The Market Report

Hannaford Opened: unknown Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  Shop 'n Save (opened 1994) Cooperative:  none Location:  333 Massachusetts Ave, Lunenburg, MA Photographed:  April 7, 2023 Welcome to the Lunenburg Hannaford, the only one in Worcester County that wasn't previously a Victory Market (let me know if I'm wrong about that, but as far as I can find, this is it). It was constructed next to a department store that's now a Walmart -- I would imagine it was originally an Ames or something like that -- as a Shop 'n Save that opened in 1994, and I don't know when it switched to Hannaford although it was before 2008. It's 52,000 square feet -- a bit smaller than the Twin City Mall one in Leominster , three miles southwest. But it has the same decor package and same beautiful look overall, and feels like a very new store. Obviously, much more upscale than the Market Basket a little over a mile away , but there isn't a particularly large price gap be...

Market Basket Opened: early 1970s Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  399 John Fitch Hwy, Fitchburg, MA Photographed:  April 7, 2023 Ah, Market Basket. How New Englanders love thee. And one of Market Basket's strengths is consistency -- no matter how old the stores are, they all look basically the same and they're maintained exceptionally well. Plus, the majority of the stores have been opened, rebuilt, or expanded within the last 20 years or so. They have an incredibly consistent store fleet for a chain of around 100 supermarkets (and counting). So today's tour is something highly unusual: a Market Basket that hasn't been touched much since its opening in the early 1970s. It's received a small expansion, no later than 1985, out the right side (and in fact, you can just barely make out a slight difference in the tones of brick on the right in the below picture). Today, it's a little shy of 40,000 square feet -- very, ve...

Market Basket Opened: ca. 1990 Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  130 Water St, Fitchburg, MA Photographed:  April 7, 2023 This is a relatively older Market Basket, but of course, within Market Basket everything is relative. This store only goes back about 30 years (possibly slightly more, but it opened as a new-build around 1990 on the side of a former mill building). Still, the 62,000 square foot supermarket is the newer of the two Market Baskets in Fitchburg. Also of note: Fitchburg has only two supermarkets, and both are Market Baskets. Leominster, just south, has two Hannafords , a Market Basket , and a natural food store . There's another Hannaford right outside Fitchburg, which we'll see shortly. In a typical Market Basket layout, dairy is in the first aisle on the right side. Seafood and deli are at the back of the first aisle, with meat on the rest of the back wall. Produce and frozen are on the left side with...