As his shift winds down, store manager John Belfiore pushes a wide broom across the tile floor of Cambridge Grocery. He can still name the grocers that once anchored the rural town of Cambridge Springs, including Vogel’s Food Mart and Peterson’s Golden Dawn.
Cambridge Grocery opened in September 2025 in the building that once housed Hendrickson’s True Value Hardware. Its dark wood façade and outdoor display area still whisper hardware, while inside, bright white aisles cut through the open floor, stocked with canned goods, milk and eggs, and bins of fresh produce.
In Cambridge Springs, residents still remember Vogel’s Food Mart – its child-sized grocery carts and hot coffee that made the store feel like part of the neighborhood. The store closed not long after a Dollar General opened down the street, a shift that reshaped how the town buys its groceries…