Star Market

Chain of supermarkets based in Boston, US
the historic original Star Market chain owned by the Mugar family

Star Market is a New England chain of supermarkets based in Greater Boston. It was owned by the Mugar family and started in 1915. The company was sold to The Jewel Companies, Inc. in 1964 and later to Investcorp, which in turn sold the chain to Shaw's Supermarkets. As stores were remodeled, many adopted the Shaw's name, leaving only a handful of Star Market stores operating by the late 2000s. In 2008, Shaw's began to revive the name, a trend which was expedited after the parent company of both chains was sold to Cerberus Capital Management. Today, both Shaw's and Star Market are administered as a single division.

In 1915, Sarkis Mugar, an Armenian immigrant who had arrived in Greater Boston in 1906, paid $800.00 for the Star Market, a small grocery store originally known as the Big Bear market at least until 1944, at 28 Mt. Auburn Street in Watertown. His son Stephen P. Mugar (1901–1984) eventually went to work for him in the store. In 1922, Sarkis Mugar was killed in an automobile accident, leaving his son to take over Star Market to support his mother and sisters. In the early 1930s, Stephen hired his first cousin, John M. Mugar, who later became president and chairman of Star Market.

The second Star Market opened in Newtonville in 1932, and the third store opened in Wellesley in 1937. John Mugar joined Stephen Mugar in management, but had to leave to serve in the U. S. Navy during World War II. After the war ended, John Mugar returned to the management of Star Market. With wartime restrictions and shortages over, Stephen and John were ready to expand throughout Greater Boston to meet the increased affluence and consumer demand. a popular ice cream shop in New England. In 1964, the Star Market Company was acquired by Chicago based Jewel Companies, Inc., though Jewel chose to retain the original name and identity of Star Market. The Mugar family retained the real estate and codeveloped additional locations. Jewel also retained John M. Mugar as president, and later as chairman, until his retirement in 1978. While Jewel owned Star Market, it built many combination food and drug stores that it branded as Star Osco, with common checkstands but separate management teams. The Star Market Osco Drug connection was ended for a time. This particular sale was led by Henry Nasella, the former president of Star Market, who had previously spent six years as president and COO of Staples before returning to Star. After the purchase by Investcorp, Nasella served as the chairman and CEO of Star Market, expanding the supermarket chain to include specialty brands such as Wild Harvest. In 1999, Investcorp sold Star Market to Sainsbury's for $490 million. Sainsbury's merged the chain with Shaw's Supermarkets to form Shaw's Star Market. In 2004, Albertsons, Inc. bought Sainsbury's American supermarket assets, including Star Market, after which Star Market and Osco Drug were reunited under one corporate umbrella. On June 2, 2006, a partnership of SuperValu, CVS Corporation, and several investment firms, including Cerberus Capital Management, acquired Albertsons with the intent to divvy up the pieces. SuperValu received both Shaw's and Star Market. In 2008, Shaw's announced that their Boston area stores were reverting to the Star Market name due to local history.