Market Basket - Lowell, MA (Wood St)

Market Basket
Opened: ca. late 1950s

Owner: DeMoulas family

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 11 Wood St, Lowell, MA

Photographed: August 23, 2025

Welcome back to Lowell! Today we're seeing two stores, both Market Baskets, in the northwestern part of town. (See the other one here.) There's a couple things you might notice right away from the outside of this store, and one is that it's newly renovated. The other is that it's incredibly small -- actually only 33,000 square feet, which makes it among the smallest Market Baskets. There's a truly tiny one in downtown Concord, NH that's only 28,000 square feet, but there are very few out there that are that small. It makes sense here, though, as we're in Lowell -- the city where Market Basket originated as Demoulas Superette way back in 1917. That was up in The Acre, a neighborhood of Lowell now home to UMass Lowell's campus about two miles northeast of here. But this store dates way back to the late 1950s, making it one of the oldest operating Market Baskets, too.

The freshly-renovated exterior (done around 2020) hides the store's age. It used to be much clearer, though of course Market Basket maintains their stores exceptionally well so even that old facade looks spotless and shiny-clean.

The layout is approximately the same as much newer and larger Market Baskets, and sure enough, even cosmetically it looks like most Market Baskets. (That one in Concord, which I've photographed, feels very different, and the layout is quite different from newer Market Baskets.) This store is just north of the Hannaford in Chelmsford, not quite a mile up the road.

Dairy is in the first aisle on the left side, with an alcove in the back-left corner that has some packaged prepared foods and cheeses. Deli is on the back wall along with the meat department (no service seafood here), and frozen and produce are on the right side. No bakery, either.

In 2020, Market Basket opened a sprawling new store on Pawtucket Boulevard just across the Merrimack River. It definitely seems like there's enough business to have both stores together, if only because this is an urban neighborhood where people might be on foot and unable or unwilling to cross the bridge. Although there is a pedestrian bridge, it's nearly half a mile long.

The prepared foods and cheese departments are together in this tiny alcove in the back-left corner of the store, and deli is just to the right.

Meat lines the rest of the back wall. No service butcher counter, but there is a butcher window for special orders, and Market Basket does cut its meat in-store still.

The selection is somewhat abbreviated because of the smaller store, but there's still plenty here. And as you can see, the store is small but absolutely spotless. It doesn't feel neglected in the slightest.

Produce and frozen foods are here in the last aisle. Here we can tell this store is old, by the general look and especially the fixtures, but again it seems to be kept in excellent shape.

Frozen foods cases line the outside wall of the store on the right side, and continue onto the front wall.

Where newer stores have a bakery and prepared foods, this store has an extension of the frozen foods and another grocery aisle running parallel to the front wall of the store. They definitely make use of every inch of space.

A look across the front-end.

And looking back in the other direction. I do love the fact that Market Basket keeps even their oldest stores up so well and is even putting money into renovating them, in this case.

If you haven't yet, tour the much larger and newer Market Basket across the river here, and tomorrow The Market Report heads across the street from this store for a small independent store!