A Brief Update on Three Bedford Businesses

This is the new location of the Salon Alfonse Salon & Spa. The space was formerly occupied by Hair Extraordinaire. An "official" Grand Opening is planned for later this year.

1. Salon Alfonse moved 1/4 miles west from 142 Great Road to 50 Great Road.

142 Great Road was the former location of Salon Alfonse. The building is still partially occupied.

2. The JC Cleaners next to the Post Office in the Bedford Shopping Center (soon to be known as Bedford Marketplace) has closed. With the recent opening of Lapels, I counted six Dry Cleaners in town (Bedford Cleaners, Great Cleaners, JC Cleaners, Lapels, Luongo's and Top Cleaners). I'm not sure if it was the competition or the fact that reconstruction of the shopping center is scheduled to begin next spring and they decided not to renew their lease. Earlier this year, a sign appeared saying they were under new management and had changed the name to Care Cleaners.

The JC Cleaners next to the Post Office closed on May 31st. There are still 5 other dry cleaners in town.

If you had clothes at JC Cleaners, it looks like you need to drive up to Chelmsford to pick them up.

3. According to Stop & Shop employees, the renovations are almost complete and a Grand Re-Opening is set For July 8th. As previously discussed, the renovations are fairly limited. The biggest changes are in the Produce and Prepared Food areas which in my opinion do have a cleaner and more modern look to them. They also have seemed to have added a lot more prepared items, perhaps to better compete with Whole Foods. Unfortunately there has been a set back in the self checkout which now closes at 9pm an hour earlier than previous.

Bedford Farmers' Market Opens

The Bedford Farmers' Market opened this past Monday. I stopped by several times during the afternoon. Each time there was a good amount of foot traffic to most of the booths. I think this will be a success. Seemed to be plenty of parking.

While the Bedford Farmers' Market has been promoted in town to residents, it appears to have not yet been promoted directly to many of the people who work in Bedford. In fact, I spoke to two office workers just one block away who were on a break. They had no idea about the Farmers' Market. They both thought it was a great idea and in fact, one of them immediately headed right to the Market. Perhaps some flyers could be distributed to some of the local businesses. Since the Market stays open until 6:30pm, I think some of the local workers will stop by after work before heading home.