Market Basket
Just across the parking lot from yesterday's Shaw's is a 1970s-era Market Basket. It appears to have been expanded, probably around the 90s, to its current 65,000 square feet -- slightly larger than the Shaw's. It feels larger, but it also feels older. The Shaw's is newly renovated, but this Market Basket hasn't been renovated in a fairly long time -- so although it's a larger store, it lacks the expanded bakery, prepared foods department, and cafe/coffee shop in the Market's Kitchen and Market's Cafe areas.
Dairy is in the first aisle on the right side, with seafood and deli at the back. Meats line the rest of the back wall, with frozen and produce on the left side. Bakery and a small prepared foods counter are in the front-left corner.
Even though it cosmetically looks the same as a much newer Market Basket, you can feel this one is on the older side inside. But it's been kept up extremely well, as most Market Baskets have, and the interior is spotless.
No lights burnt out, no floor scratches, no empty spaces on a single shelf.
Per Placer.ai, this store gets almost three times as many monthly visits as the Shaw's across the mall. But clearly both do enough business to survive, or the Shaw's would've been closed long ago.
You can certainly see in these pictures that there were more people in the Market Basket than the Shaw's when I visited, by a significant margin.
Older single-tier coffin freezers have a starring role in the frozen foods department, another sign that this store is on the older side.
Still, many of the cases are upright and may be on the newer side. Although this store is older, you can clearly see that it's not neglected. Far from it.
Plus, I'm sure having Shaw's and Market Basket and Target all basically in the same strip mall keeps everyone on their toes.
Another old-school touch, leafy greens on a single-tier produce island rather than in an upright refrigerator case, as newer Market Baskets have.
Floral is in the front of the produce department, along with bakery and prepared foods.
A different look from the newer stores for sure, but the setup is basically the same.
And over in prepared foods, the service counter is much smaller than a newer store.
Very different from what newer Market Baskets have, even in similarly-sized stores.
Opened: 1970s
Owner: DeMoulas family
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: none
Location: 227 Highland Ave, Salem, MA
Photographed: March 29, 2025
And a look across the front-end before we move along. A small Crosby's Marketplace is about a mile and a half east of here, which unfortunately I haven't visited, but tomorrow we'll see their former location in Salem!
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