The Market Report

Stop & Compare Supermarket Opened: 1996 Owner:  Calvo and Ianotti families Previous Tenants:  First National Stores (late 1950s-1980s) > Oppedisano's Market (open by 1980s, closed by mid-1990s) Cooperative:  none Location:  170 Everett Ave, Chelsea, MA Photographed:  July 22, 2019 Truly independent supermarkets are getting harder and harder to find. It's no secret that the supermarket business is a hard one, and heck, it's rough out there for small businesses of any kind at all. But in the northeastern suburbs of Boston, a three-store, fully independent chain is not only running full steam ahead but has recently expanded. Stop & Compare Supermarket, run by members of two longtime food industry families, opened up here in downtown Chelsea back in 1996, later adding a location in Lynn in 2004 and another in 2021. Recognize the exterior of this building? If it looks familiar, it's because we've seen other stores with the same general facade design befor...

Market Basket Opened: 2009 Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  170 Everett Ave, Chelsea, MA Photographed:  July 22, 2019 I mentioned yesterday that it's somewhat unsual to see a 75,000 square foot, suburban supermarket downtown in a small New England city. Well, how about a massive, 135,000 square foot suburban supermarket right outside Chelsea's downtown? Chelsea is a city of about 40,000 to the north of Boston. In fact, here we're just across the harbor from Charlestown and East Boston . A couple blocks northwest of the main downtown area, the former Mystic Mall was demolished and replaced by this massive Market Basket in 2009. The mall dated back to the 1970s , and had an older and much smaller Market Basket in it. Inside, you'd hardly know the Market Basket was double the size of many of their locations because, well, it's basically identical. There's just more of it. But the basic setup, layout, decor, and offer...

Our next stops are a couple of the northeastern suburbs of Boston! Now that we're out of the immediate Boston area, my coverage becomes much less dense, so the standard disclaimer here that we won't be seeing every supermarket in all these areas, but we'll stop by a couple of towns. The first stop will be in Malden, a city basically straight north from Boston, then we'll head a bit southeast to Chelsea, a waterfront city facing the Mystic River and Chelsea Creek opposite Charlestown and East Boston . We'll wrap up with a look at Winthrop and Revere on the coast. This will be a relatively short group, as I only have a couple of stores in each town to show you. There are plenty of others in this area I simply haven't been to yet. Look out for posts in these towns for the next week and a half or so, and then it'll be time for a very special feature!