Brookline Superette - Brookline, MA

Brookline Superette
Open: unknown-2020

Owner: Chung & Soon Lee

Previous Tenants: unknown

Later Tenants: demolished

Cooperative: none

Location: 18 Pleasant St, Brookline, MA

Photographed: August 3, 2019

Welcome to the Brookline Superette, a small corner grocer of 3000 square feet. As you can clearly tell from the outside, it had been here for quite some time when I visited back in 2019, and while I haven't been able to pin down an exact opening year, it's definitely been here since at least the 1980s. The Caldor Rainbow says the store was "likely opened in 1965". In 1985, it was put up for sale, for $350,000. "Much foot traffic," according to the sale ad! And that's true -- this store was just a block from Coolidge Corner, the main business corner of Brookline. After decades in business, the building housing this corner store was demolished in 2024 as the site is set to be redeveloped amid concerns of deteriorating building conditions. The building is now completely gone.

While there's no doubt the building housing this store and the other storefronts along Pleasant Street was in poor condition, it was also a historic building (and, as that document mentions, originally home to an A&P grocery store -- possibly in the spot that became the Brookline Superette). It's a shame to see the building razed instead of fixed up.

We'll be spending our next few days around the Coolidge Corner area, and tomorrow we're headed a couple blocks northwest to check out a kosher supermarket!