The Market Report

Believe it or not, everybody, we've seen every supermarket in Boston except for one! I hope you've enjoyed our trip around the city, and of course, we're not yet done with the greater Boston area -- we have plenty of time still to spend in the northern suburbs and the north shore of MA -- but our last few days in Allston and Brighton have finished up our look at the city's grocery stores. Here's a look at our visits from these neighborhoods! Coming Up Next Cambridge and Somerville are the next two suburbs north of Boston, and they're really cities in their own right. Cambridge has a population near 120,000, and Somerville -- the more suburban one -- has over 80,000 people. And those people are densely packed into just over 10 square miles. Cambridge is home to both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), while Tufts University's campus is partially in Somerville. You've probably heard the stereotypical Boston "pahk t...

Star Market Opened: ca. 2008 Owner:  Albertsons Companies Previous Tenants:  Star Market (1997-early 00s) > Shaw's (early 00s-ca. 2008) Cooperative:  none Location:  370 Western Ave, Brighton, MA Photographed:  July 27, 2019 Happy Wednesday, and now we're down to the last two stores of Boston! Today's tour is the Star Market on Western Avenue in Brighton, a spacious store of around 60,000 square feet. It was built as a Star Market in 1997, but as with most of the Boston Star Markets, it briefly became a Shaw's from the early 00s to around 2008 -- making it one of the earlier conversions back to Star Market. It's going on 30 years old but still feels relatively new, as it's been renovated several times in its life. The store likely got a renovation during its time as a Shaw's to the Premium Fresh & Healthy decor package -- there are some curved overhangs that seem to resemble that deocr package -- and was renovated to the current decor package when it...

Whole Foods Market Opened: 2003 Owner:  Amazon Previous Tenants:  Stop & Shop (late 1950s-ca. early 1990s) > Bread & Circus (opened by 1994, converted to Whole Foods in 2003) Cooperative:  none Location:  15 Washington St, Brighton, MA Photographed:  July 20, 2019 As natural food store chain Bread & Circus expanded in the 1990s in the Boston area, their main targets for store acquisition were recently-closed chain supermarkets. Several of those were former Stop & Shop locations. So far, we've seen Stop & Shop-turned-Bread & Circus locations in Back Bay  and the West End , and now here's another: the Brighton Whole Foods was built in the late 1950s as a Stop & Shop, closing by the early 1990s and becoming a Bread & Circus no later than 1994. Whole Foods owned Bread & Circus from 1992 on, but kept the name until all the stores were rebranded Whole Foods in 2003. This collection of signs made me chuckle. Parking this way...

Babushka Deli Opened: 1992 Owner:  unknown Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  62 Washington St, Brighton, MA Photographed:  July 20, 2019 Welcome to the Babushka Deli of Brighton! This small store of around 3000 square feet -- which was expanded around 2010 from a much smaller storefront by adding the former dry cleaner space to the right in the above picture -- is a convenience store and Russian grocer, with aisles of imported grocery and a deli/bakery with smoked fish , sausages, and cheeses . This area's Eastern European community extends through Newton and Brookline into Brighton, and in fact we're less than a mile from the Bazaar on Beacon Street . We're also just diagonally across the street from a big-chain supermarket, which is today's other post here . Tomorrow we're headed just north to a recently-closed supermarket in Allston!

Chansky's Super Market Opened: 1985 under current ownership; ca. 1950s previously Owner:  Doug Labb Previous Tenants:  M. Winer/Elm Farm Food Co. (opened late 1930s, converted to Elm Farm ca. mid-1940s, closed by mid-1950s) Cooperative:  none Location:  161 Sunderland Rd, Brighton, MA Photographed:  July 20, 2019 A grocery store has been here at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Sutherland Road in Brighton for nearly 100 years. By the late 1930s, this 1500 square foot space was a location of M. Winer, a chain grocer in the Boston area that eventually rebranded as Elm Farm Food Co. It looks like that chain either expanded or became a cooperative with multiple owners across New England, but here in Brighton, the Sutherland Road location became Chansky's Super Market by the mid-1950s or so, which it's stayed ever since despite changing ownership at least once. It's also been expanded to its present 3300 square feet, including a small smoke shop next to the gr...