Shaw’s Supermarket

I went to this Shaw’s tonight planning on making a purchase. Before that I tried to return a number of bottles (11 bottles). The machine would not accept half of them which I HAD purchased at this location. The shopping cart attendent walked over to me and anxiously started yelling at me. No Good, No good, go away. Multiple times. I tried to point out that I had purchased the bottles at this same store but he kept yelling at me. I went in to talk to a manager (who was very nice and did give me a refund for the bottle), but the cart/​lot attendant came in and was still yelling at me. I put my hand up with my palm facing him and said «please stop yelling at me». I then made a purchase, paid and walked out. On my way out I passed the guy again he was visibly enraged and talking under his breath (I believe he was cursing) at me. This is BEYOND ridiculous. I did not yell at this man at any point in time. I would like to say I won’t go here again, but it’s a block from my house and I am almost a daily customer. I will try in the future to make my purchases elsewhere.

I appreciate the variety in fresh produce and other staples that Shaw’s provides, but given its scale, I’d hope it would be able to compete better with other grocers on price. Pretty much most, if not all, the things I want to buy from Shaw’s are cheaper at Trader Joe’s. I was also disappointed to find a lot of the jar sauces were leaking. I bought a non-​leaky one, but discovered the lid was already «popped» once I got home. Bright side is that the help desk was more than happy to let me exchange it stress and trouble free. Kudos there.

The variety is great, and I especially like the health food selection.
BUT THERE ARE NO BAGGERS. I shop there every week and have had a bagger once, in 3 years. ONCE. It sucks to buy a ton of groceries, and then have to bag them all yourself.

I normally wouldn’t write a review of a grocery store but it’s so bad I have to.
My number one complaint is their produce section. It takes several minutes sometimes to find a piece of produce that doesn’t look like it fell off the back of a truck and run over once or twice. I often end up not getting veggies I planned to buy because there are none that look semi decent.
My second biggest complaint is the deli counter. They are extremely slow, never cut the meat how I ask («very thin sliced» cheese translates to thick slices), and they can never get the measurement right. When I ask for ¾ of a pound I get almost a pound. They’ve screwed up the weight more than half the time ive gone. On top of all that, one particular deli employee is extremely rude. I personally witnessed him yell at another customer and call him an a$$hole. I witnessed the whole encounter and the employee was definitely in the wrong.
The only reason this place gets 2 stars is the convenient liquor store nestled inside and the attached brueggers. I frequent both regularly and the employees are pleasant and competent.

The only thing that makes this worth the stop is the fact the liquor store is inside. There really is a small selection of fresh produce in this place defeating the purpose of my grocery shopping. The prices are barely competitive with all the other markets so close. For a grocery store I find the selection here disappointing to say the least.

It really seems this place has tried to ramp up its customer service over the past 6 months. I also must admit, I love not having to wait in long lines (even though they only opened up 4 – 5 on Super Bowl Sunday).

I have been using this supermarket a lot as a student at HBS and I am fairly impressed with its pricing and selection.
The service is good too. I was once looking for this pizza dough and asked a manager where I might find it. She said that they didn’t have it in stock but then continued to show me a bunch of other options.
In addition, it has a Bruegger’s Bagels (love) and a wine shop attached.

The Brueggers employees in here are so wonderful that I was in a good mood for hours. I don’t know what it was, they were just truly good people.

Closes the doors at 5 till 11, in a college town, on a Friday night. Logical… Not so much.

I would normally never write a review for a supermarket, but I had to commend this one somehow.
I went grocery shopping here right when the store opened. During my visit, of the 8 store employees I encountered, 6 of them immediately said «Good Morning» and asked if I needed assistance. I am so used to just being ignored at grocery stores… especially at 9am on a Saturday! Of the two from which I actually needed and received assistance, they were very knowledgeable about the product and gladly provided me with what product I requested.
I give them four stars only because the product selections and prices are pretty generic. Their customer service is great, though!

This is my go-​to Shaw’s for a reason: it’s just damn good. But, the layout of this one isn’t as good as some others in the area (Comm. Ave, Brighton Ave., to name a few…).
Although there is off street parking, there is only one way in and out of it, so it can get pretty backed up if you come during peak hours. And, because it is a rather new Shaw’s, the parking lot lines (in the «road», not the spaces) are faded from construction and people just drive like idiots in the middle. There are cameras and a security guard patrolling, so it is a safe lot.
The selection of items here is as good as you can find at other Shaw’s and Star Market locations in the city limits, as are the prices. I haven’t had a problem with freshness of any food — produce, meat, seafood, or anything else.
There is one Red Box near the registers if you need to get a movie, which is nice, although having more than one would be better! The Breugger’s bagel shop that is in the entrance is a nice touch.
A huge perk is that there is a Hubway bicycle «station» right at the store entrance, as well as a big bike rack under the awning of the entrance. If you are a cyclist, it’s a great spot to shop because it is near many overpasses that take you to the Charles River bike paths.

I can’t say that this is my fave grocery store of all time, but it gets the job done. It’s not quite as brightly lit or as spacious feeling as, say, the Stop and Shop on Everett (which I frequent fairly frequently – how’s that for alliteration?), but it’s got some good selection.
It’s closer to my office, so it’s convenient that I can grab some creamer or yogurt or something when I need to, and just schlep on over to work, but it’s kind of annoying that there’s all that construction going on nearby (okay, that’s actually my employer’s fault, and not Shaw’s, so guess I shouldn’t complain too much about that).
Overall, decent store, decent selection. I like that they’ve got a liquor store attached, as well as that Bruegger’s. One stop shop!

The sign may say Star market but it is a Shaws.
They have lots of hot foods for lunch time meals from sushi to hot soups and sandwiches.
I enjoy the salad and olive bar too.
The have a florist to pick up flowers or balloons and the staff are very pleasant and nice.
It is clean and organized.
I stick to buying the items on sale.

According to me, this is the best supermarket in Boston to buy day-​old donuts. And, according to my admittedly skewed priorities, that’s worth at least four stars.
For 75 cents, you get three day-​olds shoved unceremoniously into a plastic sack. I make a beeline for anything which chocolate frosting, because that stuff inexplicably gets exponentially more delicious the more time it spends smearing around and fermenting in a cheap plastic bag.
The day-​old bakery rack is in the back of the store, against the wall between the seafood and the deli meats. They take it down at 4 p.m., but the pickin’s are pretty slim at that point anyway.
Also, unlike the other baked goods, the day-​old donuts have the sort of label that rings up correctly at self checkout. So that’s good for antisocial donut lovers, I guess.

Is this weird to write a review for a supermarket? Probably.
But I’m not actually writing the review for them. It’s a Shaw’s/Star Market. They have food. I’m happy.
But they also have the wonderful addition of the wine shop. It’s a bit pricier than a standard liquor store for non-​wine liquors, but I love the convenience. And the woman who works there most times I head in is lovely. We chat about sports, she bags my beer. It’s a good, good feeling on a Friday.
So, really, Massachusetts, the wine store hasn’t turned me into a raging drunkard who buys booze for underage people. Why is this so hard to do?

I really like how this store has a Brueggers attached to it. It makes early morning shopping trips so much easier. And it’s not unusual for me to go food shopping at 7am on a Saturday morning, so the convenience of grabbing a bagel and coffee makes this a great store
Overall this is a decent Shaws because it is well lit, clean, organized and I always can find someone to help me locate something. I find that the butchers are really helpful. On a recent visit I was getting ingredients for meatballs. I could not find my standard chuck/​pork/​veal mix so I talked to the butcher and he helped me locate all the components quickly.
On the down side, I went in there looking for red food coloring for red velvet cake and they did not have it. I found it else where but when I randomly checked back a month later they were still out, or out yet again.

I’ll put it out there: I love this Shaw’s. I’m happy to drive from Inman Square to Brighton to go to THIS Shaw’s. It’s my favorite Shaw’s (which, of course, is not that much of a compliment since the once in Central Square is disgusting, and the one in Porter Square feels like a Harvard Law School meat market).
For starters, it’s never, ever crowded (this could mean that it will shut one day…), they have a far bigger organic section than the other Shaw’s, they have far more organic produce than the other local Stars/Shaw’s, and — !! — have you seen the «premium» candy aisle?! So many Lindt bars, so many Black and Green’s, so many Cadburys… it’s heaven.
Oh, and unlike the aforementioned Stars (Central and Porter), the self checkout is STAFFED, so when the machine goes crazy and starts incorrectly shouting that you have illegally placed something in a plastic bag, a staff member will quickly come over and fix the whole thing.

For the record, today Shaw’s/Star/We change our name every 3 hours was out of:
1.) Entenmann’s Marble Cake. What is so hard about stocking this lovely treat? It is my Papa’s favorite. I returned home, defeated with a crappy bakery made banana loaf. Not good.
You did have roughly 42 boxes of crappy looking donuts and 1 box of pound cake. But, NO MARBLE?! What the Eff.
2.) My favorite Orville Redenbacher Microwave Salt and Cracked Pepper popcorn was on sale today! YESSS! For shits and giggles, I decided to live luxuriously and pick up TWO boxes. I get home and methodically check the expiration date, like I always do. Dec 2008. Thanks, fuckers! I’ll be seeing you tomorrow so I can get a box that is not EXPIRED.
3.) Oh sweet delicious black plums. Spring is here. The plums are not. You had them for the past two weeks. Now, you have old, wrinkly black plums that basically resemble old balls. And, for the record, there were about four of these «plums». You might think they are doing a science experiment to see how long it will take for people to not buy the plum, because next week they will be on sale. Only, they will be called Prunes.
4.) The checkout girl who could not crack a smile, or give me any eye contact when I said «hello», no, she was too busy chatting with her co-​worker.
5.) My Stonyfield Farms Strawberry Fat Free yogurt was out. Yet, again. Oh, don’t worry, folks, they had all the crappy kinds left that no one likes.
Ihatechoo!

It’s a shame this Shaws sucks. There is a ton of parking, a Bruegger’s next-​door, but they are out of things, prices ring up incorrectly A LOT, no one is around to help/​care… today I had problems with three of the items I bought (about 12) so that’s 25% of my purchase that rung up incorrectly. The woman who was at the register was a moron, so I had to go to the service desk and wait for my money back while my frozen food just sat at room temp.
Seriously, how hard can it be to find a decent grocery store???

Yum– raspberry pillow cookies, chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies, big tub of M&M cookies.
Oh, you can get real food here too.