The Market Report

Whole Foods Market Opened: 2003 Owner:  Amazon Previous Tenants:  Purity Supreme (1966-early 1990s) > Nature's Heartland (opened 1996, closed by 2000) > Bread & Circus (opened by 2000, converted to Whole Foods in 2003) Cooperative:  none Location:  170 Great Rd, Bedford, MA Photographed:  March 5, 2025 Time for our latest Whole Foods store! Like so many others we've seen in the Boston area, this store was previously a Bread & Circus, but it actually has a much more interesting history than just that. It was constructed in 1966 as a Purity Supreme, and it appears that when that chain was acquired by Stop & Shop in the 1990s, this store was moved into the new-build Bedford location just down the street. The former owners of Purity Supreme then started a natural food chain, called Nature's Heartland, which had opened here by 1996 and closed by 2000. Bread & Circus (owned by Whole Foods) opened no later than 2000, then converted to Whole Food...

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 s...

Whole Foods Market Opened: 2003 Owner:  Amazon Previous Tenants:  First National Stores (opened by early 1950s, closed 1974) > The Globe Discount Center (closed 1976) > Bread & Circus (open by 1986, converted to Whole Foods 2003) Cooperative:  none Location:  115 Prospect St, Cambridge, MA Photographed:  July 21, 2019 Welcome to the final week of Cambridge! We're here in Central Square where, on Friday, we saw three stores . The final store near Central Square is a couple blocks north, and it's this Whole Foods with a long history as a supermarket. As you might be able to tell from the outside, it was built way back in the early 1950s as a First National Stores (Finast), then closed no later than 1974. It became The Globe Discount Center, which was closed by 1976, then by 1986 it had become a Bread & Circus natural food store. That chain was acquired by Whole Foods in 1992 but kept its name until 2003, when its stores in the Boston area were conve...