The Market Report

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:  March 5, 2025 Welcome to another Star Market! We've seen a couple in the northern suburbs, and now we're back for two more today and Monday. In fact, counting this one we've seen all but three of the Star Market locations. Number 19 of 21 is up for Monday! And if you think the exterior looks vaguely familiar, it is. This is almost exactly the same exterior model that ACME was using in the 90s. (Or see here .) There's a foyer with an entrance on each end. On the left side, Starbucks is right inside the entrance, with produce is in the front-left corner. Bakery and meat are on the left side of the first aisle, with cheese in an island facing. Deli, prepared foods, and seafood are at the back of the first aisle, with dairy on the rest of the back wal...

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...

Trader Joe's Opened: 1996 Owner:  Aldi Nord Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  748 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA Photographed:  October 4 and 5, 2018 Welcome to the Cambridge Trader Joe's! Actually, this is one of two, with the other one way up at Alewife. This 11,000 square foot supermarket was one of the earliest Boston-area Trader Joe's, opening in 1996 around the time the Brookline store opened. It's just around the corner from the Whole Foods we saw yesterday. I love the mural-covered wall, a very nice touch on what would otherwise be a fairly typical strip mall building. I haven't been inside the store, though, but you can take a look inside here . It's just next door to a building now home to the Micro Center , an electronics store, but it was originally a Stop & Shop. Here's a closeup of the mural on the side wall of the store, which faces Memorial Drive. And that's a wrap on Cambridge and Somerville! Come back tomorrow...

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...