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Update: Star Market - Belmont, MA

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Star Market
Opened: 2014
Owner: Albertsons Companies
Previous Tenants: Star Market (early 1990s - early 00s) > Shaw's (early 00s-ca. 2015)
Cooperative: none
Location: 535 Trapelo Rd, Belmont, MA
Photographed: August 23, 2026 and September 27, 2026
We return to the Boston suburb of Belmont, which has a Star Market dating to the 1990s. My original post showed the store in beautiful shape with the standard Star Market decor package -- which, surprisingly, dates back to 2009 but was installed here around 2015. Now, this store is getting another big renovation. We're gonna start with pictures I took at the end of August, then see some updates from just last weekend.
Though the store looked good, it's now getting a pretty full redo. We have new flooring around the perimeter, new fixtures (or at least rearranged old ones) in produce, and of course, new decor all the way around.
Some of the refrigeration has been replaced, too. I haven't seen these lower refrigerators in Albertsons Companies in the past as you can see below. The vegetable refrigerators on the side wall also look new.
The bones of some previous decor -- presumably the Premium Fresh & Healthy 1.0 decor -- are still here, but have been stripped.
Again, new refrigeration over in deli and prepared foods. It looks like this may have gone in prior to my previous set of pictures. In other words, it looks like they've been making incremental updates over time but are now redoing the whole thing.
Older dairy cases had doors added to them, but now all of the dairy cases have been replaced. We'll see that in a second in the newer pictures.
Another update is that the Star Market logo outside is being replaced. You can see they've taken off the colorful lettering and the lightbulbs are visible underneath. Here's the newer pictures, from last weekend...
Some new decor in, some not yet. It's clear this will be the Pavilions decor from the west coast, which has appeared in one other Star Market.
This strikes me as a high-volume store that's been maintained really well over the years, and the remodel is looking great.
Interestingly, they actually removed the service bakery counter at some point, only to put it back in this remodel. When I visited in the spring of 2025, the bakery was all self-service, but by this summer the service counter was back.
Updated cheese and meat departments, plus new decor going in to the deli department. This store's relatively low ceiling over the perimeter prevents the decor from being too grand, but it still looks good.
New cases for the service meat and seafood department, but not the deli.
One really noticeable thing about this renovation: Although the store was crowded, it was very quiet. I realized that's because I'm so often used to hearing refrigerators and freezers churning, but since they're all so new here, they're very quiet. That includes all of the dairy cases, which despite not appearing that old have all been replaced.
And a very nicely remodeled pharmacy in the front corner...
I'm really happy with how this remodel is coming out, and I'd love to see more Star Markets with this decor in the future.
Before we leave the subject of Star Market, we're gonna stop by the North Waltham one for a quick update.

Star Market
Opened: ca. 2015
Owner: Albertsons Companies
Previous Tenants: Star Market (ca. 1960 - early 00s) > Shaw's (early 00s-ca. 2015)
Cooperative: none
Location: 1070 Lexington St, Waltham, MA
Photographed: August 23, 2026
My original post only had nighttime exterior pictures, so I figured I'd update with some daytime ones. I also found that the front has been painted white and gray with a very attractive floral theme across the whole strip mall. That appears to be the work of the landlord, not Star Market, as it's also popped up at a handful of their other malls -- including one with a Shaw's up in Sudbury.
Good to see some serious remodeling work happening here in Belmont, and a nice update in Waltham too. Here's a look at this weekend's other posts!

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