The Market Report

Trader Joe's Opened: between 1999 and 2006 Owner:  Aldi Nord Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  1121 Washington St, West Newton, MA Photographed:  February 23, 2020 and December 17, 2022 Trader Joe's is a chain that definitely doesn't mind unusual buildings. Here in West Newton, they've taken about 10,000 square feet on the ground floor of what appears to be a former industrial building. It faces Washington Street, the main road through this part of Newton, and has parking on the sides and in the back. There's actually an entrance on each side, but none out to Washington Street. I took the above picture out the window of a train on the Framingham Worcester Line, which runs between Washington Street and the Mass Pike. That picture is from the winter of 2020, but the rest of the pictures in this post are from December 2022. Here's a street-level view of the front facing Washington Street, and a look at the entrance on th...

Star Market Opened: ca. 2010 Owner:  Albertsons Companies Previous Tenants:  Star Market (1959-early 00s) > Shaw's (converted ca. 2010) Cooperative:  none Location:  2040 Commonwealth Ave, Auburndale, MA Photographed:  December 17, 2022 You might not know it from just glancing at the exterior, but this Star Market actually dates all the way back to the 1950s. Of course, like the Whole Foods we saw a few days ago, it's gotten extensive work over time, but it's really only had one tenant. Two, if you count the fact that the store was briefly converted to Shaw's from the early 00s until around 2010. This is one of the relatively few stores that was converted from Shaw's to Star Market during Supervalu's ownership of the chain. Others, like Chestnut Hill or Brookline , were never Shaw's. The store was originally a little smaller than it is now, as it's been expanded to its present 35,000 square feet out the back and by expanding into neighboring storef...

The Waban Market Opened: 1986 under current ownership; ca. 1950s previously Owner:  Yan Kaganov Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  10 Windsor Rd, Waban, MA Photographed:  January 12, 2025 Right off the bat, you can tell these pictures weren't from the summer of 2019! Sure, you can point to the better picture quality or the fact that, if you go into the file's metadata, you can see it was taken with a cell phone that quite literally didn't exist in 2019. But most obvious -- here we're seeing the Waban Market with a light coating of snow, which certainly wasn't happening in the summer of 2019 when I visited other stores nearby . The Waban Market dates back to the 1950s, when it was constructed in the village of Waban within the town of Newton. The store is small but has been expanded over time, growing from its original size of just 2000 square feet to its present 7000 square feet. I've mentioned that there's an Eastern European communit...