TOUR: Market Basket - Chelmsford, MA

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 side, with deli, seafood, and meat on the back wall. Frozen and produce are on the right side with bakery and the Market's Kitchen in the front-right corner. As this store is on the older side, there's no seating area or coffee shop like Westford has.

This store does have a few small variations, though, because of a slight layout difference on the left side. Dairy is a U-shape, lining a bit of the front wall, the left-side wall, and part of the back wall, with a cheese and packaged deli island at the back, which you can see to the right below. Around the corner to the left of the milk below is the rest of the back wall, with service deli and seafood just to the left around that corner.

Market Basket tends to be fairly no-frills (not least in store design), but they do have a large selection. So while a larger cheese department might be something you'd expect to be in a higher-end store, they do have quite a bit here.

As usual, cold cuts and other packaged deli items are in the first grocery aisle.

I commented on the lack of customers at the Stop & Shop, but don't let these pictures fool you. This is a very busy store. As I mentioned, an online foot traffic tracker suggests this store gets three times as much traffic as the Stop & Shop. Whether that's true or not (and I'd totally believe it), this is the highest-volume supermarket in Chelmsford without a doubt. I was here on a random Wednesday afternoon in May, so not a peak shopping time.

Service seafood and packaged meats on the rest of the back wall. There isn't a service butcher counter here, but there's still a butcher window where you can get custom cuts (and yes, Market Basket does still cut meat in-store, unlike Stop & Shop and many other chains).

The grocery aisles are straightforward, too. I don't know whether I've mentioned this before, but Market Basket is mostly self-distributed and uses their own storebrand, called simply Market Basket. Organic products are under a brand called, you guessed it, Market Basket Organic. HABA, though, comes from Topco and HABA storebrand items are under TopCare.

Here's a look at HABA, which is roughly in the center of the store.

The HABA department has several shorter aisles divided in the middle.

You can see the butcher window to the left below.

20 aisles in total, with frozen in the last few.

Here, bread lines the grocery aisle facing the produce department. I'm most familiar with a Market Basket layout where that area has either frozen foods or refrigerated produce.

Here, refrigerated produce and ice cream line the outside of the produce department, the right side of the store.

And in a relatively unusual setup, things like leafy greens are piled in low produce islands in the middle rather than being in a perimeter upright case. Clearly, they're still selling plenty here, as there's a lot of stock and it was all very fresh and healthy-looking.

Ice cream and floral in the front corner, next to the bakery. I assume that's why ice cream is placed here, so that it can be next to desserts in the bakery.

This corner is relatively newly redone (or maybe the whole store is, who can tell!). But the bakery and kitchen departments were probably not included in the original store.

These departments are a bit smaller than they would be in the newer and larger stores, but there's still a full lineup here.

And a look at the front-end, looking back over towards dairy...

That's all for Market Basket today, but we'll see several more of their stores soon enough. Have a great weekend, and on Monday, we'll see the last supermarket here in Chelmsford!