Lambert's Rainbow Market - Dorchester, MA

Lambert's Rainbow Market

Opened: ca. late 1960s

Owner: Danny Lambert

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 777 Morrissey Blvd, Dorchester, MA

Photographed: July 27, 2019

Just around the corner from the Stop & Shop we saw yesterday is this longtime produce market and supermarket, the 10,000 square foot Lambert's Rainbow Market. The store has a garden center out front, which you can see below, and then inside about half of the store is produce and service departments, with grocery aisles behind that.

Lambert's dates back to the late 1960s, when this produce market opened. The Westwood location, around 10 miles southwest, came later. You can tour the Westwood location here.

You can enter the supermarket through the greenhouse, which has plants and flowers for sale. The aisles inside run side to side, with the registers at the front.

The bakery department is also in the front, with deli at the right side of the store and meat/seafood at the back.

The focus here is on the fresh foods, and the store feels a lot like a country farm market more than a city store.

In 2022, Lambert's sold the property of this store and the Westwood location, but signed 10-year leases for both locations and said they plan to keep the stores open at least until 2032.

Even though the store is on the older side, it feels charming and familiar more than dated.

There's a few aisles of groceries, but the majority of the store is used for fresh products. I don't recall seeing any storebrand items, but I could be wrong.

And a look at the front-end and prepared foods areas. (Incidentally, the people in the security uniforms you can see here are not working at the store, but getting their lunch from the salad bar.)

This store is on the far edge of Dorchester, just across the highway from the water. Like most of Massachusetts' coastline, the Boston waterfront is craggy and has any number of small inlets and other bodies of water, so here we're facing the Neponset River. We're going to head up along the waterfront to tomorrow's store!