & Shop let Eastside go downhill. And there seem to be some general Stop & Shop haters out there. I even saw a post from someone in Newport saying they wished Stop & Shop had shut that store so the town would have a chance at a better grocery. Ouch.

Which brings me back to Dave’s. The closest one to Providence is in Cranston, so I decided to see why everyone loves it. It says something about me that an expedition to a new grocery, although not exactly a Bruce Springsteen concert, loomed in my world as an exciting excursion.

So I went.

And wow – night-and-day difference from Stop & Shop. Lots of atmosphere, without being an overwhelming size. I suspect that's the real reason Stop & Shop is closing Eastside Market – they want all huge boxes.

Which is why Dave’s feels just right. It’s plenty big enough, but you don’t need to call an Uber to go from fresh produce to the frozen aisle. It also has an amazing prepared foods section that puts the one at Eastside Marketplace to shame, which is not a knock on the folks there – that’s Stop & Shop’s doing.

And this may sound weird of me to say, but I noticed Dave’s also has convenient restrooms, unlike most groceries, which couldn't care less about that.

So even though I’m an old dog who doesn’t like change, I’d like to see Dave’s come to the East Side.

I called Sue Budlong, Dave’s director of marketing, to ask if they’re thinking about it. As an objective journalist, I began our interview this way:

“Sue, I want a Dave’s.”

She told me Dave’s would love to have a store in Providence, and the Eastside Marketplace spot is something they’d look at.

I told her to forget looking – just do it.

At that, she explained Stop & Shop owns the building, and such negotiations with a corporate owner can be complicated.

Indeed, I poked around and saw that Stop & Shop has almost 400 stores and is owned by a Dutch company called Ahold, which has 2,000 groceries in the U.S. And check this out – to avoid competition for their nearby groceries, they’ve been known to hold onto buildings of closed stores or seek other kinds of tenants.

More: How do Stop & Shop's prices compare with local competitors'? We decided to investigate.

Sue told me Dave’s has already gotten scores of emails from people who’d like to see them in the Eastside Market space.

“If we can figure it out,” said Sue, “it’s definitely an option.”

I hope you’re listening, Stop & Shop.

Because you'll still have 25 stores in Rhode Island, and if you get in the way of a place like Dave’s coming into your East Side space, I worry that a certain newspaper columnist may say bad things about you.

And gee, I’d hate to see that happen.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Dave's could fill the hole left by Eastside Marketplace's pulling out