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Market Basket gives Roche Bros. a run for its insanity money

Endangered Coffee: If Mel Gibson makes another Mad Max movie, it will be set in a Market Basket on a Saturday:

... Retired folks meander through the aisles, making sure to gently run their carts over the tops of your toes. Anytime you think there might be a little running room in an aisle, some family of 12 comes careening around the corner, parking their cart in front of you and arguing about what kind of Pop Tarts they should buy this week. For good measure, employees will also wheel out towering pallets of breakfast cereal during the busiest part of the day, drop them in the middle of the floor, and then stare idly at the shelves. ...

Compare to:
Hell on earth: The Roche Bros. parking lot the day before Thanksgiving.

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Comments

Yes, it is nuts there too, but the insanity is channeled a bit better.

I like the funkfactor of the Somerville store better and go there when I can actually park in the lot - they have more interesting grocery items (e.g. a whole wall of coconut milk and curry paste, and not the boutiquey stuff) and more peoplewatching opportunities than in the suburbs, but the store is simply way too small. Even then, I bring my boys, who know the layout well, and send them off to fetch items while I navigate the large aisles.

I miss shopping at the Acre flagship store in Lowell - funkfactor and room to move.

Always interesting to see all the Medford, Everett, Malden, Somerville jerseys when we shop after soccer games in the Burbs. If some local says "why is it so crowded here today", we all smirk at one another.

(FYI - because it is a freeway trip for the most part, it not only takes about 5 to 10 minutes more to get to Woburn vs. Somerville, it doesn't take much more gas. As for saving money, it probably does make $50 or more worth of difference on $225 worth of groceries vs. Shaws)

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I miss shopping at the Acre flagship store in Lowell - funkfactor and room to move.

Word has it (the Herald) there is a 130,000 square foot new Market Basket moving into Chelsea sometime next year. 42 registers, oy lets just hope they leave more then 4 feet of linear space for people to squeeze into the store by.

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I thought you shopped at urban greenmarkets with the little carry bags that are so convenient for city dwellers. You mean you drive to a supermarket in the suburbs? I'm confused.

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I do the urban thing when I'm on foot or on a bike during the week. I carry bags around in my packs and panniers for those times when I need to pick up a gallon of milk and some produce, getting specific items for dinner, or want to shop at a farmer's market. My husband keeps bags in his motorcycle trunk for the same reason.

With about $200 a week to feed the family, there is no way I could shop like that for all my groceries these days - not with Mr.Yougonnaeatthat? and his slightly younger brother fruitbat pac-manning their way through the kitchen nonstop. I can't even fit it all in the old baby trailer anymore. So if I have to use the car, I prefer to do big shopping and go someplace where I can get enough for a week or two at one shot.

When it's just me and the mr. again, I'm sure we will revert to doing most of our shopping at urban markets with carry bags once again.

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Whats amazing is every Market Basket is the same way. Market Basket is an absolute zoo everyday, not just on thanksgiving or before xmas in every city they are in.

In defense of the employees stocking in the middle of the "busy time" (its busy all the time anyway) its impossible to keep the shelves full with things like cereal if you dont reload in the middle of the surge. Ive witnessed a Market Basket at full surge with a reduced staff (I was told an illness had swept through the store) a few years ago and can tell you that without those random refillings the shelves become very bare, very fast. If they did not refill the way they do by the time you got to the cereal aisle it would look like one of those closing Circuit City stores with a sign hanging on by a thread and two open boxes of Cheerios on their side.

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That's one reason why I go to Market Basket - when it is busy, they have enough people around to keep food stocked up! Other stores just get cleaned out, or put out so much at one time that it isn't necessarily fresh or properly refrigerated.

It also means a high turnover of fresh items and long pull dates.

I'm content to navigate it, but I have a posse to gather up items in places where no cart has gone before! I even have one taller than me to get high shelf stuff.

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Who doesn't like XTREME grocery shopping?

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I shop at the Somerville one. There are better and worse times (last week, I went Saturday at 10. Not a good time), but it's always crowded. I figure this is how they keep the prices so low, and the produce so fresh. I think I save 10-20% over the nice, easy, wide-open-spaces of the Stop and Shop that's equally near my house, and I figure that's a decent payoff for an hour of chaos.

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This works the best:
One person muscles the carriage around the perimeter.
The other “runs” the isles with a basket then empties the booty in the cart.
On the final turn, the runner scopes out the least crowded checkout and directs the other in.
During the checkout wait you double-check your haul and pickup what was missed.
A lot of work but the savings are worth it!

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I live in Lowell so there are about seven Market Baskets within 15 minutes of my house. It's super-awesome because each Basket has a different feel - if I'm in the mood for organics, I hit Chelmsford. If I want ethnic items, I hit the original Acre store. If I want beer, I head up to Nashua. One thing I get at every store - crowds and savings!

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This is how it works at my Stop & Shop, anyway.

The shelves are stocked heavily between Friday midnight and Saturday 7am. The majority of shoppers don't show up on Saturday until after 8am. So, I shop between 7am and 8am. No empty shelves, no jostling with throngs of idiots.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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Market Basket aint no Stop and Shop. Normal rules do not apply!

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There's a 7 AM on Saturdays?

No way.

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I like to shop at Market Basket 's new location in Reading off 128. Nice big clean store always has everything in stock. Word is the Chelsea MB is opening around late May.

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