bfresh - Somerville, MA

bfresh
Open: 2017-2023

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants

Later Tenants: H Mart (2024- )

Cooperative: none

Location: 240 Elm St, Somerville, MA

Photographed: July 21, 2019

Time for another bfresh! We saw the Allston location a few weeks ago, and you should definitely check out that post before reading this one to familiarize yourself with the bfresh concept along with the Stop & Shop-owned chain's history. The brand appears to have been retired, since there aren't currently any stores under that banner, but it's possible the chain will bring it back in the future.

This Davis Square location, like the Allston one, was quite beautiful and was one of the longer-lived bfresh stores. It opened in 2017 as the third bfresh location, I believe, and made it all the way to 2023. It closed in September 2023. Korean supermarket H Mart opened up in January of this year, and unfortunately I haven't been since its opening. Check out some pictures here. The bones look basically the same, but the decor and of course the selections are different. You can also see a local news feature on the store's opening here.

But today our focus is on bfresh before it closed! The 11,000 square foot store was similar to Allston, but the space was a little different. The grand aisle is up front, with the grocery aisles behind that. Dairy/frozen were at the back of the store.

Like I said in Allston, Stop & Shop nailed the aesthetic for bfresh. The stores looked great, but the concept never quite took off.

Somerville doesn't have a particularly large Asian community, but the Asian population in the Boston area is growing and there is definitely more demand for Asian supermarkets. This is one of five H Mart stores in New England, all of which are in Massachusetts. Other locations are in Brookline, Burlington, Cambridge (which we'll see in about two weeks), and Quincy.

The finishes are high-end and modern, but again, I think the issue was pricing and offerings. As you can see, the store looks pretty great. But again, there's a lot of competition here. Pemberton Farms is just a few blocks west, there's another small grocer nearby called McKinnon's which is today's other post here, and there's a large Star Market just half a mile south.

An element of this store's design that's particularly well-done is the lighting. Notice that most of the lighting is focused and lower-level, rather than the usual tube fluorescent lights across the whole store.

You can also see some more specialized selections like the kombucha on tap.

Some interesting merchandising, too. Check out this entire endcap of Nature's Promise natural storebrand items! The regular storebrand items were under the regular Stop & Shop brand. Good prices on these, though, unlike what I noticed at Allston. Those $0.99 beans are $1.79 at the Allston Stop & Shop these days.

Some of those items aren't sold anymore, such as the quinoa. That olive oil spray is now $7.19 (or $3.99 in this 2019 picture). Light brown sugar in the picture was $3.29, now $4.59. That's more in line with what I'd expect -- that those prices have increased over time, which is why the mustard example surprised me. Obviously, the important question is how much those items were selling for at area Stop & Shops back in 2019, and I don't have any way to gauge that.

Like Allston, this store opened with all-new fixtures. I believe bfresh was the first supermarket in this space, and immediately prior to bfresh, it was a Dunkin' Donuts and an office.

Again, nice focused lighting on the perimeter and more straightforward lighting in the aisles.

There were some really nice features here in bfresh, such as this bulk foods department. Honestly, it's a bit of a surprise to me that bfresh failed, because the execution seemed rather good.

Heading back up to the front of the store, where the grand aisle is...

And below you can see where the entrance to the checkouts is, on the right side of the below picture.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the front-end, but it was at the end of this aisle. You can see the green checkout sign above. And unfortunately, a slight branding issue at the self-checkout...

Not only was the self checkout using the Stop & Shop logo, it was still using the recently-retired fruit-slice logo (which was replaced in 2018 with the refreshed traffic light logo). Looks like I got a can of seltzer. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the summer I spent in Boston was one of the hottest ever on record, so I was definitely buying a cold drink at all my stops. Especially since all my Boston travels that summer were on foot (and public transit), given I didn't have a car. Today's other post is McKinnon's, directly across the street, which you can see here. And on Monday we're headed just south to Porter Square to check out the Star Market!