No love for Bobolink Street in the supermarkets of West Roxbury

By adamg on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 12:22pm

Both Roche Bros. and Star Market have spent the last several months remodeling their stores - Roche Bros. to be more like Wegmans and Star Market to be more like Roche Bros. They both use local street names along with numbers to identify their aisles.

Star Market actually uses the names of several roads that are mainly or entirely in Roslindale - Belgrade, Walworth and Cornell. Roche Bros. has just one aisle paying homage to West Roxbury's neighbor - Corinth, in a nod to the Roslindale Square street where Pat and Bud Roche opened their first market. Also, Star does not have an Aisle 1 (if they did, it would be where they have their new sushi bar/prepared-meals area, along with the revamped produce area). Roche Bros. does pay tribute to Wren Street; Star Market ignores the bird roads of West Roxbury entirely.

Here are the names:

Star Market

2 Grove St.
3. Bellevue St.
4 Temple St.
5 Baker St.
6 Spring St.
7 Centre St.
8 West Roxbury Parkway
9 Lagrange St
10 Washington St.
11 Belgrade Ave.
12 VFW Parkway
13 Walworth St.
14 Cornell St.
15 Maple St
16 Park St.
17 Willow St.
18 Stratford St.
19 St. Theresa Ave.
20 Perham St.
21 Alberta St.
22 Chesbrough St.

Roche Bros.

1 Corinth St.
2 West Roxbury Parkway
3 Willow St.
4 Rowe St.
5 Maple St.
6 Center St.
7 Lagrange St.
8 Spring St.
9 Bellevue St.
10 Park St.
11 Wren St.
12 Corey St.

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Comments

Hmm...

By eekanotloggedin on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 12:44pm.

I notice Manthorne and Furbush didn't make the list...

Or my favorite

By Hillary on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 3:52pm.

Bonad Road.

I giggle every time i go by

By anon on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 5:03pm.

I giggle every time i go by that and inevitably say "gonad." Because I'm 12.

It's the perfect combination

By Hillary on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 7:43pm.

...of "boner" and "gonad." How can you not laugh?

Bad sign orientation

By Tim Mc. on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 1:01pm.

Star Market is also doing this asinine aisle-wise sign orientation such that when you get to an aisle, you can't actually read the sign at the other end (which says different things!) because it's edge-on. No other stores do this, as far as I can tell.

Star Market: See what makes us suck!

By BostonDog on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 1:17pm.

No matter what it is, Star Market will find a way screw it up.

At least they can just change the name back to ~~Star~~, ~~Shaws~~, ~~Star~~, Shaws.

Morrissey Blvd Star/Shaws/Star

By anon on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 4:45pm.

They did the same thing at the Morrissey location when they changed from Shaws back to Star, or was it the other way around?
Anyway, I noticed the Dorchester street signs and promptly forgot them, as did all the employees. They refer to the aisle numbers and I look at the product signs.

Appropriation

By Parkwayne on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 1:32pm.

I am offended the Roche Bros, a West Roxbury institution, has appropriated the name of one of the core streets in Roslindale.

EDIT: This post is a joke. I could literally not care less what Roche Bros calls their aisles. There is a small minority of WR residents who go to great lengths to clarify that Roslindale is NOT West Roxbury so I was returning the favor.

What the hell are you talking about?

By anon on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 1:18pm.

I grew up in Roslindale and went to Roche's my entire life as did most people from the area?

Hokay

By adamg on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 1:29pm.

As noted in the post, there's a very good historical reason for them to use that street name. You might just as well ask what was so horrible in Roslindale that they were forced to flee to West Roxbury (I mean, if we're going to get all overwrought about aisle signs!).

Poe's law, my dude.

By anon on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 3:44pm.

n/t

There oughta be a law!

By Gary C on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 1:21pm.

Both stores occasionally have typed-up directories posted at the ends of their aisles. If I'm looking for peanut butter, I don't want to have to walk from Grove Street to Alberta Street, reading the overhead signs along the way. Having directories permanently placed at the end of every single aisle would make finding things a breeze and largely make the overhead signs moot.

They want you to wander

By Tim Mc. on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 1:23pm.

The more time you spend in the wrong aisle, the more likely you'll stumble across something you didn't know you wanted until you saw it. -.-

They want you to go through

By anon on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 3:18pm.

They want you to go through the racetrack aisles
http://www.businessinsider.com/supermarkets-make-you-spend-money-2011-7?...

This is the sort of in-the

By chaosjake on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 2:45pm.

This is the sort of in-the-trenches local reporting that keeps me coming back to Universal Hub year after year.

Sleep West Roxbury Baby

By MrZip on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 4:28pm.

Sideways signs are hangin' from the ceiling up above,
Bob-o-link am pining for a little bit of love.
You is mighty hungry, babe of West Roxbury
Stroll the aisles named for stree-eetss...

(sorry)

Star Market actually uses the

By anon on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 4:36pm.

Star Market actually uses the names of several roads that are mainly or entirely in Roslindale

I don't get it. Are they supposed to be doing something wrong? When I lived in Rosi I often shopped at Star. Was I doing something wrong?

Yeesh ...

By adamg on Fri, 02/09/2018 - 4:49pm.

No, they did nothing wrong.

And I've shopped there a time or two myself (in part because you could always easily find a space in their parking lot - was shocked yesterday to have to actually circle around looking for one).

But, really, a store that's closer to Dedham than Roslindale is not where you'd expect to find aisles named for Roslindale streets.

Or maybe that's me, overthinking things.