Economic Development & Industrial Corporation of Lynn

Market Basket Rise Could Lower Food Prices

November 29, 2016
By Thomas Grillo/The Daily Item

When Market Basket opens next summer at Western Avenue and Federal Street, it will do more than transform the vacant General Electric Factory of the Future site.

The grand opening will be the first salvo in a fight for your food dollar and your pocketbook could be a lot fuller when the dust settles.

“There’s going to be a price war, no doubt about it,” said Michael Berger, senior editor at the Griffin Report of Food Marketing, a Duxbury-based trade publication.

“This is not the first time it’s happened when Market Basket opens in a community with competitors,” Berger said. “Market Basket is not afraid of anyone. They will go up against all the major supermarkets.”

Metal frame of the new Market Basket being built

ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE

The new Market Basket at the corner of Federal Street and Western Avenue is seen in Lynn.

Market Basket will join Shaw’s, Stop & Shop and PriceRite in the city providing more competition and driving down the cost of food, he added.

Last month, in a presentation to the city council, James Cowdell, executive director of the city’s Economic Development and Industrial Corp., said no matter where consumers shop for food in the city, they will benefit from lower prices on the first day Market Basket opens.

Frustrated by the lack of construction on the 16-acre property that had been abandoned since 1988, Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy met with GE executives to discuss steering the site toward redevelopment four years ago.

Following those negotiations, Charles Patsios, the Swampscott developer, bought the property in 2013 for $4 million. Market Basket CEO Arthur T. DeMoulas joined officials last year to celebrate $2.5 million in state money for road improvements around the site.

Foundation for the 84,000-square-foot store was poured on the $25 million project last summer and steel has been rising since September.

“It’s a very exciting thing for the city and its residents who are getting a raise in pay by cutting their grocery bills and getting high quality products,” said James Moore, the attorney representing Patsios.

The store will employ 75 full-time employees and 325 part timers, he added.

Shaw’s and PriceRite did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement Phil Tracey, a Stop & Shop spokesman, said “As it has for almost 20 years, the Stop & Shop store on Washington Street will continue to serve the Lynn community as a good neighbor and help our customers save money, save time and eat well.”

Thomas Grillo can be reached at tgrillo@itemlive.com.

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