America's Food Basket
Opened: 1997
Welcome to our final Hyde Park store! This building goes back to the 1950s when it was built as a Finast, which closed around the early 80s. Local chain Flanagan's moved in, occupying the space until the late 1990s. In 1997, a location of America's Food Basket moved in.
The supermarket was originally about 17,000 square feet, and appears to have eventually been expanded to its present 20,000 square feet or so. It's also possible that one of the past supermarkets here was larger than AFB is, and the space next door currently occupied by CVS would've been part of the supermarket, too (that would bring the total to around 33,000 square feet).
Inside, you can tell it's an old-school supermarket building, but it's gotten some updates over the years, including most recently this new signage. It's simple -- just a decal on the walls -- but it's a good way to freshen up an older store. The red hanging structure is left over from the previous decor package, which likely was either installed by AFB when they moved in, or left over from Flanagan's.
The produce department is on the right side of the store in the first aisle, with cases on both sides. (It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of these fixtures were installed by AFB when they moved in, since they're on the older side but not that old.) Meat lines the back wall with dairy and frozen on the left side, and deli/bakery is in the front-left corner.
AFB has a lot of older stores, although they've been updating a lot of their NYC-area stores lately. Still, they tend to be run really well (with, of course, a few exceptions), and they're extremely clean and well-stocked.
While obviously the refrigeration could be newer and the floor could use an update, the store isn't looking too badly outdated.
An interesting feature here: digital aisle markers, which I've seen at a few stores now, mostly in and around New York City. As far as I can tell, there's no animation or change other than if the store rearranges the aisles, so I don't totally get the reasoning behind them. In this store, there were no video ads or anything else that I've seen in other stores.
You can see that the grocery aisles are stocked nearly perfectly. AFB is essentially a mainstream supermarket with a selection of Latin American foods. There's all the basics, plus a significant international selection.
And as you can see, they take their stocking and facing very seriously at this store.
Placer.ai estimates that this store gets about the same traffic as the Shaw's just south, which is two and a half times its size.
One more look across the back wall, towards the produce aisle.
Dairy lines the outside of the last aisle.
And deli-bakery is in the front-left corner. These signs are older, probably installed by AFB when they moved in. I don't believe there's an in-store bakery, but I'm not sure.
And a look across the front-end. Again, a bit dated, but clean and bright.
Two different generations of AFB logos here, too! The checkout lane lights are obviously quite a bit newer than the hanging signs above the registers, which have the previous logo on them.
Owner: Edwin Polanco
Previous Tenants: Finast (late 1950s-ca. early 1980s) > Flanagan's (ca. 1980s-late 1990s)
Cooperative: America's Food Basket
Location: 942 Hyde Park Ave, Hyde Park, MA
Photographed: June 8, 2019
This store felt like a clean, well-run neighborhood spot. And Hyde Park has a fair amount of competition, with the Shaw's, Price Rite, and Stop & Shop all within a couple miles. And there's actually another supermarket just three quarters of a mile north. That'll be our first stop once we move onto the next neighborhood. Come back tomorrow for a preview and a roundup of what we've seen so far!
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