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Imagine Roche Bros. at a higher elevation
By adamg on Sun, 11/01/2009 - 5:43pm
The amazing cartveyor.
Armed with a $5 coupon, we trekked to Chestnut Hill today to check out the new Star Market (question for Shaw's/Star: Why do you want to encourage people in 02131 to travel to Rte. 9 when you've got perfectly serviceable Shaw's in West Roxbury and Hyde Park?).
Anybody who's used to the Roche Bros. in West Roxbury will feel right at home here: It's basically just like that store, only bigger, especially in the high-profit prepared foods/sushi/deli/free-range department (they've even got a noodle bar). In fact, the high-profit area might be a little too big - most of the normal, boring aisles in this brand new store are barely wide enough for two carts to pass each other.
Oh, yeah, also: The store is one floor up from the ground (probably they did that so they could expand the store while maintaining the same number of parking spaces, by adding a mini parking garage). Of course, your question is: How do you get your groceries down? Why, by cartveyor, of course! Basically, it's an escalator, but just for shopping carts. So while they don't take your groceries out to your car like they do at Roche Bros., they've got the cartveyor! Now I know how somebody from North Dakota feels the first time they go to the big city and see an escalator - I could've watched that thing all day, well, for a few minutes, anyway. The kidlet was equally impressed, and she's hard to please.
The cartveyor alone will be worth at least one trip in a couple weeks, when people get used to the new configuration of all the aisles and the maze-like warren of the prepared foods/produce area. Until then, you might want to hold off, unless you got one of those coupons, too, becuase the place was kind of a madhouse (to their credit, though, all the check-out lanes were open and the managers did a good job getting people into lanes).
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Comments
Shopping cart conveyor
Ann & Hope in Cumberland, RI had a shopping cart/carriage conveyor back in the day. The only place I had actually seen one in person.
Ah, technology
I saw my first cartveyor at a two-story Target in suburban Maryland a few years ago. It was fun to watch for a few minutes. Can you let your kid ride in the cart as it goes up/down?
Nope..
They have a cart thing at the Target in Nashua NH and they didn't take to it very well when we left a 5 year old in the cart to go for the ride....
They had somebody at the top to separate you from your cart
So I'm guessing not.
The new target in Stoughton
The new target in Stoughton need IKEA has one too
IKEA has them
If you don't end up using a flat cart, they have one of these systems for the regular carts.
Boys in Heelies take the elevator.
Seems like a complicated
Seems like a complicated solution that will result in problems if theres a mechanical failure. Usually supermarkets just use two angled moving walkways. So of course, if it breaks down, its a usable ramp.
Also, can someone explain to me the whole star market/shaws thing? A couple of years ago they renamed the Fenway Star into Shaws, and then 6 months later renamed the packards corners shaws to star. Why?
They actually have two of the things
One up, one down, so I suppose in a pinch they could reverse the flow on the up one. Plus, they have one grade-A Huge-Ass elevator.
Its the same company, but i
Its the same company, but i believe shaws is a union, whereas star market is non union labor.
please someone correct me if i am wrong though.
Shaw's is union, and Star Market is non-union
My cousin has worked for Shaw's for over 20 years, and he explained to us that Shaw's full time workers are represented by a union, while the full time workers for Star Market do not have union representation. I could be wrong about this.
The funny thing is, both Shaw's and Star Market are owned by Sainsbury plc, which also owns Albertson's.
Link to Shaw's history.
At least half of this is wrong
Sainsbury, a UK supermarket chain, hasn't owned Shaw's/Star for years. Shaw's/Star is owned by Supervalu, a Minnesota company that also owns Albertsons, Jewel and several other chains around the country.
Some history
Shaw's was opened in Maine while Star Market was opened in Watertown. Shaw's was bought by Sainsbury in 1987. Sainsbury then bought Star Market in 1999 and turned them into "Shaw's" to maintain a single brand name.
Some of the union talk may be coming from the Sainsbury shutdown of a Star Market distribution center after the bought the company. This put a bunch of teamsters out of work. Then, they closed down a Shaw's distribution center, putting other union workers out of jobs. Then, they picked C&S Wholesale Grocers to handle distribution, which is non-union. The closings were because of their "locations", but others have suggested it was just to dump the unions.
In 2004, Sainsbury sold Shaw's to Albertson's. Albertson's was then bought by a big partnership including SuperValu, CVS, and others. SuperValu got Shaw's from the piecing of Albertson's.
Then, in 2008, because of the fact that Star Market had originally opened in the Watertown/Boston area, SuperValu/Shaw's announced they were going to revert the name of stores in the area on a case-by-case basis from Shaw's to Star Market again as a nod to local history and locals' picky behaviors. There were actually people who told them that they'd never shop at "Shaw's" because they always went to "Star Market"...so they made them "Star Market"s again.
So, as far as I know, they reverted the name at Packard's Corner and Brighton Mills (in Allston) and Chestnut Hill...but anywhere else is beyond my guess.
If you check their website, it still calls them Shaw's...
Thanks for the history
Thanks for the history lesson.
When I moved to Boston I always associated Star Market as a lower quality supermarket (because of the Fenway location, which was dirty and small) and Shaws as the higher quality supermarket (because of Copley and Packards Corner). I knew they were owned by the same company because of the rewards card, so I figured it was just two levels of service. My hunch was further confirmed when the fenway location received a full remake, making the place much nicer. At the same time it became a Shaws. So imagine my surprise when 6 months later the giant packards corner location became a star market!
I always had the same
I always had the same perception because the Star Markets I knew of were run down and the Shaws I knew of were a little nicer. Looking at the history lesson though it may make sense, around here the Star Markets were just older so it does make sense that the new Shaws markets would be nicer.
Twitter me this!
That picture made my night.
That picture made my night.
The Star/Shaws over the pike has had this for over a decade
its terrible and slow, I always hated it!
Now I'll have to go there
so I can see what happens when the carriages get to the bottom - does that guy have to catch them all?