JOHNSTON – As a line of eager shoppers waited outside to get a first look, doors opened at a new Market Basket in Johnston on Friday morning, making it the second store that the New England supermarket chain has opened in Rhode Island, bringing more than 400 jobs to the Ocean State.
Market Basket initially entered the Rhode Island grocery store scene in May this year when it opened its first Ocean State supermarket in Warwick. That store also created more than 400 jobs, the company said.
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A company representative said there’s long been a demand for Market Basket in Rhode Island, evident by market surveys and by the amount of traffic stores in Fall River and North Attleboro saw from the Ocean State since those locations opened just across the Massachusetts border during the past five years.
“We heard repeatedly requests to come to Rhode Island,” said Market Basket Operations Manager David K. McLean, as he was overseeing the grand opening in Johnston on Friday morning. “It just seemed a natural progression as our footprint spread out to go into Rhode Island. We cite the independent third party surveys that are done on pricing, quality, value and variety, and consumer reports.”
Market Basket and its parent company DeMoulas Supermarkets date back to a store that opened in Lowell in 1917, with now 86 stores operating in Rhode Island, Massachusetts New Hampshire and Maine, with a focus on low prices that’s expressed by the company slogan, “More for your dollar.”
Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. said he was amazed by how packed the parking lot was at the new Market Basket, which opened in a long vacant property that was last a BJ’s Wholesale Club about eight years ago. Polisena said Market Basket invested $30 million into the property on Route 6, which will provide a healthy injection of new tax revenue for the town.
“A lot of Johnston residents were hired, including high school kids,” said Polisena, who toured the new store on Thursday with other local officials. “If you look inside, it’s stunning. It’s a win-win.”
In addition to an inventory of more than 50,000 food items, including Rhode Island favorites like Del’s Lemonade and Autocrat coffee syrup, the new store at 1300 Hartford Ave. in Johnston features the Market’s Kitchen and Cafe, offering take-out or a casual dine-in experience with free WiFi and a large screen TV. The kitchen serves up a menu of options including brick oven pizza, hot dinner plates, sandwiches, subs, calzones and hamburgers, McLean said.
The new Super Market store also features what it calls the Market Basket Butcher Block, serving up fresh cuts of Certified Angus Beef steaks, roasts, chops, burgers, and marinated steak tips, along with ready-to-grill meats like kabobs, pub burger patties, stuffed pork and sausages.
In addition to that, there’s Niji Sushi shop, a fresh cut fruit counter, an in-store bakery and an artisan cheese section with more than 300 varieties of imported and domestic products. The Market Basket said it’s Johnston store caters to various dietary needs, including gluten free, organic, all natural, vegan, and plant-based alternative foods.
Polisena, a former state senator and mayor of Johnston since 2007, said he and local businesses believe the new Market Basket will bring customers from surrounding communities, providing a spillover affect benefiting other local stores and restaurants.
“With that being there, it gave us a shot in the arm to the other surrounding businesses,”Polisena said. “It’s a huge convenience for the residents of the town and the surrounding communities. We get business not only from Johnston, but Providence and North Providence and Cranston, Scituate, and Glocester. They are going to do very well.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
