America's Food Basket
Opened: 2017
I mentioned that my coverage of the Lawrence/Haverhill area is unfortunately thin, so today's store tour is the only tour I have in this area. Still, it's a very interesting store. I've posted several America's Food Basket stores in the Boston area, and they're affiliated with the Long Island-based cooperative of the same name. (Stores affiliated with that group in Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida are mostly branded Ideal Food Basket.) They only have one location north of Boston, though, and that's this store in Lawrence. We're a little under 10 miles northeast of Lowell, to help you position yourself, and about 25 miles northwest of Boston.
This store is on the larger side for AFB, coming in right around 20,000 square feet. It's the only large supermarket in South Lawrence, although there are several Market Baskets around including one in downtown Lawrence. This building was originally a Stuart's department store, which was then subdivided and this part became a Rite Aid. At the other end of the mall, a much larger space was originally a Shaw's.
AFB specializes in Latin and Caribbean foods, but has a pretty full selection of groceries. We enter on the right side of the storefront to the grand aisle, with produce taking up most of the space and deli/bakery on the right-side wall. A service butcher is at the back of the grand aisle with packaged meat lining the back wall. Frozen and dairy are on the left side of the store. Notice the handwritten chalkboard signs, one of which ended up in Mattapan for some reason.
The space feels large and spacious, despite the fact that it's not that big (probably because of the high ceiling). It's very deep but not that wide, given that it's basically a slice of a former department store.
Lots of spices and other international items that Market Basket definitely doesn't carry. Then again, Market Basket is much better at international foods than most big-chain stores -- such as Shaw's, for instance, which generally isn't able to merchandise stores to match the area's demographics.
I really like the chalkboard-style signs here. I've never seen this style in any other AFB location, or most other stores for that matter.
A good look at the shelves will show how this store is filling gaps in Lawrence's grocery scene. Check out the oat milk right next to the imported Latin American condensed milk. There's a little of everything here, especially impressive for the small size.
Nonfoods and a small selection of HABA are on the left side. As is common in this type of urban store, there's very little health and beauty/personal care.
Because the store is so deep, the aisles are very long, and they're divided in half with this connecting aisle.
And the big draw here seems to be the international aisle, which features mostly Latin American and Caribbean foods. This is on the left side of the store near dairy/frozen. There are a number of small grocers in town that sell Latin and Caribbean items as well. There's a shop on the north end of town in a former mill building called La Fruteria, which sells Latin produce and groceries, along with a Caribbean Supermarket just over the border into Methuen in a former Save-A-Lot.
Looking back over towards the right side of the store...
Frozen lines the outside of the last aisle, with dairy opposite.
Speaking of the smaller grocers in town, I'll post several of them on Friday, so stay tuned!
Customer service in the front-left corner, with the registers beyond that.
Owner: Edwin Polanco
Previous Tenants: Stuarts department store > Rite Aid
Cooperative: America's Food Basket
Location: 73 Winthrop Ave, Lawrence, MA
Photographed: May 14, 2023
This AFB is a very nice little store, and it's great to see a full-service supermarket opening up in an area with relatively few others. Today's other post is a former A&P nearby, and tomorrow we're checking out the Market Baskets of Haverhill!
Comments
Post a Comment