The Market Report

Market Basket Opened: 2017 Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  40 Federal St, Lynn, MA Photographed:  August 3, 2019 Okay, so you know how every Market Basket is basically the same ? Seriously, they are. The chain has used the same decor (which is barely even decor) for decades now, with the same basic setup although newer stores have expanded prepared foods, bakery, and butcher departments these days. Some are exceptional for one reason or another, such as the Chelsea one I posted not long ago that's over 130,000 square feet. There's also a small handful of stores that are abnormally small, such as the John Fitch Highway location in Fitchburg. Here in Lynn, the Market Basket was constructed right outside of downtown as a new-build in 2017. It's big, but not as sprawling as the Chelsea one, clocking in at around 90,000 square feet. Like Chelsea, though, there's not really much that has been added to this store -- it's...

Mekong Market Opened: 2017 Owner:  unknown Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  863 Western Ave, Lynn, MA Photographed:  August 3, 2019 Mekong Market is actually a name we've seen before -- there's a store out in Worcester by the same name, and I'm not certain whether the two are related or not. This Mekong is a small supermarket of a little over 4000 square feet, focused on Vietnamese and eastern Asian food (Mekong is a river in Vietnam). The building is quite old, but Mekong has only been here since 2017. Before they opened up, they extensively redid the inside and outside, so you can see the store is looking fresh and pretty new. Mekong is around the corner from Soriya Market, another store we're checking out today . The produce department is in the front-right corner, with packaged meats in the first aisle. The rest of meat and seafood are on the back wall, with frozen foods on the left side. There are a few grocery aisles in the middle...

Soriya Market Opened: 2013 Owner:  Jack Khy Previous Tenants:  New Market (ca. 2008-2013) Cooperative:  none Location:  551 Summer St, Lynn, MA Photographed:  August 3, 2019 Welcome to Lynn! Our first stops here are two small grocers in the southwestern part of town, beginning with Soriya Market. It's about 2500 square feet and primarily focuses on Asian foods. Lynn has several eastern Asian communities along with people from Latin America, and our other stop today is also eastern Asian foods. We'll see a handful of Latin stores, too, as we pass through the city. Unfortunately I haven't been inside Soriya and I'm not entirely sure what part of Asia is represented here, but the name Soriya can come from Persian or Khmer origins, or southeastern Asia. If I'm not mistaken, the language printed on the awning here is Thai. As for the store, it's been here since 2013, when it replaced a small grocer called New Market that had opened around 2008. Check out the inter...

The Food Emporium Opened:  January 9, 2026 Owner:  Adam Shapiro Previous Tenants:  Grand Union > Stop & Shop (2001-2017) > Giant Farmers Market (2018-2024) Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  19 Wyckoff Ave, Waldwick, NJ Photographed:  January 9, 2026 A lot of the grand openings I write about here are interesting mostly to me and a small group of people who live near the store. No disrespect to those stores, but it's a rare supermarket opening that garners a lot of attention. Opening day at The Food Emporium in Waldwick here might look like a ho-hum event from the picture above, but the reason there was no one outside when I took that picture is because the entirety of the population of Waldwick, NJ was already inside this store, checking out the grand opening. If we rewind time a bit from 10:15 am yesterday when the above picture was taken to 9:59 -- exactly one minute before the store opened its doors... ...we'd see the line of people waiti...