The Market Report

That brings us to the end of Cambridge and Somerville! It's been a lot of back-and-forth around these neighborhoods, so check out the stores on the map below to make sure you haven't missed any, and to get a better idea of where they all are in relation to each other. Coming Up Next We're going to spend just a couple days visiting a few of the northwestern Boston suburbs we either skipped or passed through only briefly on our first trip through. This isn't so much a cohesive group of towns or neighborhoods as much as a random collection of other stores I've photographed -- so we'll spend a day each in Belmont and Waltham right outside Boston, then head northwest to Bedford, Billerica, Concord, and Acton, then go back out towards Worcester for a day to wrap up with a store in Marlborough. This one won't be too long a group because my coverage is sparse, but before we continue to the north we're gonna see some last-minute additions back in the Worcester a...

Star Market Opened:  ca. 2015 Owner:  Albertsons Companies Previous Tenants:  Star Market (early 1980s - early 00s) > Shaw's (early 00s-ca. 2015) Cooperative:  none Location:  14 McGrath Hwy, Somerville, MA Photographed:  February 22, 2020 Time for another Star-Shaw's-Star Market! This one is in the eastern part of Somerville, just under a mile from the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston . This store is about 63,000 square feet, built in the 1980s (at a slightly smaller size) as a Star Market and then renovated and expanded around the time it became a Shaw's in the early 00s, switching back to Star Market around 2015. Inside, it was given a simple cosmetic remodel then, and got a couple more updates (some new fixtures and flooring) around 2019. I visited in early 2020. You enter to the grand aisle on the left side, with prepared foods, deli, and cheese lining the left side wall. Produce is opposite, with meat and seafood at the back. There's a liquor sto...

Reliable Market Opened:  2012 under current ownership; 1980 previously Owner:  Ongu Cho Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  45 Union Sq, Somerville, MA Photographed:  February 22, 2020 Somerville's Reliable Market goes back to 1980 when Korean-American immigrant Chung Shin Park opened the 5700 square foot Korean and Japanese food store at Union Square. In 2012, current owner Ongu Cho purchased the business. You can read more about it here , and take a look inside here . And tomorrow we're headed out to the eastern edge of Somerville for a big-chain supermarket!

Market Basket Opened: ca. 1979 Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  400 Somerville Ave, Somerville, MA Photographed:  February 22, 2020 Welcome to one of the very few Market Baskets in the immediate Boston area! For the chain's dominance in many of the suburbs, they have almost no presence in the more urban areas. This Somerville location is one of only three close to Boston -- the other two are in Chelsea, which we'll see shortly, and the far western side of Waltham . Market Basket doesn't have any stores within the city of Boston, and I don't know whether they ever did. Groceteria says that several Market Baskets did exist within Boston, but it's unclear to me whether they're the same company. If I'm not mistaken, this company was still called DeMoulas at the time those Market Baskets are listed. At 48,000 square feet, this store isn't exactly small. But it's definitely smaller -- and older -- than the cha...

Whole Foods Market Opened: 2013 Owner:  Amazon Previous Tenants:  Stop & Shop (1950s) > Johnnie's Foodmaster (open by 1962, closed 2012) Cooperative:  none Location:  45 Beacon St, Cambridge, MA Photographed:  February 22, 2020 One look at this Whole Foods near Inman Square can tell you it's been a supermarket for a long time. A bit of research can confirm that: it was built in the 1950s as a Stop & Shop, becoming a Johnnie's Foodmaster no later than 1962. Johnnie's closed in 2012, and several of their stores were acquired by Whole Foods . At around 15,000 square feet, this store is small for Whole Foods, but not nearly as small as that Brookline location. Yelp has a few pictures of this store as Johnnie's, including the carpeted flooring that Massachusetts supermarkets seemed to love . Like Brookline, this store got a bright-red floor when Whole Foods opened up and renovated the space. Produce is in the first aisle on the right side, with dairy at...