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The Grocers of South Boston

We are now done with South Boston and Boston Harbor! The quiet, mostly residential neighborhood is only home to a couple supermarkets, but we also saw quite a few former grocery stores and some small independent grocers . Take a look at all of them on the map below. Coming Up Next Now we're headed into the main part of the city! We're going to start in the South End -- which, as I mentioned, is different from South Boston, neither of which is actually in the southern part of Boston -- and then head north through Chinatown and into downtown Boston. The South End is a fairly affluent, mostly residential and retail/restaurant neighborhood, roughly between Roxbury and the Back Bay/Longwood area. Chinatown then spans an area around route 90, which runs underground, just south of downtown. The Boston Common is just to the northwest of Chinatown and just west of downtown. Let's begin by seeing the South End's independent supermarket on Monday!
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Grocery Archaeology: South Boston

One more day of South Boston! The neighborhood has a Foodie's Market and a Stop & Shop , along with several small grocers , but there used to be many more supermarkets in the neighborhood when supermarkets were far smaller. Thanks to Groceteria 's amazing work, I identified and photographed these assorted former chain grocers across the neighborhood. South Boston Original Grocery Tenant:  Stop & Shop Address:  325 Old Colony Ave, Boston, MA Opened:  mid-1940s Closed:  early 1960s Later Tenants:  assorted other grocers Photographed:  June 29, 2019 What was once a Stop & Shop at the far western part of Southie -- near the Dorchester/Roxbury border -- is now home to the very blue Rotary Variety. The right side of this building was the Stop & Shop, but it's possible the left side was once a store of some kind, too. Notice the rounded corner like we've seen before . The Stop & Shop building looks to be around 2000 square feet, though the bui...

The Independent Edition: South Boston

Now that we've seen the supermarkets of South Boston and Boston Harbor , it's time to check out some of the smaller grocers around the neighborhoods! South Boston Llanera Market Opened:  2004 Owner:  Mary de Jesus Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  260 E 8th St, Boston, MA Photographed:  June 29, 2019 Llanera Market is a small corner grocer, and it looks to be about 2000 square feet. I'm not sure what was here before it opened in 2004, but my guess is that there have probably been independent grocers here for decades. Here's a little look inside.

Trader Joe's - Boston, MA (Boston Harbor)

Trader Joe's Opened: November 12, 2019 Owner:  Aldi Nord Previous Tenants:  non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  44 Thompson Pl, Boston, MA Photographed:  May 20, 2022 This is our first Trader Joe's in some time! It's one of four locations in the city, although I've only photographed three of those four. One of the stores is, in Trader Joe's own words, "the smallest Trader Joe's in the known universe." I would say this is the nicest TJ's in Boston, because although most Trader Joe's look mostly the same, this one is in a great refurbished old brick building and inside, they've left the industrial feeling. You enter on the side to the produce department and floral, with deli/cold cuts behind that. Cheese and meats are on the back wall, with dairy on the right side towards the back. Frozen foods, as is typical for Trader Joe's, are in the middle of the store. The high ceiling with wooden beams makes the store's interior ...

Foodie's Urban Market - Boston, MA (South Boston)

Foodie's Urban Market Opened: 2013 Owner:  Vic Leon Previous Tenants:  non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  230 W Broadway, Boston, MA Photographed:  June 29, 2019 Welcome to Foodie's Urban Market! Foodie's is a two-store gourmet market chain with one location here in South Boston and the other one -- the original location -- in the South End, about a mile west. This small-format location is around 8000 square feet, and is one of two full supermarkets in Southie. The other is a larger, but still very small, Stop & Shop . You enter the store to the produce department in the front-left corner, with meat and seafood in the rest of the first aisle. Deli and bakery are in the back-left corner, with dairy on the rest of the back wall and continuing down the last aisle with frozen. It's a high-end shopping experience with a decidedly upscale product offering. The store is small but complete, and I don't recall seeing a store brand here for groceries (...

Special Report: Associated Supermarket Group

Happy Sunday, and welcome to a detailed look at some of the work the Associated Supermarket Group -- or ASG -- has been up to lately! Yesterday I posted about a lot of recent news, so don't miss that lengthy post here . ASG is the Long Island-based cooperative behind Associated, Met, Pioneer, and Compare Foods stores. Today's ASG is only a little over 10 years old, as it was formed by merging the retail arm of DiGiorgio (Met and Pioneer) with Associated Food Holdings (Associated and Compare) in 2014 when DiGiorgio and White Rose, which supplied all of the above, went under. They lost a lot of stores in 2014 when the wholesalers were struggling, with the vast majority going to Key Food under the Food Universe brand and others. And ASG, owned by private equity until 2021, struggled to recover from the turmoil of their primary wholesaler going under and approximately a quarter or more of their stores leaving the cooperative. During most of that time, Key Food was the major mover a...

News Roundup: August 2025

For this weekend's special coverage, let's take a look at some of the New York City-area grocery news -- because there's been a lot happening! As always, follow me at news.marketreportblog.com to hear breaking news first. A mechanical note: use the menu bar at the top to filter recent posts if you'd like to see only the recent Boston-area stores , new store openings and other news , and updates . Now, onto this weekend's updates. First for a look at the bigger news... Wakefern acquires Morton Williams Wakefern Food Corp., the cooperative that runs ShopRite stores, has acquired NYC chain Morton Williams outright. It seems that the stores will be corporately-owned, joining about 100 other Wakefern-owned ShopRite and Price Rite locations. Read more on Food Trade News , and see the discussion over on RetailWatchers here . Northeast Grocery might be up for sale Northeast Grocery, the Schenectady-based owner of Price Chopper, Market 32, and Tops, has been exploring a sal...