More for Your Dollar
The Material and Immaterial Perks of Being a Market Basket Customer
I just returned from my weekly pilgrimage to Somerville’s foremost grocery institution: Market Basket. On this trip I bought enough ingredients to meal-prep approximately 16 servings of a falafel dinner, as well as some staples – eggs, butter, and two pounds of strawberries – for a mere $68. They are not kidding about getting more for your dollar.
While Market Basket has been a rock during my grad student experience, it has come to my attention that many students have never been and some have never even heard about it! While Market Basket may be all the way in Somerville – a seemingly insurmountable distance for some – I hope to convince you that the trek will be more than worth your trouble for all the material and immaterial benefits it can offer. To supplement my own lived experience, six friends and fellow Market Basket fanatics have graciously responded to my queries to help me articulate Market Basket’s broad-ranging virtues.
A treasure trove
Nowhere Else Could Be Cheddar
Upon entering Market Basket you are soon greeted by my favorite aisle: the cheese aisle. As a Canadian who is used to cursing Canada’s grocery oligopoly every time I want to make a cheese plate on a budget, the cheese aisle at Market Basket swept me off my feet. A half pound block of cheddar for $2?! Five pounds lbs of shredded mozzarella for $14?! A wedge of parmesan for $5?! Whether you want a snack or to meal-prep an ungodly amount of lasagna, the cheese aisle will be there for you.
Produce Produces Joy
The produce section concludes your journey through the store (although does not conclude this story). Half of my surveyed friends remarked on the produce section when asked about their favorite thing about Market Basket. There is a remarkable variety of fruits and vegetables up for offer. Fruits you have never even heard of abound! And those you have heard of are often available for jaw-droppingly low prices. One Market-Basket-lover commented, “I like the 2 for $4 blackberries that might be each $2.” Regardless if you are confused about whether you need to buy two packs for the deal, the prices are so low that you may as well buy two anyways. Steeper discounts can be found for those who know where to look. Nestled at the end of some aisles (often near the onions but sometimes elsewhere) is a rack with prepackaged discount produce. If you so choose, you can give the ageing, unloved – yet perfectly good! – produce a warm home to live out its last days while keeping more money in your pocket.
A Sprinkle of Whimsy
And with this extra money, you can head on over to the sprinkle aisle, reported as one friend’s favorite section, which just so happens to bookend the vegetable section. What a glorious diversity of foods there is in such a small space. Here, you can choose from an assortment of sprinkle shapes and colors, complement them with hot fudge and several flavors of caramel, and get some candles to celebrate your first Market Basket trip!
More than just groceries
Although grocery shopping can be seen as a burden or a distraction from our real world as grad students (even when there are great deals), I have come to view it as a chance for me to grow, learn, and deepen relationships with community and friends.
Exercise
The distance from campus may dissuade some, but it is actually a free workout. A positive addition to one’s lifestyle in the pursuit of accomplishing a task seems like the type of “optimization” that MIT students seem to love. Not only can you get heaps of groceries for a very reasonable price, you can get a workout while you are doing it! Although I admittedly live much closer to Market Basket than the average student, I truly enjoy hauling my backpack full of groceries up the shockingly steep hill on my way home. If I didn’t have time for a workout that day, I feel better knowing I hauled 50 lbs of cheese home. For those who are outdoorsy, this is also excellent training for your summer backpacking (or bikepacking) adventures.
A Treasure Hunt
While frustrating at first, respondents report learning to love MB’s quirks. Bread can be found in at least 2, maybe 3 locations. Yeast is near the cheese (last time I checked). The aisle with a sign for beans actually only has baked beans, not black beans. Canned goods are dispersed throughout multiple aisles. With practice you can learn where your staples are shelved. Or, like me, you can forget every time and continue to develop your patience and increase your step count as you make loops through the store.
The real winners are the friends you make along the way
Market Basket has given me more than just food, it has given me friendships. Hidden around Cambridge are these:
Mork for your Dorket can provide hours of entertainment (if you are as easily entertained as I am) with your friends, riffing off of it. (For example, if you are eating bacon: “pork for your forkit.”)
Beyond the joy of saying Morket Borket, the trials and tribulations in Morket Borket itself can build community as well. As one friend said, “it is a reliable fortress of reasonable prices,” but it also reminds us to accept the uncertainties in our lives. As mentioned, Market Basket has no self checkouts. Choosing the right line can feel like an impossible optimization problem – no matter how clever you think you are, an algorithmic solution remains evasive. But, my friends and I have embraced this and now update our groupchat on our line choices. We all respond in wonder and amazement when someone reports to have chosen the ‘right’ line, and with sympathy when one reports that the seemingly shortest line resulted in a lengthy wait, involving cashiers switching, receipt paper running out, and several cash payments. But that is the beauty of Market Basket!
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