TOUR: Market Basket - Oxford, MA

Market Basket
Owner: DeMoulas family

Opened: 2010

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 95 Sutton Ave, Oxford, MA

Photographed: May 1, 2021

If you're from Massachusetts (or parts of New Hampshire, Maine, or Rhode Island), you definitely are familiar with Market Basket, the regional chain based near Lowell in northeastern MA. The chain's fleet of around 90 stores tends to be large, relatively new, and very uniform stores, so the store here in Oxford looks very similar to the one we saw a while back in Shrewsbury, although we'll see some examples of older and smaller -- and much larger -- locations.

The Oxford location is around 78,000 square feet, or slightly smaller than Shrewsbury which is about 11 miles northeast. And even though there's nearly 13 years between the Shrewsbury and Oxford locations, they look very similar.

Market Basket doesn't focus on decor, really, so even in the newer stores it's mostly kept to a minimum. But the large stores are known for their large selections and low prices.

On the right side, we enter to aisle 1, which is dairy (with customer service at the front). Deli/seafood are at the back of the first aisle, with meat on the rest of the back wall. Frozen is at the left side of the store with produce in the last aisle, and deli/bakery/prepared foods in the front left corner.

It's a little hard to believe, but all the fixtures and decor were brand-new in 2010. Market Basket doesn't use any form of trendy design, which likely saves them money on store design and renovations (they can do full renovations without changing any decor), but also makes their customer base, who tends to be older, comfortable in the store.

Service deli and seafood are together at the back right corner.

I don't believe there's a service butcher here. Some stores do.

The grocery aisles are no-nonsense, but clean, organized, and beautifully stocked.

Market Basket is self-distributed, which also helps them cut prices (and they're known for being one of the cheapest in New England). The majority of storebrand items are under the Market Basket brand, although some nonfoods I believe are under the TopCare brand from TopCo.

You can see some of the storebrand stuff here in nonfoods.

Frozen foods are in the last few grocery aisles. Here, they're in the last two with a few more cases on the outside of the produce department -- a strange but typical Market Basket layout.

Again, the store looks like a much older one, but everything is quite new. Still, we can tell that maintenance here is spectacular -- and across the board at all the Market Baskets I've visited.

Prepared foods are in the front of the last aisle, which has produce and ice cream in the back.

Market Basket's bakery is generally quite good, although not everything I've had is great. Oddly, Market Basket like many New England supermarkets doesn't even have a self-serve case for rolls, bagels, and bread.

21 aisles in total here, but remember that 1 is dairy, 21 is produce and ice cream, and 19-20 are frozen foods.

Again, we see a no-frills but well-stocked and spotless produce department.

But don't expect any decor!

And a look across the front-end...

And one more thing before we leave. I saw these for I think $3 in the frozen foods department of all places, and I had to have it.

We'll see lots more Market Baskets across New England, but for now we're headed to the next town about five miles north, Auburn. Have a great weekend, everybody!