Star Market
You might not know it from just glancing at the exterior, but this Star Market actually dates all the way back to the 1950s. Of course, like the Whole Foods we saw a few days ago, it's gotten extensive work over time, but it's really only had one tenant. Two, if you count the fact that the store was briefly converted to Shaw's from the early 00s until around 2010. This is one of the relatively few stores that was converted from Shaw's to Star Market during Supervalu's ownership of the chain. Others, like Chestnut Hill or Brookline, were never Shaw's.
Quite the facade. I kind of love it! I bet the current Star Market logo would look good on all that glass, and actually, some of the newer Star Markets like Chestnut Hill have quite a bit of glass in their facade. Let's head in!
As you've probably been able to tell from our last several stores, this area is generally an affluent suburban area, so it's no surprise that this is a bit of a higher-end Star Market compared to some that are just more of regular supermarkets.
This store feels very similar to the Shaw's in Stow we toured a while back, and for good reason: both got their latest major renovations around the same time. Both got Premium Fresh & Healthy 2.0 -- the brown one -- in the mid- to late-00s, but this store then got the Star Market decor more recently. Still, that renovation was largely cosmetic, although they've replaced fixtures since then.
The grand aisle is on the right side of the store, with produce on the left side and bakery, cheese, deli, prepared foods, and seafood/meat lining the outside. Packaged meats line the back wall along with dairy, which then continues down the outside of the last aisle. Frozen foods are on the left side, including a small section in the front-left corner. One notable difference between this store and Stow is that there's no pharmacy here in Auburndale.
As we've seen in quite a few other Star Markets, this one has a beautiful cheese shop and deli.
At the back of the grand aisle we can see some signs of renovation even after the decor was installed. The seafood counter is under the Butcher Block sign, and the counters under Fresh Seafood are for sushi and sandwiches. Not a big deal, but it's clear the store has gotten new fixtures and some reset since it first received this renovation. Still, the decor is looking really good these days even though it's probably more than 10 years old. (In 2012, this store still had Shaw's decor.) Interestingly, the signage originally was in yet a different place, with just the word "seafood" to the left.
The grocery aisles are pretty standard, and they feel more like a Shaw's. As far as I can tell, the center-store selection is essentially the same in Shaw's and Star Markets, although I think there may be a few places where they're different. It seems like the bigger difference is on the perimeter.
The flooring has been replaced on the perimeter. Below you can see where meats transition to dairy on the back wall. I always like the blue subway tile in the dairy departments, and it looks particularly good in a setup like this.
13 aisles in total, with frozen foods in the last few.
These look like older frozen foods cases, but many of the other fixtures in the store have been replaced or refurbished more recently.
Here in the last aisle, it looks like the dairy cases might be older but with new doors.
Frozen foods continue onto the front wall in the front-left corner of the store, here decked out with... Christmas unicorns? Sure.
And a look at the front-end...
This is a very pleasant store, and one I've actually been back to a couple times. We're all the way at the western edge of Newton here, and over the next couple days we're going to be traveling east along the Mass Pike, which runs immediately behind this store.
Opened: ca. 2010
Owner: Albertsons Companies
Previous Tenants: Star Market (1959-early 00s) > Shaw's (converted ca. 2010)
Cooperative: none
Location: 2040 Commonwealth Ave, Auburndale, MA
Photographed: December 17, 2022
The store was originally a little smaller than it is now, as it's been expanded to its present 35,000 square feet out the back and by expanding into neighboring storefronts. And thanks to Newspapers.com, we can actually get an idea of what the store looked like originally from this 1959 ad!
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| Clipped from Boston Globe, Jan 7, 1959 via Newspapers.com |
You can tell it's gotten a couple expansions over the years -- the building is now an unusual shape -- as the store is deeper for the first five or six aisles, then the aisles get shorter. Meats are on the back wall where it's farther back -- you can see that below -- and dairy is to the left of that.
Tomorrow's store is another one that overlooks the Mass Pike!
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