Whole Foods Market - Cambridge, MA (Port)

Whole Foods Market
Opened: 2003

Owner: Amazon

Previous Tenants: Bread & Circus (2001-2003)

Cooperative: none

Location: 340 River St, Cambridge, MA

Photographed: October 5, 2018

Greetings from Cambridge Port in the southwestern part of the city! Take a good look at the outside of this Whole Foods -- and the inside, for that matter, once we get inside -- would you believe this store is nearly 25 years old? It's gotten a bit of renovation inside for sure, but it was a new-build store in 2001. When it was constructed, it was owned by Whole Foods but branded Bread & Circus. The brand switched to Whole Foods in 2003.

Because of limited space on the property, it's constructed with a parking lot under the store at ground level and the store is on the second floor. There's also parking in a surface lot in front of the store.

The supermarket is just under 40,000 square feet. And because of its setup, it uses a parcel pick-up system similar to several other stores we've seen. 

A set of escalators bring us up to the second floor where the supermarket is, and we can tell right away the inside is much newer than the other location in town.

Bakery is on the front wall between the produce department and the front-end. On the other side is a large bulk department and produce on the left side wall of the store.

I was shocked to find out that this store was as old as it is. It feels like a much newer-build store.

I also assume it was remodeled around 2015 or so, since this decor was looking all but brand-new when I visited back in 2018.

Seafood and butcher are at the back of the produce department, with packaged meat and dairy on the rest of the back wall. Frozen foods are on the right side of the store, with cheese, deli, bakery, and prepared foods on the right side of the store. A beer and wine department is also on that side of the store.

I like this big, bold, and colorful signage.

One clue, I think, that this store was on the older side and not a more recent build is that the grand aisle has tile floor, not polished concrete. The rest of the store has polished concrete floors.

I particularly like the oversized text here for the department stores, and I like how it hangs off the wall here and in produce. I've always found Whole Foods' decor very attractive, though they're not all winners.

Dairy on the back wall.

Many Whole Foods stores still have or had until recently open coffin freezers, so it's possibly a sign of a slightly newer build here that the freezer cases are closed and upright.

More brightly-colored walls in the deli and prepared foods department area.

Beer and wine face the prepared foods.

But my bet would be that the tile behind the service counters here is left over from a previous decor package.

I have no idea if it's still there, but when I visited, there was a stand for kombucha on top. That's not a feature you see every day!

A look across the front-end back towards produce...

Bakery is all the way on the right side of the front-end, which is a somewhat unusual place to put it.

Now we exit back down to ground level...

That is almost all for Cambridge! But before we leave the area entirely, let's check out the last supermarket in town we haven't seen tomorrow. Stay tuned!