The Market Report

Market Basket Opened: ca. 1980s in this location, ca. 1960 at the other end of the mall Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  department store Cooperative:  none Location:  288 Chelmsford St, Chelmsford, MA Photographed:  May 15, 2024 Yeah, we're in Market Basket territory now! As I mentioned yesterday when writing about the Stop & Shop across the street , Market Basket started in Lowell in 1917 as a small grocery store. So we're still in Chelmsford, but the Lowell line runs immediately next to this property. So this 60,000 square foot store is solidly in Market Basket's home turf. And the store started here in Chelmsford as a smaller location on the left side of the strip mall ; this space was originally a department store. In the 1980s, Market Basket moved to this space. Today, it's a bit on the older side for a Market Basket, especially compared to much newer stores like Westford , but it's still very similar. Dairy is in the first aisle on the left...

Stop & Shop Opened: 2011 Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  299 Chelmsford St, Chelmsford, MA Photographed:  July 3, 2024 Here in Chelmsford, two longtime New England supermarkets compete with each other directly across the street. In the northeastern part of town, near the Lowell border, a Market Basket dates back to the 1960s and in 2011, Stop & Shop opened a new-build location right across the street, moving out of the downtown area . It's definitely an unusual Stop & Shop, so this will be a fun tour. The building is fairly large, measuring around 70,000 square feet (about 10,000 square feet larger than Market Basket). And it's a combination of exterior store model and interior store design I would've never expected to exist. This exterior model originated in roughly the late 1990s , and Stop & Shop used it through to about 2004. By around 2005, they switched to a taller, more square exterior design ,...