The Market Report

Whole Foods Market Opened:  2016 Owner:  Amazon Previous Tenants:  Market Basket (mid/late 1980s-2015) Cooperative:  none Location:  160 Littleton Rd, Westford, MA Photographed:  August 19, 2024 Whole Foods. Where do I start? It's been a while since I've posted a Whole Foods, partially because there aren't that many in this part of the state. And Whole Foods is just, well, a complicated store for me to talk about. It's been under the ownership of Amazon for several years now, and whether related to the Amazon ownership or not, they've made some pretty significant changes over the last few years. Their prices -- although still high -- are now much closer to some competitors. I am almost always happy with the 365 brand, which is frequently competitive with any other organic brand out there. But at the same time, the stores have lost some of their personality, and more concerningly, they tend to be worse-run these days. I'm seeing more empty shelves, messy di...

Market Basket Opened: 2012 Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  6 Cornerstone Sq, Westford, MA Photographed:  May 15, 2024 It's only fair warning that, as we travel through this part of the state, we'll be seeing a lot of Market Basket. The chain of about 90 stores is headquartered right nearby in Tewksbury, and the Lowell area is their home turf. Because of that, there are some older stores that remain around here (such as this one just under 20 miles west). But at the same time, as I've mentioned, Market Basket is pretty serious about updating their stores. Here in Westford, a new-build location opened in 2012, more or less replacing a location diagonally across the street -- although that store remained in business until 2015. This one is just a tiny bit larger than the Littleton location we saw on Monday, by about 2000 square feet. This location is around 67,000 square feet, a pretty typical size for a Market Baske...