Whole Foods Market - Boston, MA (Charlestown)

Whole Foods Market

Opened: 2013

Owner: Amazon

Previous Tenants: Johnnie's Foodmaster (opened ca. 1980, closed 2012)

Cooperative: none

Location: 27 Austin St, Boston, MA

Photographed: July 22, 2019

One of the ways that Whole Foods got so many stores in the Boston area was through the acquisition of six stores from Johnnie's Foodmaster, a local chain of supermarkets that went out of business in 2012. This one was opened as a new-build Johnnie's Foodmaster around 1980, closing in late 2012. After renovations, Whole Foods opened the following year.

The 31,000 square foot store today is a very nice Whole Foods. I photographed it in 2019, but I returned very recently (last winter, I think?) and can confirm nothing has changed.

You enter to the grand aisle on the right side with a juice bar, bakery, produce, and cheese on that side. Dairy lines the back wall with frozen in the second-to-last aisle, and on the left side of the store are the meat, seafood, and deli/prepared foods counters.

I like this decor package, and it's not too different from the one we just saw at the Charles River Plaza store about a mile south across the river.

This store's design felt fun and intricate, definitely with more personality than newer stores have gotten. To see examples of that, look no further than the cheese department...

...where the usual single-tier cheese case is accompanied by what amounts to a refrigerated cabinet to the left...

...in a little room that, as far as I can tell, serves no apparent purpose other than design. I don't know if there was originally something else here, but I can't imagine what it would have been.

Dairy lines the rest of the back wall.

These grocery aisles are similar to the Charles River Plaza store's, too.

And here, these category markers have similar curved brackets to the South End store. Of course, the overall decor is very different between these two stores, though.

I'm not familiar with that many other Whole Foods stores with seafood and butcher fully in the last aisle. I'd expect to see them on the back wall, with prepared foods and maybe bakery in this spot. Instead, this store has a bit of an abbreviated deli and kitchen department compared to some other area locations.

There's still quite a bit to choose from, but this prepared foods area feels smaller given the large meat and seafood departments in this last aisle.

Looking towards the back...

...and across the front-end.

This is Charlestown's only supermarket, and although you might not know the name Charlestown, you probably are familiar with Bunker Hill, which is in this neighborhood. In fact, the site of the battle of Bunker Hill is just five blocks from this Whole Foods. Charlestown is the end of a peninsula that also includes Cambridge and Somerville, where we'll return shortly. But before that, we have to see the rest of Boston! On Monday, we're headed just across the Mystic River to East Boston. Have a great weekend!