Highland Park Market Celebrates 125 years

At the turn of the century, was a general store surrounded by open land. Customers drove up a dirt road in a horse and buggy to buy dry goods and other necessities, a place where town residents went to pick up their mail as well as do their grocery shopping.

This year, Highland Park Market is celebrating its 125th anniversary. The flagship store in Manchester was founded by William White in 1886, and the market continues to operate at its original site on Highland Street. As the market grew from a small general store to a 19,000 square foot shopping center, it has remained a family business.

In addition to the Manchester store, there is a Highland Park Market in Farmington, Glastonbury and Suffield. The Devanney family has owned and operated the stores for more than 50 years.

“My father, John Devanney, who was known as Jack, bought the store in 1958, and it was incorporated in 1960,’’ said Timothy J. Devanney, who runs the business today. Family owned supermarket chains are part of a vanishing breed. “Even Target and Wal-Mart are offering groceries…Walgreens, CVS, Kmart  – even gas stations sell groceries,’’ Devanney said.

All of John Devanney’s six children grew up working at the store, he said. “One of my first jobs was sorting bottles – in those days it was those glass soda bottles. I spend a lot of my time now dealing with lawyers and accountants, but working with the customers is still the most enjoyable part of the job for me.’’ Devanney has four adult children who assist in the operation of the four supermarkets.

In the era of Big Y, Price Chopper, Stop and Shop and Shop-Rite, Highland Park can still compete, he said.  Highland Park has remained on top by keeping up with trends and making it their business to know what customers want.

“We were pioneers when we were open on Sunday, I can remember fighting for that against the blue laws back in early 70s,’’ Devanney said.

Then came late store hours. “We started being open until 9 p.m., and we do that six days a week. We close at 6:00 pm on Sundays, but the big guys are open to midnight. ‘’

One trend that will not happen at Highland Park is the automated self-checkout machine, where customers scan and bag their own groceries.

“Those things drive me crazy - it’s just a different mentality than we have,’’ Devanney said. “A [cashier] who does that all day long can do it a lot faster than a customer can. If you really want to service the customer, put on another cashier, don’t make people do it themselves.’’

And you don’t have to carry your own groceries to the car at Highland Park, unless you want to.  Each cashier has a helper who bags your groceries for you and will bring them out to your car. There are no runaway shopping carts in the parking lot at Highland Park.

The deli and bakery departments at Highland Park are the biggest draw for many customers, Devanney said.  “Everything here is made to order – the deli is sliced to order, we don’t have pre-packaged meat. You can buy one pork chop if you want to. In the bakery, we don’t have muffins in a package, you can buy as many or a few as you want.’’

Back in the 1980’s, Highland Park was ahead of the curve on prepared meals, when it became clear that people had less time to cook at home after working all day. “We listened to our customers, and what they wanted was something easier and quicker. We’ve been doing things like stuffed pork chop, or chicken cordon bleu or stuffed chicken breasts for years,’’ Devanney said. “We have over a 100 prepared food items that are made right here.’’ Locally grown produce is becoming preferred by customers, and Highland Park has responded to that trend also.

Devanney is enthusiastic about the trend toward healthier eating, and the company is working on developing healthy meal preparation.

“We are looking at designing meal plans for people with diabetes or other dietary restrictions to help people more easily find what is better for them,’’ he said. “We are looking at creating a range of serving sizes, where a person can grab and go with a healthy complete individual meal.’’