Star Market - Boston, MA (North Station)

Star Market

Opened: September 2019

Owner: Albertsons Companies

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 50-150 Causeway St, Boston, MA

Photographed: August 13, 2019; February 22, 2020; and May 14, 2022

Welcome to the newest Star Market! This store, spanning roughly 60,000 square feet on two floors, opened in September 2019 in a new-build development on top of North Station, one of Boston's two main train stations, and immediately next to TD Garden, a large arena. The first pictures I have are from August 2019, just a month before it opened, and then my interior pictures are a combination of February 2020 and a few from May 2022.

I wasn't aware that the supermarket would be mostly in the building's basement, so I thought this would be the storefront. It's not. It's now a few other smaller storefronts, and the entrance to Star Market is around the corner, visible in the above photo.

You can see the entrances to both North Station and the TD Garden in the picture below.

Now, let's return with the supermarket open!

There haven't been many new-build Albertsons stores over the last 10 years or so, and even fewer in the northeast. So this was quite a big deal when it opened, and it's one of the flagship Star Markets. As far as I know, it's the only store on the east coast with Pavilions decor, also known as Ultra-Premium. Like the Roche Brothers at Downtown Crossing, the small space on the ground floor functions as a convenience store and coffee shop (there's a Starbucks in it), but the main supermarket is in the basement.

Above is a look at the convenience store area and Starbucks on the main floor. You then go down an escalator to enter the supermarket in the basement. You enter roughly the middle of the supermarket, with the grand aisle on the left side. Produce and prepared foods are in the front-left corner, with prepared foods and bakery lining the rest of the left-side wall. Cheese and a beer and wine department are in the middle of the store, with meat/seafood on the back wall. Frozen, dairy, and HABA are on the right side, with pharmacy in the front-right corner.

This is my favorite Albertsons decor package, although I know some over on Retail Watchers don't like it. I think it works well in an upscale supermarket, and here it's executed very well. Star Markets in general tend to have a higher-end selection than a Shaw's with more specialty items, though that varies based on the location, and this one is higher-end than most Star Markets.

It's clear this is a flagship store for Star Market. I've been here a few times, and every time, the store has been absolutely spotless and perfectly stocked.

The cheese shop is under the escalator that brings customers into the supermarket, with beer and wine opposite. Again, it's clear it's a specialty setup, more so than the average Shaw's (though some locations have higher-end selections).

There are several prepared foods choices here, and they weren't really cut back during the coronavirus, which is a good sign. There's even a Regina Pizzeria, which is a local chain with excellent pizza.

Everything is a bit of a step up, including the fixtures used for deli as you can see below. Shaw's sells Dietz & Watson deli meats, but Star Market uses Boar's Head.

The beautiful bakery is up next. Again, I love these fixtures and the signage is well done, too.

Service seafood and meat counters, again with an expanded and higher-end selection, are at the back of the grand aisle on the left side of the back wall.

Does anyone else remember the bagged Open Nature Savory Skillets frozen dinners that Albertsons Companies was selling for a while? Here, they went all-out with a self-serve freezer filled with various kinds of frozen dinners that you could package yourself.

This seemed like a...questionable idea at best, and customers seemed to not respond very well to it. Those dinners (even pre-bagged at other stores) didn't last more than a year or two.

Here we can see the rest of the meat department and the dairy department on the right side of the store in the back-right corner. Grocery aisles are on the other side of the refrigerators to the right in the above picture.

Here, it's harder to tell that you're in a basement than at the Roche Brothers, possibly because the colors are lighter overall and possibly because the ceiling is higher. Plus, this is a far newer building than the Roche Brothers, which occupies the basement of the 100-year-old Filene's.

The aisles are divided in half from the cheese/beer and wine area across.

Pharmacy and HABA are in the front-right corner.

Interesting how things come full circle. These wooden panels above the freezer cases are not unlike what a lot of ACME stores removed that A&P had installed.

And dairy is in the back-right corner of the store.

It runs along the back wall with some additional cases facing.

Here's a look at the front-end from the escalator, and you can see the pharmacy to the far left. Customer service is in an island facing the front-end, with the grand aisle to the right in the above picture. I believe floral is also on the front-end, to the right of the above picture.

And that's about all for our look at this beautiful Star Market! We'll see several other older, but still very nice, Star Markets around the city and the suburbs, along with some that are more mundane.

Because this area only has two large supermarkets (this one and the Whole Foods at the Charles River Plaza), that's all for this group's tours! Tomorrow, we'll be taking a look at the independent grocers of the area.