Mundial Supermarket Somerville Update

[itaunas]

Gini had asked a while back about changes with Mundial, which was Gol Supermarket, originally Brazilian Supermarket (something) and probably other names in between.

When it first opened as the first supermarket in Somerville, it had a much better selection than Mom and Pop Brazilian stores such as International Market (across the st from La Internacional) and Market Basket (with the obvious exception of greens). The dollar vs the real was good, so anything could be had inexpensively. They had an excellent lunch counter and bakery which compared with most local Brazilian bakeries, except things were larger and their french rolls just weren't that good. While shopping there a "locutor" announced the store's specials and you could imagine you were in Brazil. Families from Quincy and around made trips there.

Later on, under the same ownership (which had another store in Florida first), they started skimping on selection. Market Basket brought in a lot more Brazilian products, so aside from meat (Brazilians like to shop at a Brazilian butcher) Demoula's could be one-stop shopping for a lot of Brazilians (who wouldn't buy milk, eggs, frozen goods at the brazilian mkt). The biggest changes were seen first with the lunch counter, which went downhill fast, and even with only one checkout lane open there was never much of a line at the supermarket. Some deals could be had, they sold at wholesale prices primal cuts -- top butt and beef ribs, if you bought the whole thing. They had good deals on charcoal and had more types of skewers, spices (the first to have bulk Brazilian saffron), aluminum pans to make paella. They were soon taken over by Gol (I think another Florida firm), which was also running the Framingham Brazilian Supermarket. Not too much changed, but stock declined even more following the dollar and certainly no locutor. Market Basket also cut back their Brazilian items with the dollar and interestingly enough are making more use of announced specials by the manager, but with neither the humor or flair (or Portuguese) of a Brazilian supermarket. The various butchers have more selection than ever, places like Pao De Acucar offer various types of medicinal teas from Brazil, etc.

Mundial is the name of a chain of supermarkets in Rio, but I don' t think its associated. Under Mundial, as their name goes they offer more international items than before. For instance they have a huge selection of Peruvian items and despite being primarily canned items, they might have the best selection in Somerville (La Internacional and Tony's foodland have mostly central american + columbian). If you want canned aji amarillo, choclo, etc they have a bunch. They also have some Portuguese items which are available on the South Coast, but harder to get here -- good sized bottles of massa de pimentao (to marinate meats, such as for making carne a alentejana) and all sizes, including the large, of piri piri (small selection, but great to have it locally). The aisles are slightly changed and the store is more logically organized w/o changing it overall, they are back to having a few varieties of things such as beans. And they had the largest selection of mate I have seen around (just under the Peruvian items). The bakery isn't back to hitting on all cylinders -- a bunch of things in the case, none too fresh. The butcher always had helpful signs about what the offer (w/o prices) and it looks like they even expanded that. However, I couldn't for the life of me get a butcher's attention today on my second visit. I found him, though, eating at the lunch counter, where I couldn't find anyone to serve salgadinhos... so I checked out at the cash register with only beans and crushed pepper where the checker was speaking on two telephones and went to Casa de carnes to make my purchases.

[gini]

Oof - thanks for the full review, itaunas! I really appreciate your looking into it. I'm psyched about not having to go all over for Peruvian items anymore, and I'll definitely hit up Mundial a few times in the next month to check on the meat/bakery/service issues.

[jeffcosta123]

Where is the Mundial Supermarket located? (address)

[Bob Dobalina]

624 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA

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Mundial Supermarket
624 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA

[jgg13]

I was intoxicated at the time, so I do question the how accurate my memory is here :), but IIRC the owner of Samba told me that the owners of Mundial are the original owners. If that's not completely correct, the real story is "something like that". I probably won't see her again until late spring though, so can't double check.