Market Basket

My daughter is a big fan of MB, has shopped there for about 15 years and says the fresh produce is excellent. I agree with her. I have found a range of vegetables there not just the usual offerings and there is always someone to help me to find items
One of your reviewers complained that she is given too many bags. This situation is easily rectified.
I always take my own bags to the supermarket so do not understand why most of the customers at MB go in empty handed and this makes me feel uncomfortable. They would soon learn if they were charged for the bags as in my home country.

I went to a local Shaw’s or two. Being from out of town, I wasn’t familiar with the local grocery chains and happened to stumble upon MB. The prices seemed much more reasonable than Shaw’s and the employees were nice. I like that they wear ties. Good selection, lots of variety, and they carry many organic items.

This place is the epitome of a jungle. It is constantly mobbed, the customers tend to travel in packs and will trample you and cut you in the checkout line. The staff are nice enough and the prices are good, but the horrendous experience of entering this location make the extra couple miles to middleton market basket worth it.

Not a bad store per say if you shop either before 8 am or after 7pm! Otherwise a shopping trip can take you a good 2 – 3 hours due to the crowds and the stockers blocking the aisles. Every trip results in a gridlock and a good 15 minute wait (and they open almost all registers, Walmart should take notice). Cashiers barely acknowledge you and prefer to converse in Spanish with the bagger (who usually puts 3 items in a bag so you have 30 bags when you get home). Talk about a waste! Throw in the first of the month checks, ebtcards, wick and coupons and you could regret getting in that short line behind the 6 member family who apparently has nothing better to do than tag along. You’ll probably save $ 20 overall but it’s just not worth the anxiety, aggravation and time spent there. Enjoy your visit, you have been warned!

I love the wide selection and prices here. The staff has always been friendly and helpful to me. It is crowded, but it’s not as bad as the one I used to go to in Somerville. The aisles seem disorganized though, the same products showing up in multiple places. The lines are too long. The baggers are not great, either. They’ll put either one thing or forty things in a single plastic bag, both of which annoy me.

This Market Basket is cramped, crowded, not nearly as inexpensive as some believe. And the bread baked in-​store has less flavor and goes moldy much quicker than anything from nearby Shaw’s.
The Deli is especially bad. It often smells so bad a maggot would retch. And if you saw how carelessly some of the clerks are with the meat, you’d never buy anything there again.

Prices are good, produce is so so, aisles are too crowded but the personnel are helpful

Prices are great and that’s about it.
Crowded, which b is expected.
Staff is horrible, very rude, not attentive at all, and can really turn your mood sour. FAST!
food is bagged terribly slow, people do have better things to do than watch you take ur time and chat with the person scanning your items.
As for the bakery staff, they make you want to throw whatever desert you wanted to buy right at them.
Taylor was the bitch of my visit today. She was on the wrong side of the counter texting right next to me as I waited about 5 mins for someone to attend to me. I hot annoyed and asked if anyone was working the bakery. she slowly said yeah looked at me as if I inconvenienced her and made her way around to help me. She then proceeded to ask me «what do you want» I was placing a larger order and wanted a variety and the reply after every item was «that it». Mind you she looked like a slob. No have a nice day or nothing. got my box slid over to me and called it a day.

terrible place to shop
too crowded
too chaotic
too annoying

I refuse to pay the outrageous prices at Shaw’s and Stop & Shop, so I always shop MB. Yes, it can be hellishly crowded, but in my opinion, the pain is worth the price. I usually go on Wednesday or Thursday evenings (after the rush of people coming to get dinner), and it’s significantly more tolerable. Weekends? Forget about it – unless you enjoy playing bumper cars with your carriage, and waiting in line for 20 minutes. I refuse to do it. However, like I said, if you pick a strategic time to go, the prices are worth it. I also find that the selection at MB stores are much better than Stop & Shop (at least the Peabody store), which makes sense given the high inventory turnover. For example, this store carries ground chicken, which I couldn’t find at Stop & Shop. I think the food quality is also generally higher (again, a consequence of its inventory turnover). Many of the complaints about this store seem exaggerated, or flat out elitist. If you loathe ethnic diversity, the lower middle class, or paying reasonable prices for food, then absolutely this place is not for you. However, I know that financially-​responsible people will always shop here – even those who have the coin to shop elsewhere.

Wow, this place really brings out the racist in Unilocal users, I see. It’s crowded, it’s chaotic, and there’s no real «off» time, but it’s cheap, they have things other stores don’t have, and the produce is good. Much better than Stop & Shop, in fact. Despite the crowds, I’ve never had a bad experience here. People seem to understand that it’s a crowded/​chaotic place and adjust accordingly. Go in assuming that you’re somehow «better» than the people shopping or working there, and it’ll probably be a negative experience. Or, know what you’re in for, prepare yourself mentally, and go in. It will be worth it. And I don’t understand the people saying the store is dirty. It’s dingy, the décor hasn’t been updated, but dirty it is not.

THIS MARKET BASKET IS HELL ON EARTH.
I love me some Market Basket prices and fresh produce, but this is ridiculous. I only go if I’m in the mood for an anxiety attack and feel like spending a few hours trapped in a never ending rush hour traffic of carts.
It is always PACKED no matter what time you go. You are trapped between carts and crates that employees are trying to stock during it’s busiest hours. NO ONE speaks English… that goes for the employees and the patrons. Can you say WELFARE CENTRAL?! The lines literally go from the register down the isles because you’re waiting for coupon clippers and people who are arguing about food stamps. (No lie. I once witnessed a woman hit the cashier with a banana for not accepting her food stamps for a Lindt chocolate bunny.)
…just no. Don’t ever go here. Save yourselves. The pennies saved aren’t worth your life, limbs, and sanity.

Great prices… holy moly, this place is welfare central!

I first moved to the area and said” oh! A market basket!” I go inside for first time, COMPLETE CHAOS!” I only go If I absolutely positively have to go! Always crazy when I go inside. I like that their produce is fresh. But other than that… I’ll go somewhere else.

I love shopping at Market Basket for the savings but this location just isn’t worth it unless you get up early to do your shopping before 8am. This store is small, unkept, not stocked very well, rude employees, some employees that don’t speak English, tight aisles, crowds of people, long lines, and parking is bad.
Mostly I blame the customers that shop here for my bad experiences. It starts off in the parking lot. Just trying to find a parking spot is a major headache. You have idiots that park in the fire lane because they are too lazy to park in a spot and walk 25 feet to the store so you are dodging them just to get into the parking lot. At this location finding a close parking spot is like winning the lottery. Once inside life doesn’t get much better. I’ve actually had a full-​blown anxiety attack in the middle of this store. It’s almost always wall-​to-​wall people. If you have a carriage you’re going to be hating life trying to navigate through that store. People are constantly bumping into you or slamming into you with their carriages. It can be a nightmare.
The selection is bad, especially in the evening. Most items are picked over, I couldn’t even find chicken breasts and this was around dinner time. BTW, don’t even bother shopping at this location between 4 and 7, it’s BAD. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you do. Shopping in the early morning helps but then you have to deal with pallets in the middle of the narrow aisles because they stock shelves during the day.
By the time you are done shopping you will notice the long lines. Be prepared to spend some time waiting. I’ve actually walked out of this store and headed over to Shaw’s in the next plaza over. It’s really bad enough that paying a little extra for my groceries is better than dealing with the aggravation of shopping here. I only give this place 2 stars because the prices are decent. Other than that I would recommend avoiding this location if you can.

Stop & Shop and Shaws are for posers. this regional grocery chain is where it’s at — MB is where the locals shop.
If you enjoy driving in Boston then Market Basket is for you.
Shoppers here push their shopping carts, er, um, carriages, like they drive –with complete disregard for their surroundings.

I’m so mixed on Market Basket.
With lobsters that go from Alive ‘N Kickin’ to cooked in front of you for $ 3.99/ lb I feel like I really shouldn’t complain. But then there’s the 30 minutes you have to wait for said lobsters to croak, er cook. I don’t mind waiting, but waiting in MB is like slow painful torture. I sped around the store with my shopping cart avoiding poorly stacked merchandise and stray children in what felt like a century getting my weekly groceries. Then when I finally made my way back to the seafood counter the guy said, «You still have 15 minutes.» So I just stopped there with my full shopping cart, opened my bag of veggie chips and tried to tune out the crying babies, yelling moms and loud baseball coaches discussing that night’s practice.
Yes, my weekly grocery run was about $ 20 less than I usually pay at Stop & Shop, but I don’t know if saving $ 20 is worth enduring the task of shopping at MB.
And don’t even get me started on the parking lot…
I usually park at Target and walk over just to avoid a few near-​accidents.

I understand that market basket is overcrowded and outdated/​dingy as a facility, but the quality and diversity of items is wonderful. The prices are the lowest around and they have very quick and helpful service at the registers and on the floor.
The only regret: I do not like how I have to buy a bulk amount of some items. I just want 1 – 2 habanero chiles… not a package of 15. Also, if you go on Sunday evening to avoid some of the crowds, you also risk items being depleted, especially in the produce department.
It took me years to get the courage to go into Market Basket mostly because of the horror stories and its façade, but I’m happy to say they carry great brands and local products too!

Don’t like Market Basket. To crowded, to many employees in each isle with pallets and carts. The prices are lower but they are also creeping up.
Oh yeah and I’m a manager at Stop & Shop.

OMFG! If there’s one place on earth that would cause me to have anxiety and panic attacks, this is it. Bad enough that it’s very over crowded, but it’s overcrowded with rude, pushy, and very nasty people.
I don’t recall getting onto an international flight to go food shopping, but once I stepped out of the Tardis and into the Twilight Zone, I realized I was no longer in America. Who are all these people and where the hell did they all come from.
Because they are the least expensive of all the large grocery chains around, I succumbed to the torturous ordeal of having to shop in the third world nation of Market Basket and although my shopping experience was a highly stressful one, the bonus was that my daughter got the bonus of being at the zoo simultaneously as my demolition derby cart crawled ever slowly through the amazon. I’m more than certain that next time I will use it as a battering ram, because really, this is a fucking supermarket, not goddamn community social hour for every goddamn silver haired bat in town whom just seem to congregate in every fucking aisle, impeding my shopping progress.
And what the fuck, what is it with MORONS who blankly stare at packages of meat… Sometimes it is really difficult to stifle my urges to scream «Stop fucking staring at it and pick a goddamn package so I can get in there»… Jesus Christ! What the fuck is wrong with these people.
Oh, and what fucking genius in management decided that the store shelves should be stocked during the day, during PEAK HOURS instead of at night or overnight when the store is empty. Bad enough that the store is hazardously overcrowded, but just has to have idiots stocking shelves with their goddamn boxes and pallets taking up space, making it even more difficult to get around, and excuse me, but I need to get the fuck in there and get those canned veggies, so, why the fuck do I have to wait for this bozo to finish what he’s doing. I’m not being paid to stand here and have BETTER things to do than be shopping in some fucking zoo, so, please fucking move, thank you.
I like my produce to be fresh, what I don’t like is getting a fucking shower every time I go to reach for a fruit or vegetable. Do they really need to soak the fuck out of everything. Water causes vegetables to wilt, not stay fresh, and speaking of wet shit, what the fuck is it with the bread always being wet.
You would think that because food is sold here that the place would be clean, and with at least 50 idiots in every department having personal conversations, getting in the customers way while they stock shelves, etc, that at least one of them would sweep the damn floor and clean shit.
Oh, and I’m really happy to hear that the jerk behind the counter in the deli would love to tap my ass, but no thanks, I’m not into Pepperoni, thank you. I’d rather have Tuna. Speaking of seafood, I swear the old woman behind the counter smelled like vodka, this even obvious over the smell of fish.
FINALLY, I get to a line, but I’m nowhere close to being done, since now I must wait til the next century to pay for my cartload of shit, and yes, OF COURSE THE PEOPLE AHEAD OF ME ARE WRITING CHECKS, OF COURSE. Haven’t they ever heard of fucking debit cards, and really, stop distracting the cashier with personal conversation, she’s already slow enough.
I swear to god this place isn’t a supermarket, but a cross between a zoo and circus somewhere within the galactic empire.
It’s astounding to me how my head hasn’t exploded yet or left me with aneurisms anytime I have had to suffer in this nightmare.