The Market Report

Daily Table Grocery Open: 2023-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  135 Lafayette St, Salem, MA Photographed:  March 29, 2025 Previously, we've spent some time checking out nonprofit Daily Table Grocery locations in Boston and Cambridge, and now it's time to see the shortest-lived location. The roughly 6000 square foot Salem Daily Table opened in September of 2023 , closing with the rest of the locations in May 2025. The Salem store, like the others, was small but bright and clean with a simple selection of low-priced foods including a produce department as the centerpiece. The store was oriented with the registers at the right side, next to the parking lot, and groceries on the front wall with produce and a few aisles in the middle. Dairy, frozen, and cold cuts/prepared foods lined the left-side and back walls of the store. As you can see, the store is small and simple but bright and clean. It was a good concept and goo...

Daily Table Grocery Opened: 2015-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  450 Washington St, Dorchester, MA Photographed:  June 15, 2019 and July 6, 2024 A couple weeks ago, I posted a look at the short-lived Daily Table Grocery in Mattapan . The nonprofit grocer didn't make it there, but here in Dorchester, the original store was in business for ten years before closing last month . The innovative nonprofit grocer format was developed in 2015 by Doug Rauch, the founder of Daily Table and former president of Trader Joe's. That was the year he opened this store , a roughly 9500 square foot supermarket selling donated and near-expiration food dirt-cheap. That's essential in a state and city where cost of living is famously high. Dorchester is one of the lower-income neighborhoods of Boston. The store didn't feel exactly like a typical discount grocery store, and that's partially because the assortment ...

Daily Table Grocery Open:  2023-2025 Owner:  nonprofit Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  474 River St, Mattapan, MA Photographed:  July 6, 2024 There have been a few efforts around the country to start nonprofit grocery stores. There a few models that have worked , but it's still a relatively new, somewhat unproven approach. In 2015, former Trader Joe's president Doug Rauch started a nonprofit grocer in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood ( paywall ), and Daily Table has since opened locations in Roxbury and here in Mattapan , along with locations outside of Boston in Cambridge and Salem. While the other stores made it longer, closing just last month , the Mattapan store pulled the plug sooner and closed just two years after opening. Daily Table said the 3,000 square foot store was receiving as little as 70% less traffic than other locations. I did get the chance to visit, though, in the summer of 2024. The Daily Table stores were an unusu...