Market Basket (New England)

Market Basket

Mkt-basket.png
Company type	Grocery
Industry	Retail
Founded	1917 Lowell, Massachusetts
Headquarters	Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Key people	Arthur T. DeMoulas, president Joseph L. Rockwell, Vice President
Products	Bakery (Not Available At All Stores), Dairy, Deli, Frozen Foods, Grocery, Meat, Health & Beauty Care, Produce, Seafood, Snacks, Beer & Wine (NH stores only) Market's Kitchen (Not Available At All Stores), Sub Shops (Not Available At All Stores), Sushi Bar (Not Available At All Stores)
Parent	DeMoulas Supermarkets, Inc

DeMoulas Market Basket, more commonly known as Market Basket, is a chain of 65 supermarkets in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It has stores from central New Hampshire to Bristol County, Massachusetts with headquarters in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Supermarket News ranked DeMoulas/Market Basket No. 43 in the 2010 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2009 fiscal year estimated sales of.

Early history

In 1917, Greek immigrants Athanasios ("Arthur") and Efrosini Demoulas opened a grocery store in Lowell, Massachusetts, specializing in fresh lamb. In 1954, they sold their store to two of their six children, Telemachus ("Mike") and George Demoulas. Within 15 years, the two brothers had transformed their parents' "mom and pop"-style store into a more modern supermarket chain consisting of 15 stores.

The only remaining store with DeMoulas on the facade in Salem, NH.

George Demoulas died of a heart attack in 1971 while vacationing in Greece, making Mike the sole head of the DeMoulas supermarket chain. Although each brother had promised to provide for the other's family in the event of his death, a lawsuit filed in 1990 by the heirs of George Demoulas claimed that Mike had defrauded them out of all but 8% of company stock by moving assets into shell companies, such as 'Market Basket Inc.' and 'Seabrook Sales Inc.' and claiming that these were separate companies from DeMoulas itself. The ensuing legal cases threatened to require the sale of the chain, most likely to Royal Ahold's Stop & Shop. In 1994, Judge Maria Lopez ruled that Mike Demoulas had defrauded George's family out of nearly $500 million, transferring 51% of Demoulas' stock to George's family.

Mike Demoulas died in 2003 at age 82 and is buried in Andover, Mass. In March 2006, Boston Magazine rated George's son, Arthur S. Demoulas, as Boston's eighth wealthiest person, with assets of $1.6 billion. He was not listed in the Forbes 2008 edition. In early 2008, the board of directors elected Arthur T. Demoulas president of the corporation.

A separate company controlled by the Mike DeMoulas side of the family operated the Lee Drug chain from 1983 until it was sold to Walgreens in 1990; these stores were usually located in the same shopping center as a DeMoulas/Market Basket. The chain's corporate relationship to Mike DeMoulas's family interest in DeMoulas/Market Basket was cited in the 1990s litigation.

Market Basket today

Typical Market Basket in Portsmouth, N.H.

The interior of the largest Market Basket (Store #32) in Chelsea, Massachusetts

Market Basket's main competitors include Hannaford, Shaw's, Stop & Shop, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Markets, McKinnon's Market, and smaller, local markets, such as Butcher Boy, and, to some extent, FoodMaster (formerly Johnnie's FoodMaster). Though the chain is often called DeMoulas, all of its 61 stores now operate under the Market Basket name (the last of which, #6 in Salem, New Hampshire changed in spring 2010). Market Basket supermarkets are usually in shopping centers with other stores, often properties owned by the company through its real-estate arm, Retail Management and Development, Inc. Only two stores in the chain's history—number 38, in Plaistow, New Hampshire and number 11 in Andover Mass. have ever closed, although many have relocated to larger locations. Market Basket has no regularly functioning public website but they do have fans who have created fansites on the internet that provide the locations, hours, weekly coupons, etc. The domain name demoulasmarketbasket.com is used for email communications within the company and with its vendors.

Market Basket also has started adding Market's Kitchen to some of its existing stores and most of its new stores. Market's Kitchen offers submarine sandwiches, panini, rotisserie chickens, salads, and fried foods.

On June 10, 2009, Market Basket replaced its Chelsea, Massachusetts, store with a new building built on part of the DeMoulas owned Mystic Mall. The new store is 135,000 square feet (12,500 m²) making it the largest supermarket in New England. On April 10, 2010, Store #6 in Salem, NH, which was the last store to carry the old chain name of Demoulas, temporarily closed to be replaced by a new, larger store. On June 5, 2010 construction began in Londonderry, NH, to replace the existing Market Basket. This new store will be adjacent to the current store, which will remain open until the new store is complete. This store will be 108,750 square feet (10,103 m²), making it the largest grocery store in New Hampshire and second largest in the chain, right now Epping has the largest in New Hampshire with 76,452-square-feet.

New buildings are currently under construction in Londonderry, New Hampshire (#42), Lowell, Massachusetts (store #2), Hooksett, New Hampshire (#66), Manchester, New Hampshire (coming soon) and Burlington, Massachusetts. The New Bedford, Massachusetts (#65) store had its grand opening on Wednesday, October 6, 2010.

References

• Worcester Telegram
  
• http://rmd-inc.net/news.aspx "developer of the Market Basket supermarket chain"

External links

• Financial and business information from Hoovers.com