The Market Report

Market Basket Opened: ca. 1960s Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  700 Boston Rd, Billerica, MA Photographed:  March 8, 2025 Today's post is a very quick look at the Market Basket in Billerica, MA! There used to be two, but the one a mile and a half north closed to make way for an Amazon Fresh coming at the other end of the mall -- an Amazon Fresh that, of course, never opened. There's also a Market Basket in North Billerica . This store's fresh and modern facade hides the fact that it's a rather old store, dating back to approximately the 1960s. (I couldn't find an exact opening year for this store.) Here's a look at the outside before, and as you can see it had the same rough exterior as Chelmsford . In fact, this store looks a lot like Chelmsford if a bit more dated. Although it's on the older side, it's still 60,000 square feet. I don't know if this was the original Market Basket in this strip mall, ...

Whole Foods Market Opened: 2003 Owner:  Amazon Previous Tenants:  Purity Supreme (1966-early 1990s) > Nature's Heartland (opened 1996, closed by 2000) > Bread & Circus (opened by 2000, converted to Whole Foods in 2003) Cooperative:  none Location:  170 Great Rd, Bedford, MA Photographed:  March 5, 2025 Time for our latest Whole Foods store! Like so many others we've seen in the Boston area, this store was previously a Bread & Circus, but it actually has a much more interesting history than just that. It was constructed in 1966 as a Purity Supreme, and it appears that when that chain was acquired by Stop & Shop in the 1990s, this store was moved into the new-build Bedford location just down the street. The former owners of Purity Supreme then started a natural food chain, called Nature's Heartland, which had opened here by 1996 and closed by 2000. Bread & Circus (owned by Whole Foods) opened no later than 2000, then converted to Whole Food...

Stop & Shop Opened: early 1990s Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  337 Great Rd, Bedford, MA Photographed:  March 5, 2025 and October 13, 2025 Welcome to Bedford, MA! It's probably not a town you've ever heard of, but it's actually a notable town because it's home to the Hanscom Air Force Base (and its on-base commissary ). A number of other related industries are also in the area. In addition to the commissary, where I sadly am not able to go as a civilian, Bedford has two supermarkets. The larger one is this Stop & Shop, at about 63,000 square feet. It opened in the early 1990s as a Super Stop & Shop and appears to have only been renovated once, shortly after Stop & Shop introduced the fruit-slice logo. While I'm not totally certain on this timeline, it looks like this store opened as a replacement for the Purity Supreme location they acquired (which is now Whole Foods, tomorrow's store tour). The l...

Star Market Opened:  ca. 2015 Owner:  Albertsons Companies Previous Tenants:  Star Market (ca. 1960 - early 00s) > Shaw's (early 00s-ca. 2015) Cooperative:  none Location:  1070 Lexington St, Waltham, MA Photographed:  March 5, 2025 Alright, let's see. Friday's Star Market looked like an ACME, and this one sure does look like a Shaw's. It wasn't built as a Shaw's -- it was built around 1960 as a Star Market, but became a Shaw's in the early 00s under Sainsbury's. At that time, the store was expanded and extensively remodeled in the Shaw's sensibility. It returned to Star Market pretty late, around 2015. It was renovated again then, and has gotten some small updates since then. Much like Belmont , the store is absolutely immaculate. Check out the flooring and lighting as we tour the store. These produce fixtures are also pretty new. You can see the updated black promotional signage on the walls, too. While Belmont is basically the same as a 90s-er...