The New Retail Thread

My father shed some light on what's going with Shaw's/Star. There are 3 brands now:

Star Market = Upscale
Shaw's Neighborhood = Mid-upscale
Shaw's = Regular

They've been slowly rebranding ever since they were bought out a couple years ago. The changes are finally hitting Boston.
 
datadyne007 said:
Star Market = Upscale
Shaw's = Regular
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Funny. I would have thought that was reversed. All the historical Star Markets I know in my area (Winter Hill RIP, Somerville's Beacon Street) are ratty while the Shaw's were in "nicer" areas.
 
They're designing the new Star Markets to look like Roche Bros.
 
walgreens
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Depressing. Especially with seemingly every CVS getting paired with a Walgreen's these days.
 
RandomWalk said:
Depressing. Especially with seemingly every CVS getting paired with a Walgreen's these days.
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It's not even that. The flagship Walgreens is literally a few blocks down Washington St. This is a ridiculous shame.
 
Seems like most of the available retail spots get leased by perpetually empty bank branches, or redundant pharmacies. The newish residential building in Davis Square at Cutter St and Summer St, had its retail space un-leased for three years only to be filled by a Credit Union.

How do banks afford to have so many fully staffed branches? I mean, I know they're swimming in money, but it seems like a terrible waste of resources.
 
datadyne007 said:
Old Stars (pre-buyout) were dumps. New ones (post-buyout) are nice like the one built a few years back in Chestnut Hill.
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Stars didn't start off being dumpsl; it was a small, family owned business if I remember correctly. I worked in one of the first in the area, 1969-1975, part time in Woburn/Winchester on Rt. 3A. It was an innovative store for its time, shaped architecturally like a four-pointed star. Prices were a bit higher than the First National Stores and A & P's of the time. It was converted to a Whole Foods a few years ago, expanded in size, and the rest is history.
 
A new Walgreen's is significantly less depressing than the empty storefront that was there for years. Seriously, that intersection, and every street heading into it for about a block out, is a dump. If it takes a major retail tenant to spur some activity in the other empty store fronts, so be it.
 
Is New York worse off for having a Duane Reade on every other corner? I certainly don't think so.
 
fattony said:
Is New York worse off for having a Duane Reade on every other corner? I certainly don't think so.
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And the other corners are New York Sports Club, Starbuck's or a D'Agastino's with a few flower kiosk thrown in.
 
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Duane Reade on Bedford Ave Williamsburg has a craft beer cellar where they fill growlers.

With that exception... no. New York is not better off.
 
CheeseBoy actually has a really nice product, but I often can't get past the really unappetizing branding (for real).
 
They idea of paying someone to melt some cheese between two pieces of bread is ridiculous but sometimes you just want a grilled cheese sandwich.
 
Agreed with Shepard about the nice product, despite the branding- I frequent the one at the Pru every so often. If I have the choice, however, I prefer Roxy's.

All of this grilled cheese talk gets me like this:
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