BIDDEFORD — The new Market Basket grocery store at the Shops at Biddeford Crossing on Route 111 was bustling on Wednesday. Outside, workers were paving the parking area. Inside, some employees were setting up the counter for the store’s Market Café, while others were working on the store’s electrical and refrigeration machinery. All were busy putting the finishing touches on the newest store of the Tewksbury, Mass.-based Demoulas Supermarket Inc.
Although a battle over the company’s leadership made the news last week ”“ President and CEO Arthur T. Demoulas retained his job ”“ that hasn’t stopped progress on repurposing the former Lowe’s home improvement store into what will be the company’s first grocery store in Maine. All the others are in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
When the Biddeford store opens, sometime in August, it will bring the total number of Market Basket stores to 72. Twenty-three new stores have been built in the last five years, said Market Basket spokesman David McLean, since Demoulas became president of the company, and five more are under construction.
On Wednesday, McLean and Biddeford Store Manager Micum McIntire, led Mayor Alan Casavant, City Council President Rick Laverriere, City Manager John Bubier and Economic Development Director Daniel Stevenson on a tour of the new facility.
The shelves were empty. Non-perishable food will begin being stocked later this week and perishable food goes on the shelves a day or two before the opening. Despite the lack of product, city officials said they were impressed with how the 107,000-square-foot facility, and third-largest Market Basket store, according to McLean, was taking shape.
“I can’t get over it,” said Casavant. “It exceeds my expectations.”
“It’s an amazing, impressive facility,” said Bubier.
The new store is expected to be busy. It has 24 registers and will stock 60,000 products, said McLean, thousands of which will include gluten-free, health food and organic items. A special feature will be the Market Café, serving multiple coffee and other drink options and ice cream, while around the corner there will be a section that offers prepared food like sandwiches, pizza and grilled items. The food can be taken to go or eaten on the premises at a 48-seat dining area, complete with flat-screen televisions and free Wi-Fi.
Not only will the new market be a boon for customers, “It’s fantastic for the health of the (shopping) center,” said Stevenson.
Even better, he said, the store is “putting 430 people back to work.”
That’s the number of full- and part-time staff hired to work at the store, according to McLean, plus an addition of about 100 more seasoned staff being brought in from other stores. Most of the new employees, he said, who have been in training, some for up to two months, are from Biddeford, with others coming from Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Arundel and other nearby communities.
Those new jobs are a good thing, said Stevenson, “especially after the job loss Biddeford has experienced in the last 18 months.”
An exact date for the store opening hasn’t been set. The state inspection is scheduled for Aug. 5, while other city permits are also needed, and the market is waiting for its wine and malt beverage license. McLean said the store would open as soon as possible.
And while the Biddeford store will be the first in Maine, McLean said he hopes it won’t be the last.
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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