The more things change the more they stay the same.

The first Roche Bros. store opened in 1952 in Roslindale, MA, by brothers Bud and Pat Roche. Even before the first customer walked into the market, Bud and Pat set the policy created by their parents:  treat your customers like members of your own family.

The competition included four supermarkets in the area: Publix, Lodgens, First National and Blairs. The store was committed to not only serving the community, it was also committed to being a part of that community.

This year, Roche Bros. celebrates its 70th anniversary. Though the competitions’ names have changed, being part of the community is still high on Roche Bros. list of priorities. 

Over the years, expansion has been slow and steady. After specializing in meat and produce for five years, Roche Bros. added groceries and became a full service market. New stores opened in Needham, MA, in 1959 and 1964, West Roxbury, MA, in 1967, Westwood, MA, in 1970, Natick, MA, in 1974, Sudbury, MA, in 1980 and Wellesley, MA, in 1981. With each new store opening the family name carried a strong tradition of quality, service and value.

In 1988, Bud Roche retired and the second generation stepped in, continuing to operate with the same “Golden Rule” principles as did the founders. Expansion continued as well. Today, under the leadership of Pat’s sons, Rick and Ed Roche, Roche Bros.’ commitment to excellence is shared by the more than 4,500 Roche Bros. associates who work tirelessly to serve its customers.

In 2014, a new brand was developed and welcomed into the Roche Bros. family of stores.  Brothers Marketplace, now operating in four locations (Weston, MA, Medfield, MA, Duxbury, MA, and Cambridge, MA) is a small store concept with a focus on fresh, local products. The stores have a neighborhood feel and cater to the daily shopping habits of today’s generation — smaller, daily shops and a desire for fresh, quality foods and great prepared offerings.

“There are seating areas in each of them, we want them to feel like a community store, a place to hang out, that’s what Brothers is all about,” said Arthur Ackles, senior vice president of merchandising and buying.

“From a competitive standpoint, with the locations of our current Brothers stores, we would never be able to put a full-size supermarket in, nor would our competitors,” said Tom Murray, director of produce for Roche Bros. “The nice thing about the Brothers model is that we can put it into a neighborhood and mold it to that neighborhood, so every Brothers feels different. We are also able to grow a relationship with those towns, which gets stronger and stronger the longer we are there.”

When Roche Bros. introduced the Brothers Marketplace format a concentrated effort was made to ensure the brands remained separate. “We spent the first five years of Brothers keeping the brand separate,” said Murray. “Separate marketing, separate product selection, separate everything. The past few years we have spent trying to make shoppers understand Brothers is run by Roche Bros. and the owners are the same, but we are still very adamant about keeping the brand for Brothers separate from Roche.”

Today, they do bleed into each other a little bit. Some Roche Bros. will carry Brothers Marketplace products on shelf, and vice versa. Shopping bags at both formats now have the Roche Bros. and Brothers Marketplace logo reminding shoppers that they are under the same umbrella, yet still separate brands with different purposes.

In addition to the four Brothers formats, a Roche Bros. format was most recently opened in Watertown, MA, this past April. There are currently no plans to open any new stores, as the company is now focused on remodeling some of its current stores. That focus includes remolding some stores that develop into a hybrid of the two formats.

“We have two small Roche Bros. in Needham, one will be like a hybrid of the two formats,” said Murray. “We kept it as a Roche Bros. because it’s been a Roche for such a long time and the consumer base there absolutely loves Roche Bros.”

Ackles said that the majority of the remolding will get done over the next three years. “Right now, we have a lot of stores that we want to remodel or rebrand and get up to par with what we want to do,” he said.

However, should the right opportunity arise the flexibility to change gears is there.

“Of course, if something came along that we couldn’t refuse we’d have to look at it,” said Ackles. “Especially for a Brothers location, but the focus is certainly on our existing stores to get them up to the same level of look and feel.”