Star Market
Opened: 2014
For a couple days now, we've been right along the line between Cambridge and Somerville. Pemberton Farms was Cambridge, but bfresh and McKinnon's are Somerville. Today we're back in Cambridge for the Star Market at Porter Square!
This 40,000 square foot store looks quite new, but isn't. It was built as a Star Market back in the mid-1950s, then became a Shaw's in the early 00s. It switched back to Star Market in 2014. There's a smaller Star Market about half a mile south of here, back in Somerville, that feels much older but was actually built around 1970. The most significant renovation and expansion, which also added the current exterior facade, seems to have happened around the late 1990s.
You enter to the grand aisle on the left side, with produce in the front and deli/prepared foods on the left side. Seafood and bakery are at the back of the grand aisle, with dairy on the back wall. Frozen and dairy are generally on the right side, with meats along the right side wall of the store. That part is a somewhat unusual layout, and it's certainly unusual for an Albertsons Companies store to have meat and seafood so far from each other.
This store got the standard Star Market remodel when it switched from Shaw's a little over 10 years ago. More recently, it also hosted a grand reopening about a year ago, but the decor didn't change.
That said, it's still a very nice store, and it's in excellent condition to have been continuously operating as a supermarket since the 1950s.
Looking up towards the front of the grand aisle...
Cold cuts and dairy are here on the back wall instead of meats, and I'm not sure why that layout choice was made. I assume it has to do with either the original layout of the 1950s-era store, or maybe the availability of prep space for the meat room.
Straightforward grocery aisles, and they really feel like a 90s or early 00s Shaw's. I assume, given that and the setup of the perimeter, it probably was remodeled under Shaw's/Sainsbury's ownership and not by American Stores.
Creamery in the back right corner, with frozen foods in the aisles opposite...
Notice that the flooring was replaced around the whole perimeter in this remodel, which not every one got.
Service meat counter and packaged meats on the far right side of the store. Why fresh pasta is here is beyond me. I almost never see that anywhere other than the dairy or deli departments.
The meat department wraps around to the front wall, with the registers visible just to the right in the below picture.
And a look across the front-end...
This is a very attractive store, and the largest supermarket in the immediate area. There's a slightly larger Market Basket a little over a mile southeast, which is anything but attractive.
Opened: 2014
Owner: Albertsons Companies
Previous Tenants: Star Market (mid-1950s - early 00s) > Shaw's (early 00s-2014)
Cooperative: none
Location: 49 White St, Cambridge, MA
Photographed: July 21, 2019
Tomorrow, we'll be headed down to see the Beacon Street Star Market!
Not sure the words attractive and Market Basket have ever been used in the same sentence ;)
ReplyDeleteAt least there aren't THREE of their stores in a mile or so of each other here (unlike the stretch in Salem, NH) - one is definitely new (where the old Rockingham Park was) but even the other two are just as close (and on the same side of the street, while the new one is the other side).
In the time since these pictures were taken, they added a Starbucks to this location. It’s where Customer Service used to be, which you can kinda see on the final picture of the front end. The new Service Desk is just around the corner where those fridges for the meat were. I haven’t been to this store in a long time, but I’m wondering what changes they made that warranted a recent “grand reopening” if the decor stayed the same. It’s a visually appealing decor package, but I’m curious if they plan to change it at all in the next few years.
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