The Market Report

  It's time to return to the city of Lowell and its environs (see previous coverage here )! The city is notable in the supermarket world for being the birthplace of Market Basket, so the fact that The Market Report's coverage the first time around was only a very quick look at one of the four Market Baskets in town seems unconscionable. In late August, I got the chance to return to the city, so we'll be seeing all four Market Baskets in town along with a couple other stores, plus one just outside the city in Dracut. For now, enjoy the weekend, and I'll see you on Monday for a look at two Market Baskets!

Shaw's Opened: unknown Owner:  Albertsons Companies Previous Tenants:  unknown Cooperative:  none Location:  93 Prospect St, Milford, MA Photographed:  August 24, 2025 Having seen the Trader Joe's , Stop & Shop , ALDI , and Big Y to the northeast of downtown Milford, it's now time to move west for the Shaw's, the only store in Milford west of downtown. (This is a city with a lot of competition, though, along with a Market Basket just south of town and a Price Chopper in the next town north!) I unfortunately don't have much history on this Shaw's. I couldn't confirm whether this was an Iandoli supermarket, as most of the Worcester-area Shaw's were originally. And HistoricAerials.com doesn't give me much information beyond the fact that the store was built by 1967, then either rebuilt or simply expanded to the present 50,000 square feet in the early 1990s. This unintentionally aesthetically pleasing photo welcomes us to the store tour, and it gi...

Big Y Opened: 2016 Owner:  D'Amour family Previous Tenants:  Star Market (early 1990s-1999) > Hannaford (1999-2016) Cooperative:  none Location:  7 Medway Rd, Milford, MA Photographed:  August 24, 2025 This Big Y has been on my radar for actually a very long time. It's got a fascinating history, and you might be able to pick up on it if you look very carefully at the exterior. Well, at the very least you might be able to tell it's not a typical Big Y . But the 60,000 square foot store was constructed in the early 1990s as a Star Market, during the time that American Stores owned Star Market. Check out the similarity to this ACME on the outside, which was built when American Stores also owned ACME around the same time. Or see here for more detail. Now, it appears that when Sainsbury's -- a British chain that owned Shaw's -- bought Star Market in 1999, they had to divest a few stores. It appears they divested both this store and the Shaw's in Quincy to Hanna...

ALDI Opened: 2010 Owner:  ALDI Sud Previous Tenants:  none Cooperative:  none Location:  225 E Main St, Milford, MA Photographed:  August 24, 2025 Visit number 3 of five here in Milford is the ALDI, to the northeast of downtown. This approximately 18,000 square foot store was built in 2010 on the site of a former car dealership, and is situated right between a Stop & Shop to the east and a Big Y to the west that we'll be seeing tomorrow. It's been nicely renovated with the latest ALDI decor, to the point that it almost feels like a much newer store than it is -- except for the flooring, which is the dead giveaway it originally had this decor package . Most ALDIs are exactly the same, so the layout here is very straightforward: produce and baked goods in the first aisle, dairy and cold cuts on the back wall, meat and frozen in the last aisle. This one seemed a bit cleaner and better organized than many ALDIs I go to. That might be because of just how many o...