Hannaford - Dracut, MA

Hannaford
Opened: 1997

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 301 Pleasant St, Dracut, MA

Photographed: August 23, 2025

Welcome to the Dracut Hannaford! Lowell is Market Basket territory without a doubt, and all four large supermarkets in the city are Market Baskets. (See Wood Street, Old Ferry Road, and Fletcher Street; Bridge Street is coming on Monday.) But just outside Lowell is the smaller town of Dracut, which has only one store in town and it's a Hannaford.

We're about four miles northeast of the Hannaford in Chelmsford here, and these are very similar stores today. That one was built as an Alexander's Supermarket, a chain based in New Hampshire that had several locations in Massachusetts. (We're just two miles from the New Hampshire border at this store, by the way.) Here, Alexander's constructed a store on the property in the late 1960s. Hannaford bought it in 1990, but in 1997 or 1998, demolished the original store for the larger, new store that stands today. Even though this one is larger than the original one, it's still not that big -- just over 40,000 square feet.

There isn't another supermarket in Dracut, and this store is even barely in Dracut. The back wall of the store is angled slightly to fit the contour of the property, which is angled because of the border between Lowell and Dracut. And that's not to say there isn't another supermarket nearby -- just half a mile east, right over the line into Lowell. And yes, of course it's a Market Basket. That's for Monday, though!

This Hannaford is an attractive, updated store that got the latest decor package somewhere between 2022 and 2024, it seems.

It has a standard Hannaford layout with the grand aisle on the right side. Produce is in the front-right corner with bakery in an island and cheese on the right-side wall. Deli and prepared foods are in the back-right corner with meat and seafood service counters next to that along the back wall. Meat and dairy line the rest of the back wall along with wine and beer. Pharmacy is on the back of the bakery island facing the first grocery aisle. Dairy and frozen are on the left side of the store. It's a very, very similar setup to Chelmsford (it appears to have been built around the time Chelmsford was expanded, then renovated recently around the time that Chelmsford was also) but about 20,000 square feet smaller.

It's possible this cheese department was originally a service counter, which some stores had. Still, this is a very attractive setup.

It definitely looks like the renovation was extensive, with many new fixtures and flooring here in the grand aisle. Personally, I think Hannafords are almost always attractive and well-run, though I've certainly seen some that aren't.

Service meat and seafood, with a wine and beer department opposite it on the back of the bakery island.

This is a department that not too many Hannafords I've been to have, and certainly not in this exact spot. More often, I'll see beer and wine in the first or last grocery aisle, I believe.

Incidentally, do any other supermarket geeks out there know why it seems that many of the MA Hannafords have pharmacy and HABA in the first few aisles, while the NY stores have it in the last few aisles with pharmacy on the front wall? Is that a coincidence based on the stores I've been to? Or is that a holdover from Alexander's or something?

Bright, clean, and orderly grocery aisles, but not all that exciting.

I do enjoy shopping at Hannaford, though. My partner conveniently has family in two very different regions that both have Hannaford -- this general area and the Adirondacks.

I'm not sure how much of this refrigeration was replaced in the most recent remodel, but I'll be darned if this doesn't look like a brand-new store, not one that's going on its 30th birthday. It speaks to the maintenance for sure.

Frozen foods continue onto the front wall of the store.

And a look across the front-end, back towards pharmacy at the front of the first few aisles.

That's all for now, but come back Monday for a look at the final Lowell Market Basket!