South End Food Emporium - Boston, MA

South End Food Emporium

Opened: 1989

Owner: unknown

Previous Tenants: unknown

Cooperative: none

Location: 469 Columbus Ave, Boston, MA

Photographed: May 6, 2023

Many of us are probably familiar with The Food Emporium, a New York City-area brand originally owned by Shopwell, acquired by A&P in the 1980s, and then by Key Food in 2015. Well, The Food Emporium was never here in Boston, but in the late 1980s, an independent called the South End Food Emporium opened a small specialty grocery store here at Columbus and Newton.

The store is very small -- my best estimate is around 3000 square feet -- but somewhere between a convenience store and a full supermarket. The centerpiece is a deli and prepared foods island, literally in the center of the store, with produce and packaged meats in front of it, and grocery aisles to the left. Dairy and frozen line the back and right-side walls of the store.

The interior of the store is attractive and modern, and upscale but comfortable.

The grocery aisles are packed with merchandise, and this is as close to a full supermarket as you can get in such a small space. The selection angles upscale, but has some basics too.

I don't recall seeing a storebrand on the shelves, and I can't find any evidence that the South End Food Emporium is a member of any grocery cooperative. It's a really nice store, and clearly fills a need here in the South End. There's a much larger supermarket about a third of a mile north in Back Bay, and we'll get there but not just yet. First, we're going to head about 2/3 of a mile east to Chinatown!