Roche Bros
When southern Quincy's Roche Brothers closed in 2022, Korean supermarket chain H Mart was quick to jump on the space. The city's Asian American population is large and growing, and I'm sure H Mart couldn't pass up a 65,000 square foot store in a perfect location for them.
This unusual sign, for drivers entering the complex, has the store names actually engraved in stone. When H Mart arrived, rather than re-engraving the stone, they simply placed a panel over the Roche Brothers name.
H Mart gave the outside a fresh paint job, but inside, almost nothing had changed at the time of my visit in 2023. Since then, they've added a food court inside the supermarket.
But the supermarket's interior otherwise looks an awful lot like Roche Brothers, which you can tour here if you haven't seen it yet. Another H Mart opened around the same time, in Queens, NY, after a very minimal and strictly cosmetic remodel. Maybe H Mart simply decided it wasn't worth doing even that to this store.
At the time of my visit, this corner where the coffee shop had been was still not in use. I can't tell for certain, since I haven't been back since I took these pictures, but it looks like the food hall may actually be in the neighboring storefront (previously a dentist's office), not in the supermarket itself. That would mean the H Mart (including the food hall) would now total nearly 80,000 square feet.
Packaged prepared foods now line the right side wall of the store, with various fresh and refrigerated items taking up all of what used to be the prepared foods department, the deli, and the seafood counter. Roche Brothers' bakery is now home to a much larger seafood department, but otherwise, the layout didn't really change.
Again, if there hasn't been a change since I visited, I have to assume ultimately the goal is to remodel the whole store, because there's a lot of signage like this in the grand aisle that doesn't quite work anymore.
The seafood department is all-new, though, and yet it didn't have a sign. The metal paneling is new...
...as are the many long display tables of shellfish on ice!
The produce department has been expanded since the Roche Brothers days, because although the footprint is the same, there's a lot more here. H Mart seems to have no trouble at all filling the space.
If I'm not mistaken, they installed this refrigerator in the first aisle, too.
H Mart's aisles are split by a middle dividing aisle, although I can't remember if that's left over from Roche Brothers or a new layout choice.
Refrigerated items still line the back wall, and the meat department is still in the back-left corner.
As you can see, despite the fact that the store still looks a lot like Roche Brothers, H Mart seems to be keeping it very clean and well-stocked.
A new H Mart recently opened in a former bfresh in Somerville, MA was also extensively renovated, making me wonder even more why this one wasn't.
And although H Mart hasn't installed a service butcher counter, like Roche Brothers, they do take special orders through this window at the back of the meat department. And it's very obvious they're cutting meat in-store.
The former bread department of Roche Brothers is now homegoods and kitchenwares.
And while the front-end looks pretty similar, there are new refrigerated endcaps on the aisles.
Opened: 2022
Owner: Il Yeon Kwon
Previous Tenants: Roche Bros (late 1990s - 2022)
Cooperative: none
Location: 101 Falls Blvd, Quincy, MA
Photographed: May 6, 2023
Since the turnaround time between Roche Brothers and H Mart was so short, it's also possible H Mart negotiated some form of acquisition from Roche Brothers, or maybe they signed a lease before Roche Brothers moved out. The details, of course, are not public, but it's possible the transition was more than simply one store moving out and another moving in.
The aisle markers, of course, are new.
That's all for this H Mart, and on Monday, we're headed around the corner for another Asian supermarket!
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