The Market Report

Pastaio Via Corta Opened: 2016 Owner:  Danielle Glantz Previous Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Cooperative:  none Location:  123 Main St, Gloucester, MA Photographed:  August 22, 2025 Here in Gloucester, nearly a quarter of the population is Italian-American, so it makes sense there are a number of Italian-centered food businesses along the main street. One of the most notable is Pastaio Via Corta, an artisanal pasta shop and gourmet grocer turning out pasta from stone-ground wheat. The pasta production is the centerpiece of the store, and according to a profile in Edible Boston , the owner makes 450 pounds of pasta a week in the tiny downtown shop. The left side wall of the upscale store displays imported oils and vinegars along with some imported groceries, plus a large shelf of fine wines. Refrigerated foods are at the back, with a service counter displaying the fresh pasta on the right-side wall. You can see the mountains of fresh pasta here, along...

We've finally come to the end of Massachusetts here on The Market Report! Obviously, we've only seen a very small portion of the state's many supermarkets, but we've covered some good geographic ground and we're now all the way up in the northeastern corner of the state. This is around where the North Shore stops being just a place where people live and becomes more of a tourist destination (though, of course, those areas are mixed all along the coast of New England). We'll see a few stores along the coast from Gloucester, MA to Portsmouth, NH, which is just south of the Maine border. Yes, New Hampshire does have a tiny section of coastline, although only about 15 miles from Seabrook to Portsmouth. We'll start in Gloucester, then make stops in the small towns of Ipswich and Newbury before a look at Newburyport, the larger town right on the NH border, and West Newbury. Then it's off to New Hampshire for a few stores in Seabrook, one inland a bit in Exete...

I mentioned on the post for America's Food Basket that Lawrence has a number of independent grocers, mostly small corner stores catering to Latin and Caribbean shoppers, so let's take a look at them before The Market Report leaves the area. Plus, we'll see a store just outside of Lawrence. Here we go! Lawrence V&V Market & Restaurant Opened:  2015 Owner:  Victor Villacis Previous Tenants:  car dealer > car rental agency Cooperative:  none Location:  273a S Union St, Lawrence, MA I've seen grocery stores in buildings previously occupied by lots of different businesses, but here's a somewhat unusual one -- a former car dealership, later car rental agency, that's now the V&V Market & Restaurant. That certainly explains the unusually large parking lot for this store of just 3000 square feet. V&V has been here since 2015, and is a small corner store with a butcher, deli, hot food, and general grocery.

Market Basket Opened: ca. 2010 in this location; ca. 1960s previously Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  Kmart Cooperative:  none Location:  400 Lowell Ave, Haverhill, MA Photographed:  June 11, 2022 Three in one today! The Market Report visits the three Market Baskets of Haverhill, the biggest supermarkets in the city whose downtown is just two miles from the New Hampshire border. This is our first stop, which at nearly 85,000 square feet is the largest Market Basket in town. This store opened around 2010 in a former Kmart, moving from a smaller ca. 1960s store on the same property. The interior? Classic Market Basket , of course. Market Basket Opened:  early 1970s Owner:  DeMoulas family Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  2 Water St, Haverhill, MA Photographed:  May 18, 2024 Moving on to the downtown store about two miles east. This one has been a Market Basket since the building was constructed in the ...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 215 Market St, Lawrence, MA Opened:  1966 Closed:  1976 Later Tenants:  Jackson Lumber (open by 1981) Photographed:  May 15, 2023 It's a bit hard to see in these pictures, but there's actually a Centennial A&P buried in the middle of this lumber company building. Take a good close look at the section in the middle , between the two yellow towers, and you can make out the former centennial roofline . The supermarket was originally around 15,000 square feet, and built in 1966 as A&P was expanding nationally with their centennial stores -- so named for their 100th anniversary, which they celebrated in 1959. It closed in 1976. I don't know whether another grocery tenant came in after A&P, but Jackson Lumber -- which now has expanded this facility to upwards of 70,000 square feet -- was open in the building by 1981. Although this A&P has closed, there's still a full supermarket in this area. Tour the America's F...

America's Food Basket Opened: 2017 Owner:  Edwin Polanco Previous Tenants:  Stuarts department store > Rite Aid Cooperative:  America's Food Basket Location:  73 Winthrop Ave, Lawrence, MA Photographed:  May 14, 2023 I mentioned that my coverage of the Lawrence/Haverhill area is unfortunately thin, so today's store tour is the only tour I have in this area. Still, it's a very interesting store. I've posted several America's Food Basket stores in the Boston area, and they're affiliated with the Long Island-based cooperative of the same name. (Stores affiliated with that group in Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida are mostly branded Ideal Food Basket .) They only have one location north of Boston, though, and that's this store in Lawrence. We're a little under 10 miles northeast of Lowell , to help you position yourself, and about 25 miles northwest of Boston. This store is on the larger side for AFB, coming in right around 20,000 square feet. I...

Stop & Shop Opened:  late 1990s Owner:  Ahold Delhaize Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  757 Turnpike St, North Andover, MA Photographed:  August 22, 2025 Our first stop in the Lawrence/Haverhill area actually isn't in either city -- it's in North Andover, where we saw the brand-new Market Basket back last summer. We're about two miles southeast of the Market Basket here, and that Market Basket is right on the Lawrence city line. This Stop & Shop is big, but at 65,000 square feet, it's nothing compared to the Market Basket of over 90,000 square feet. The Stop & Shop appears to still have the yellow and purple decor , and I'm a bit surprised they didn't renovate it in anticipation of the Market Basket's big move. And that's all for today, so come back tomorrow to head into Lawrence!

Our next stop is a little inland of the places we've been, so let's head out to Lawrence and Haverhill! We're back towards the direction of Lowell , which is about 10 miles west of Lawrence. This is not an area I've spent a lot of time in, so our coverage will be very quick. In fact, we'll only be spending this week here. Tomorrow is our first store tour in the southern part of Lawrence, so come back to check it out! Plus, see the latest 10th year special feature here!

Howe's Station Market Opened:  2005 under current ownership; ca. 1940s previously Owner:  Vipak Karia Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  229 Maple St, Middleton, MA Photographed:  August 22, 2025 Our final stop in the Greater Salem area is about six miles west of yesterday's stop in Hamilton . This market is just 2000 square feet, but it's been continuously open since at least 1952, and I would bet even well before that. Today, Howe's Station Market is more of a corner store than a full grocer, but it's still impressive to see it in business for that long. The small town of Middleton has a Market Basket in the southern end, and there's a Stop & Shop to the east in Danvers.  Here's this month's  10th year  special feature, and what's coming up next !

  Continuing the celebration of The Market Report's 10th year! Each month of 2026, I'll be posting a different special feature to celebrate my 10th year of writing this blog. Last month, we took a look at the history of A&P and its other brands . This month, let's shift our focus to the blog itself. For February's feature, I'm going to be sharing some of my own favorite posts from the first five years of the blog, 2016-2020. Best of 2016 CTown Supermarkets, Bethlehem, PA December 22, 2016 Although I started photographing stores (and posting my pictures to Flickr) in the spring of 2016, I didn't start writing until November. So there's only a few posts from 2016 to actually choose from, and I've always loved the CTown in Bethlehem. It was a fun store to visit myself, and I've been back a couple times since then. Best of 2017 Bell Farm Supermarkets, Belleville, NJ June 12, 2017 This ill-fated store was only open for a couple years in the Newark sub...