Star Market - Boston, MA (Prudential)

Star Market

Opened: 2015

Owner: Albertsons Companies

Previous Tenants: Shaw's (2003-2015)

Cooperative: none

Location: 53 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA

Photographed: July 21, 2019 and November 13, 2021

Welcome to the Prudential Center Star Market! This is the largest supermarket in the neighborhood, but it's still on the smaller side at around 40,000 square feet. It opened in 2003 as a Shaw's, replacing an older Star Market on Boylston Street about a block and a half north at 800 Boylston. And although that store was older and smaller, it wasn't even that old, having opened in 1993. This new-build location was a flagship Shaw's, and you can see more of the original store design on this page, and some other locations.

The store is a triangle, with the rotunda you can see above at the corner of Ring Road and Huntington Avenue. The front-end lines the left side wall, to the left in the above picture (or seen below), with the grand aisle along the right-side wall. Produce and floral are in the corner inside the rotunda, with seafood, deli, and cheese on the right-side wall (to the right in the above picture). Bakery is in the back corner -- the back point of the triangle -- with a liquor store on the second floor along the back wall. Dairy and frozen are in the middle of the store. There's a food court and Starbucks in the back-left corner, or just out of frame to the left in the below picture.

There's an entrance each in the rotunda and in the back corner near the food court, which you can see below.

The design of the store's interior is really spectacular, and the large windows make the store feel bright and airy. This is certainly one of the most grand new-build supermarkets I've seen, although there are a handful of really impressive Star Markets.

Here's a look at the grand aisle on the right side of the store.

There's a lot of specialty features here, although it doesn't look like the juice bar is full-service anymore.

The produce department is attractive and filled with some new fixtures. These wooden bins were probably installed during the conversion from Shaw's to Star Market in 2015.

The service departments of the grand aisle are up next along the right-side wall, with seafood, deli, and cheese against the outside wall.

The dairy department faces this area in an island, with an unusual setup of a walk-in dairy cooler actually out on the sales floor.

This is the first grocery aisle next to the grand aisle, with the rest of the grocery aisles running side-to-side in the store.

Shaw's presumably wouldn't have had as large a cheese department -- this store's cheese section is extensive and upscale -- so it looks like some of the deli department was sacrificed to expand the cheese counter.

Frozen foods in the back of the store. It looks like these cases, like many of the fixtures in the store, were probably new when the store opened but haven't been replaced since.

Bakery is in the right-side corner, the back right corner of the triangle. It's nice to see how well Star Market was able to adapt to the nontraditional setup of the space, even though it was a new-build store.

Packaged breads line the outside on the back of the triangle, and the liquor store is on the second floor above it.

More frozen foods in the last aisle here in what look like newer cases. I'm assuming the bulk foods section didn't survive the coronavirus, and I have actually been back here since then (not long ago), but I don't remember for sure whether the bulk foods are still there.

Let's take a visit to the liquor store at the back...

The setup here is upscale, like most of the store, and there's a lot here. I don't know exactly why it's on the second floor or mezzanine -- maybe there are backrooms or offices below it. But why not put those on the second floor and the liquor store on the main supermarket level?

Pre-COVID, there was also a cafe seating area up here. That was removed during the coronavirus, although the large prepared foods area here remained (like at the North Station location).

It of course offers a great view across the supermarket! If I'm not mistaken, there are two sets of grocery aisles here and they're divided in half, so there's another set of aisles to the left below.

Here's a look over to the back-left corner of the store where the prepared foods are.

Looking across the middle dividing aisle...

The grocery aisles are pretty standard. I like the concrete floor here.

Prepared foods in the back-left corner.

It's a little unusual to see this area so far from the deli, but I assume there are different target customers for each. The prepared foods are probably grab-and-go -- people who work nearby or, let's face it, tourists who want a quick lunch -- while the deli is definitely for people who live nearby and shop here for their whole order.

Sushi, sandwiches, and Starbucks in the back-left corner. I believe there's a parking garage, which is probably where the elevator here would lead.

And a look at the front-end, on the left side of the store. The food court area is at the far side in the picture below, and the floral department and produce are behind me in the below picture. Again, I love the windows.

Other than the world's smallest Trader Joe's, our next stop is the only other full supermarket in this neighborhood. It's about half a mile west. Come back tomorrow for a tour!