TLDR: non profit tells residents shit they already knew

Market Basket is the cheapest

Wegmans and Whole Foods are the most expensive but best quality.

Stop and Shop can get fucked

No link to the actual rankings, just an article that serves as a puff piece for widely recognized major chains.

I’ll take Wegman’s house brand stuff over market basket’s any damn day of the week

Wegmans frozen veggies are surprisingly cheap. Like, they're the only thing I buy there because they're so cheap.

Disappointing that price is the main criterion. Quality too but what's their measure of quality? People who'd rather not buy stuff shipped across the continent but instead get food produced in the northeastern states, or who want food that isn't full of herbicides and pesticides and growth hormones, what is this "consumer nonprofit" doing for them? When we had Bread & Circus in Massachusetts there was some effort sell sustainably produced food from local sources but WF doesn't care about that nor do any other of these commercial chains. It's all about price, convenience, "quality"...

Link to actual ratings (it’s paywalled though)

There are also only 6 Wegmans in the state vs the 8 gagillion Market Baskets.

What do they define as quality? I often find market basket products have better ingredients than other ones.

I hate Stop & Shop I only go when I need something convenient. It’s as unpleasant to shop as Market Basket, nearly as expensive as Roche Bros and the quality is total crap.

Lol, people that shop at Bread & Circus aren't going there to feed their family of 5.

The only reason I go to Stop & Shop is they carry a chocolate milk I love.

Haha came here to say the same thing. Stop and Shop can get fucked! Let’s start a movement!

I moved here in 2020. There is a Shaws 2 minutes from my home. I have been going to it for 2 years, and always wondered why my grocery bill is so god damn expensive. And the quality of produce is garbage. I went to Market basket (20 minute drive) for the first time last week and got my weekly groceries for 30% less!!!! The quality was superior. My jaw was on the ground and I feel scammed by Shaws. Fuck Shaws. Market basket FTW.

It doesn’t even mention Hannaford…

Overall this feels generally correct.

I lived in Boston proper for 7 years, Quincy for 4, and just moved down to the south shore into a single family home.

In Boston, stop n shop and star market had the "best" prices, which meant cheaper than Whole Foods and Roche, but definitely lacked in quality, especially when it came to meat, fish, and produce.

When I moved to Quincy, we started driving to Wegmans to see what it was all about and it became our go-to place for groceries. I personally found it cheaper than the Stop n Shop in Quincy, and the produce was WAY better. Their fish quality is honestly on par or better than Whole Foods most of the time, but the one draw back is they have a VERY small meat department. Both the Westwood and Natick locations had next to no fresh cut red meat if you wanted a nicer steak.

I had never been to a Market Basket until like 2 months ago when we moved, and I gave in and went. I thought I would hate it based off everything i'd heard about the quality, but honestly? I think it's on par or better than Stop n Shop/Shaws, and like a half step down from Wegmans. Their produce is perfectly fine. Plenty of fresh herbs to choose from, and the one in Hanover has a nice selection of Asian vegetables to choose from, which I appreciate. Their meat department is fantastic, and the only issue I have is their fish is pretty meh.

Having said that, I pay a good $20-40 less each week for the same cart at Market Basket than I did at Wegmans. It adds up quick and I get the love-fest with Market Basket at this point.

For real - the stories of Market Basket being so much cheaper are very much legit. I thought it was just local hype, but no, MB is solidly 20-30% cheaper than everyone else, and the quality is great. Their meat and produce is much cheaper, and unlike Stop n Shop and Shaws, they have weekly deals on things people actually seem to buy, so you can toss in some extras and save on bulk items.

Don’t let the Lowell Greeks hear you say that lol.

It’s incredible the lack of choices in western Massachusetts for supermarkets. Stop and shop quality is atrocious, big y is overpriced, and the local ones have little options.

I’d kill for a market basket or Wegmanns out here. Even a whole food in the Springfield area would be a godsend

i dont notice any sort of quality lack in stop and shop's product. the experience, however.. jesus christ. i can't go into one of those stores for any reason without it somehow turning into a fiasco.

I just think when some consumer group evaluates supermarkets the criteria should be broader than just price. If the conversation is just price then the chains can avoid the whole question of where the food comes from, how sustainably produced, basically the whole food production system. The consumer group is colluding with the supermarket chains to limit the conversation to price and “quality,” whatever that is supposed to mean, and keep ppl ignorant of the source issues.

As far as Produce, they have an amazing range of items. Some stores carry more/different items depending what neighborhood they’re in. In my opinion, because they are so busy it’s as fresh as it gets. Other store are for show Market Basket is there for the people!

That's my experience too.

20 years ago in Rhode Isand, just as I was moving to massachusetts , Shaws made you bag your own groceries…I never got over that. To this day I thank my baggers at Market Basket.

my sister who used to live in SF recently moved to eastern MA. when she visited me out in amherst and we went grocery shopping.

her jaw hit the floor when we passed big y, stop and shop, target, and trader joe’s on the way to whole foods in under 5 minutes.

And don’t make you give over personal info to get the sale item. Ie: sign up to get their deals.

I love Market Basket, but I hate shopping in Market Basket. The crowds are always insane at my local MB, and they’re always restocking in the already too narrow aisles. It’s like mad max of grocery shopping. I once had a lady crash through my cart and multiple carts as she wanted to go through the lines backed up for all ~20 open checkout aisles. The place is always a madhouse, no matter the day and time I go.

If Instacart ever supported MB (or if MB had their own delivery option a la Walmart), it would probably be the only place that I would shop. Right now, I mostly shop Aldi via Instacart, then pick up the few things they don’t have at stop and shop.

At least with that you know the terms….shaws and Stop and Shop procure their stuff the same way Market Basket does. When it’s locally produced(produce, bread etc.) market basket marks it that way. Don’t think Bread and Circus has the only line on locally Produced items, they just specialized in it.

Except for the part that mentions Hannaford...

"Price is where Market Basket excels. Consumers' Checkbook says $100 worth of groceries would only cost $82 on average at Market Basket, a savings of 18 percent. That bags the store second place in the price category, behind Walmart by only one dollar ($81) and ahead of Hannaford ($89) and Target ($92)."

For Pete’s sake I know the name came up, but what I’m saying is that it spent no time actually talking about Hannaford, while it talked about all the other major supermarkets.

What y’all don’t know is Market Basket pays cash for everything as in Whole Foods in Shaws gets everything on the coffe into the books by 1.5% interest every month

Perhaps they should blind test the store brand greek yogurt then cause market basket dairy is abysmal

My local Whole Foods has gone downhill significantly since the Amazon buyout. Yet, the next nearest Whole Foods seems alright and has more variety. I'm not sure why this is. Last time in my local WF, I actually saw moldy produce. I've NEVER seen that in a WF before. I'd shop exclusively at MB if they carried everything I wanted/needed and they kicked the scammers out of their parking lot. They almost carry everything at this point...

I am 100% fuck shaws. There are two in my town, one moved locations. Shaw's held on to the lease for an empty building to prevent MB from coming into town, they finally let it go when a Trampoline park wanted in the location.

Fuck Shaws

One thing I liked about Shaws when it was nearby -- never crowded. I could go almost any time and there'd only be a half-dozen other shoppers.

I saw this when it aired last night. I don’t think I heard them mention Price Chopper/Market 32. How do people feel about them?

The baggers do such an awful job, though. Like, meat packed side by side with cleaning products, bread underneath cans, frozen and hot items in the same bag. It's far and away the worst experience I've ever had at any supermarket, ever.

A market basket with a self checkout is my dream. I try to bag my own items in MB and I spend half the time arguing with the clerks that I don't need "help" from them. I talk to the managers about how the 12 year olds they've hired this year are just straight up destroying people's groceries and the manager is like "so shop during school hours?"

The biggest issue with Market basket is their company policies on enforced bagging and on shelf "straightening." Half the time I'm looking for something at MB, it's been buried on a shelf by some idiot kid who doesn't understand that products have varieties, and they thought the shelf would be prettier if all the boxes looked the same. And those same idiot kids get my groceries when I'm checking out and completely destroy them. Great, I saved $1 on ice cream, but this kid decides to pack it on top of a rotisserie chicken and bury the whole mess at the bottom of the cart under 2 12 packs of soda, so when I get to my car I've lost $10 because I have to throw out the ice cream and the chicken.

Price Rite is cheaper than Market Basket, but the selection has gotten soooo much worse. In some categories, like chips, cookies, and breakfast cereal, they have very little to choose from.

As someone who has shopped stop and shop my entire life….am I a monster

The Medford Wegmans may as well be the old Chelsea Save-A-Lot

What about big y!?

I'll drive further for Wegmans if I want a lot of groceries or to have lunch before shopping. Their produce section seems to be consistently the best that I've seen in terms of quality and choice.

Price Chopper is a good convenient one for odd hours but their bakery isn't that good.

Hannaford is closest to me so it's most convenient but their produce section isn't that great. Really good bakery section though.

I used to like Stop & Shop decades ago but they've fallen behind for me.

There's a Shaw's by me but I keep forgetting it exists.

Why does stop n shop get so much hate?

Market 32 / Price Chopper isn’t horrible, they’re just usually a clusterfuck of people inside.

I never knew you could get bad bananas until Stop N Shop. They never turned yellow. I'm still amazed.

There is Guido’s: then there are every other grocery store in mass in a distant distant second tier

middle tier quality, top tier prices

There's always older townies blocking aisles talking. No matter where I've lived and which MB it is, they're always a constant. The stores also all smell the exact same.

Out here in WMass Stoppy was our cheap option forever.

Inconsistent restocking. Prices. No more real butcher, everything comes to the store prepackaged now.

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Have you ever been a bagger? Esp at a place like Market Basket lmao that is packed.

Ur trying to get done as fast as possible. If you,as the customer, put meat next to ur cleaning products on the conveyor, I'm sorry it's going in the same bag. I gotta keep the line moving , idc.

Whenever I go to a supermarket,I always put my meats next to each other, and organize my conveyor so everything does not end up in the same bag.

I worked front end in a supermarket for 3 years. Yeah, I also organize the belt to basically have my bags organized by the time they get to the cashier. But then the cashier grabs things randomly from the belt and hands them to the bagger in whatever order they choose and the whole thing gets messed up. It would just be easier if the cashier and the front end manager let me bag my own stuff. But the second a customer touches a bag, it’s a code red in the store and I’ve got a crowd of baggers standing by watching me.

I’m a part time employee at the shaws near me. And I agree, fuck shaws.

I would like them to rank these in Western Mass. -- Truly, it sometimes feels like we are 2 different states. We have NO Market Basket or most of the stores they listed.

Western Mass:

• Big Y Supermarket
• Stop & Shop
• Aldi
• Walmart
• Target
• Price Rite
• Save-A-Lot

Then we have a few national limited regional stores:

• Trader Joe's (there is only 1, so I count it as regional)
• Whole Foods (only 1)
• BJ's Wholesale (only 1)
• Costco Wholesale (only 1)

But I wouldn't expect them to rate every small "Mom and Pop" type around here. I'd be more curious about their view of the national stores.

If they wanted to cover those local stores (to name a few):

• Atkins Farms Country Market (only 1, Hadley)
• Big E Supermarket (only 1, Easthampton)
• River Valley Coop (only 2, Easthampton / Northampton)
• State Street Fruit Store (only 1, Northampton)
• Cooper's Corner (only 1, Florence)

My only complaint with market basket is they don’t keep items that fly off the shelves in stock. Even pre Covid it was hit or miss.

And they treat their employees well - so it's all good.

Produce is the one thing that keeps me from Market Basket the most. I used to live a 5 min walk from one and still went elsewhere because their strawberries would be moldy after 1 day in the fridge, oranges were dry, and I can’t even start on salad ingredients.

I’m ok paying more for quality. Wegmans and Star (both near my job) are my produce go to.

As I learned with very green bananas from Aldi's, when they are brought out too early - green-green instead of white-green - it can take 2-3 weeks to ripen. Wrap them up in a plastic bag to speed up the process.

I love Wegmans, but I mostly shop at Price Chopper which also happens to be the closest grocery store to me. I do occasionally stop by Hannaford's, Shaw's, Stop & Shop if they are on my way already (prefer Shaw's out of the three of them, the one on the Watertown/Cambridge border is great), but I found Market Basket disappointing on my first and only visit there. Trader Joe's and Aldi's are more for something specific only they carry. Whole Foods only if a friend who is a big fan drags me in there.

I tend to shop by what I like instead of going by price, though...

Instacart has Market Basket, they've had it for almost 2 years now.

Not my local one for my zip code. Trust me, I’ve checked many times.

Oh that sucks. Hopefully they start for you soon!

Paper bag. You’re trying to block sunlight to ripen.

>Stop and Shop can get fucked

Unions are good for the working class

> Stop and shop quality is atrocious

Yeah, man. I buy a bag of lays potato chips, and I swear they are worse than the ones at big y.

What does this even mean.

Which part are you struggling with?

Article sucks. At least provide the rankings somewhere or a link to it. Smh.

Waiting for the market basket near me to open up. Quality has always been good, prices are some of the best around and usually cook what groceries I buy within a couple of days anyways. With prices of everything being astronomical right now, I’m not paying the insane Wegmans or Whole food prices.

Stop & Shop can fuck off. What ridiculous prices for the shit they have.

How does going to a grocery store become a fiasco?

Wmass native who know lives in eastern mass. I go to Big Y 90% of the time. Shaws is closed but as others have said their produce and meat selection is sub par. I was going to wegmans but it was just too damn crowded all the time. I think Big Y’s produce is far superior and I like their bakery. I also like how they source local goods especially when wmass asparagus is in season. Plus when I’m in there it’s like a little taste of home.

Is this a Markey Basket problem, or a Fall River problem?

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I actually worked there long ago. Shit unions . You get bennies mostly for the the butcher's while most employees are better off taking advantage of zero copay medicaid.unions protect the worse so you really have no reason to give a shit, except to get hours. Even the bathrooms are shit.

None in the Springfield area, closest price chopper is Windsor, CT and it’s a pit.

More the produce and meat quality. Center aisles are not different, just price

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Let’s leave Pete out of this

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I worked at shaw’s in high school and when it was slow, they’d make us go block the aisles - what you call straightening. It’s really just supposed to be pulling stuff forward, not mixing things around, but the first thought I had last time I went into an MB was “wow this is some impressive blocking”

The lack of choice and the prices really are shocking. Things that cost $4 at Market Basket are like $8 or sometimes $10 at Big Y or Stop and Shop out here. I'd kill for a Market Basket.

closest grocery store to her is a stop and shop and it’s 15 minutes away. 12 if no traffic. i think the closest good grocery store is like 25+ minutes away. from what i’ve gathered that’s how it is for most folks in MA.

Did Hannaford's not even get a mention?

What makes fruit ripen is ethylene gas. You want to trap it around the fruit - plastic is generally less permeable than paper thus they will ripen faster that way. Sunlight usually damages the peel more than it affects the outside though it can make ripening less even - but its effects are far less than that of ethylene.

Aldi's FTW

They used to have great produce.

Everyone who works there was horrified that they were doing away with the butcher.

Can't blame the store unless it was the employees.

MB has terrible produce

The union does save people from the whims of retail management. Ya, there are stupid parts of it. Stewards only becoming stewards so they won't get transferred, etc.

They aren't getting trained then. Never ever put a cleaning product with food.

yeah, cheaper than most but not as cheap as MB.

I hate it so much for that reason. I will pay more money not to have to go near Market Basket

There isn't a market basket near me, but where I used to live there were 2 within 5 miles of each other. Friends and I used to call them USA Market Basket and Soviet Union Market Basket. USA was OK. USSR was produce was in shrink wrap, shelves always empty, dairy products expired in the case...complete train wreck. It was so weird that two stores of the same brand so close together had such a different experience.

Living in Beverly, I was a mile away from 2 stop and shops, Whole Foods and a Shaw’s. Yet the wife and I still drove to Danvers or Middleton to go to MB.

They’ve had it much longer than that. I did instacart years ago in like 2018 and all of the orders were through market basket this was in Manchester nh at the time though.

Nah it’s for his sake

Go write to Consumer’s Checkbook about their criteria if you’d like to see it changed. The report is at https://www.checkbook.org/boston-area/supermarkets/ (paywall)

In regards to global warming specifically, my understanding is that what one chooses to eat is much more important than where it came from. That is, locally sourced beef emissions >>> imported produce emissions. Here’s an explainer: https://youtu.be/F1Hq8eVOMHs?t=226. I mention this only to highlight that this aspect of sustainability is complicated and occasionally counterintuitive.

I’m sure the actual report (https://www.checkbook.org/boston-area/supermarkets/) is more thorough. The news article can’t ethically reproduce the entire thing, since Consumer’s Checkbook‘s (non-profit) business model is selling subscriptions to its reports.

https://www.checkbook.org/boston-area/supermarkets/

Wise family there

Whereas I find that aspect of shopping at Shaws downright concerning...

But then you don't get that tangy zest flavor in your meals.

Bwahahaha

It depends on your area and even if they are available in it. I think if they're a super high traffic store, they don't allow instacart. I live in Newton and mine uses the one in Waltham. Which is why I'm guessing mine has it.

That's unfair to Wegmans. They have a ton of their own brand that is priced way better. Plus a lot of niche items for vegetarians, etc that MB and others just can't touch. Rating on that "convenience" factor should also matter.