Shoppers wait in line at the Market Basket store in Salem, N.H., Friday, April 3, 2020, as customer capacity was limited due to the pandemic. Credit: Charles Krupa / AP

Market Basket is opening a new grocery store in Topsham on Friday, in the latest instance of an out-of-state supermarket chain slowly expanding into Maine.

The Massachusetts-based grocery store has a cult-like following among some New Englanders, and its appearance in Topsham is part of a trend of new competition for Maine’s standby supermarket chains of Hannaford and Shaw’s.

Two other Market Baskets have opened in Maine, in Biddeford and Westbrook, and a Costco wholesale store opened in Scarborough in November.

Market Basket has a reputation for its customer service and low prices, according to WBUR. A 2022 analysis by Boston Consumers’ Checkbook found that its prices were about 18 percent lower than the average of markets surveyed in the Boston area.  

The new store is located at 169 Topsham Fair Mall Rd.

 

Jules Walkup reports on the midcoast and is a Report for America corps member. They graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism and moved to Maine from Tampa, Florida in July 2023.

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