Market Basket still exists in Texas and Louisiana

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Georob

Market Basket still exists in Texas and Louisiana

Post by Georob »

Check out their site. They have the same logo as when they were in Southern California. They also talk about their history and mention nothing about being elsewhere and being part of Kroger.

Did they buy the name? Was it a franchise?

http://www.mbfoods.com/
wayne winterland jr.
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market basket

Post by wayne winterland jr. »

you're right about the Market Basket signage being the same as the Marekt Basket (Kroger Southern Calif. Division) but I doubt if it was a franchise or anything like that. They may have been in Southern Calif. at some point in time and liked both the name Market Basket and the signage that went with the name.
I used to work for a small Grocery Store Chain in Oklahoma City called McCartney foods and the owner used the same M logo as the Maytag Company uses so the same thing may have happened in this case as well. The Market Basket stores that you're talking about are far enough away from the Calif. Market Basket Stores that I doubt if many people realized that they were using the same name and signage for the stores name. I used to work for Market Basket (Kroger) in Southern Calif. and never heard of Kroger franchising that name to anyone.
It was interesting however to see the Market Basket name used somewhere else other than Calif.

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Re: Market Basket still exists in Texas and Louisiana

Post by luckysaver »

Here's my historical analysis:

This MB (TX/LA) chain was likely a Kroger spinoff and became independent some time after Kroger exited the Los Angeles area (most Market Basket stores were sold to Ralphs, which is ironically part of Kroger today and others became Lucky/Albertsons or Big Lots). I'm sure you're all aware of chain stores that you might think exist only in Southern California but their name turns up in unlikely places. For example:

- There are several Vons stores in Las Vegas/Henderson (yes, in Nevada). Vons also operates a store near the Mammoth Mountain resort (in Northern California!). I don't know when Vons opened their first Vegas area store.

- Kroger operates Food4Less (a Southern California chain) in Illinois. The major difference is the Dillon division operates Illinois F4L (either transferred from Ralphs or was part of a Fleming acquisition) and Ralphs operates F4L in Los Angeles. Both variants operate the same way.
Vegas F4L is operated by Ralphs (used to be PriceRite). F4L in Northern California is owned and operated by Fleming.

Having the same legacy logo but being a separate independent company from its former parent most likely means that Kroger may have operated stores under that name in the southwest.

Another historical possibility is that the parent company may have setup different regional operating subsidiaries with the same chain name, each having its own corporate executives but report to the parent corporation. Consider the former Jewel-Osco divisions of American Stores Company, all operated separately back then but sharing the same corporate logo. There's the main J-O division (coined Jewel Companies Inc), J-O Southwest Inc (Arizona and New Mexico stores), and J-O of Florida Inc (Florida stores). Most SW stores are now Albertsons-Osco locations and Florida was sold off.

Consider contacting Kroger to find out if they ever operated MB stores in Texas and Louisiana at the same time they were in California (1970's-1982).

I hope this clears it up.

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Re: Market Basket still exists in Texas and Louisiana

Post by storewanderer »

Actually the F4L Stores in IL/IN are under Ralphs, but supplied by Kroger Central.

There is a F4L Store somewhere in Bakers territory (OK) that came when Kroger bought Bakers from Fleming and is run by Dillon.
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Re: Market Basket still exists in Texas and Louisiana

Post by wnetmacman »

The Market Basket stores in SE Texas and SW Louisiana are totally independant. The only coincidence to the California operation is the logo. This company was started in 1961 by a couple of independant operators, who started with just a couple of stores.

A large majority of their stores were acquisitions from other operators. I know they have several Safeway stores, a couple of Weingartens, and a whole bunch of independant stores. There is very little continuity to the decor or organization. If I remember correctly, they only have 30 stores, mostly in smaller communities. The only large areas they are in are Lake Charles, LA and Orange and Beaumont, TX. They do not come all the way to Houston or Lafayette.

Most of the stores are barely supermarkets by today's definition. Not all have delis or bakeries, and most do not have pharmacies. They are very small, in the 10-20K Sq Ft range.

They are not an offshoot of Kroger. In each of the large areas they operate, they compete directly against Kroger, who may not have entered the area until after Market Basket was formed.
Scott Greer
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