Is Market Basket Opening A Second New Bedford Location?

Anyone who has battled the crowds at Market Basket in New Bedford would probably welcome a second location in the Whaling City. But is another New Bedford Market Basket in the cards?

Market Basket is a chain of nearly 100 supermarkets in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. Parent company DeMoulas Supermarkets Inc. is headquartered in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

After emigrating from Greece, the DeMoulas family opened the first DeMoulas Market in Lowell, Massachusetts. in 1917. While successful, the business faced many challenges over the years, not the least of which was the Great Depression, but it continued to expand and grow.

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Market Basket opened at 122 Sawyer St. in New Bedford in 2010.

Family squabbles led to legal battles and a six-week, company-wide job action in 2014 by employees loyal to one of the two Arthur DeMoulases (they were cousins) vying for control of the Market Basket chain.

The walk-out ended when Arthur S. DeMoulas agreed to sell his share of the company to rival Arthur T. DeMoulas. It's complicated, but most family matters are.

Fast forward to 2024.

A recent caller to Chris McCarthy's program on WBSM indicated he heard that work was underway on a new Market Basket supermarket at the former Building #19 site at 13 Hathaway Road.

Ward 3 City Councilor Shawn Oliver confirmed that there was activity at the Hathaway Road property. "There is some machinery and surveyors on site," he said, but the rumors don't appear to be true.

Oliver added: "The last known proposal for that site is a storage facility."

Oliver said it wouldn't seem to make sense to have two Market Basket locations so close to each other, "close enough that they would be in the same ward let alone the same city."

Jonathan Darling, Public Information Officer for the City of New Bedford, responded to my inquiry with a simple, "Mayor said no."

Darling said Mayor Jon Mitchell confirms "the site owner is building a storage place and some other businesses," and not a new Market Basket.

An email from the "Market Basket Team" thanked WBSM for reaching out and said, "We have nothing to report on a second location in New Bedford, however, we are thankful for the interest in our company and for our customers trading with us at our Sawyer Street location."