The Grocers of Jamaica Plain

And with that, we've finished Jamaica Plain. We toured three supermarkets and visited quite a few smaller stores and former grocery stores, so if you missed any, you can use the map below to navigate to that store's post.

Coming Up Next

From Jamaica Plain, we're headed east to Roxbury, which is as you can see the neighborhood pretty much right in the middle of Boston. Bounded on the south by Roslindale and Dorchester, Dorchester to the east also, Jamaica Plain on the west, and Longwood and the South End to the north, Roxbury is a green but urban neighborhood that's considered by the city to be "the heart of Black culture". Roughly half of the neighborhood's residents are Black, with an additional 30% or so from Latin America. And despite the name, we're several miles away from West Roxbury, a very different neighborhood. You'll see several unusual names throughout the city, such as the fact that South Boston could reasonably be described as being near the northeastern corner of the city or that East Boston is north of nearly the whole city. Most of those are relics of the fact that many neighborhoods -- especially the southern neighborhoods like Roxbury and those south of here -- were previously independent municipalities, and therefore completely altered the shape of the city when they merged with Boston. Roxbury is one of the most supermarket-sparse neighborhoods of the city, though it's about to get another. So we won't spend long here, in fact just a couple days. We'll start with a look at a before-and-after of the supermarket right in the middle of Roxbury, then a tour of a supermarket that's technically in very far-north Dorchester, and then a couple independent stores across the neighborhood. Come back tomorrow for the first post!