Super 88 Market
Opened: 2000
Car dealerships apparently make for a great supermarket building! Back in Brookline, we saw a Stop & Shop in a former Chevrolet dealer, and just a block east is another large car dealer-turned-supermarket, today's other post. This building is somewhat smaller than the Star Market, at a little under 40,000 square feet.
Super 88 opened up here in 2000, building a supermarket in the back part of the car dealership and a food court in the front part of the space. I didn't tour the food court, but good news -- Eater Boston did an extensive tour back in 2015. Obviously, things have changed since then, but it still gives you an idea of the setup.
The supermarket's entrance and exit are on the side wall of the building facing the parking lot, and the supermarket is behind the food court in the very deep but very narrow building.
Produce is in the front part of the supermarket, with the registers across the front wall (the food court is beyond the registers). The grocery aisles are behind produce, with meat and seafood behind it on the back wall.
This is the largest Asian supermarket in Boston, and although it's a bit removed from the Chinatown area and the part of Dorchester with several Vietnamese markets, there's a growing Asian community in this area (which we also saw in Brookline). There are several larger Asian supermarkets outside of the city, including in Quincy.
Aesthetics are clearly not particularly important to Super 88, as we can see some pretty bare-bones decor mounted right to a painted cinderblock wall. It definitely feels like an industrial space more than a retail one, but it also works because this is a larger store, so it feels more like a warehouse of Asian foods than a typical supermarket.
The large windows are a very nice touch, though, and make the store feel very bright and airy.
It's not dirty or rundown, but it's also definitely not prioritizing the look of the interior. That said, it was very clean and very well-stocked.
This is the first Super 88 we've seen on the blog, and one of only two that exist today. There have previously been other stores in and around Boston, including in Quincy and at the South Bay Center. The other location is about five and a half miles northeast in Malden, which we'll be touring shortly.
There's a huge selection here, especially given the store's larger size (compared to the other urban Boston Asian supermarkets). Check out these candies!
Refrigerated and frozen in the last aisle.
The high ceilings and big windows really help brighten up the space. I love the look of it. Notice the pendant lights that don't seem to be on in the pictures -- I wonder if they only come on at night when there's less natural light coming in from the windows. It also helps that there are windows up high because there's no windows at the ground level here.
And a look at the front-end...
Opened: 2000
Owner: unknown
Previous Tenants: unknown
Cooperative: none
Location: 1 Brighton Ave, Allston, MA
Photographed: July 20, 2019
That's all for Super 88, but be sure to see Star Market the next block over here. Have a great weekend, and on Monday we'll be checking out a small grocer just west of here!
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