Market Basket — Local services in Chelsea

This Market Basket is going downhill. Aside from the associates who stock the isles, the rest of the staff are rude and disrespectful. Example: I was the ONLY one waiting for hot food in their to-go food area, I waited over 10 minutes being polite while they were chatting with each other and occassionally replenished some of the food. They knew I was standing there waiting to be served yet when a group of men came they looked at me then turned away and walked right up to them and instantly asked them what they wanted. The cashiers always talk about the customers and don't know the policies. I was told I couldnt use my credit card because there was no pin, a young 20 something manager told me that also although I've used this card here prior. The manager went on to give me an attitude and tell me to just pay in cash. I dont typically carry cash. Funny thing is I went to the customer service center right after that and had no problem using my credit card there without a pin. The woman there told me she's never heard of not accepting a credit card without pin. Now onto the deli.. great high quality, top brand cold cuts BUT many of them are soooooo slow. It can take 30 minutes to get a pound of cheese. Their prices cant be beat around the store in general but the quality is decreasing. Cant tell you how many times LIVE huge mosquitos or spiders were on the bananas as I reached to get them (mosquito's/spiders ive never seen around here either) the grapes were the worst part, little tiny black worms or larvae in them. I actually thought it was just the seeds inside so I ate most my bag I bought until I longed closer. I almost died! Their apple turn brown almost instantly after you peel/cut them. Love the bakery though. Those woman bake beautiful creations and are so sweet (no pun intended). The cupcake/cake frosting is too sugary and gritty though for my liking. Otherwise they have some good cannoli's, chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate cakes. Plus so many more. Parking here is a joke! Be prepared to have someone hit your car on purpose or not or have someone smash their door into your car or roll a cart into your car. It's pretty ridiculous what I catch on my dash cam from here. Getting a shopping cart even on days that are not near holidays or the beginning of the month is a struggle. They do have carts for handicapable people and small infants. Check them first because most are broken sadly. The lines to check out even on the least busy times are ridiculous. There is always an insane wait and typically because the check out clerks are slow and dont know what their doing. Lastly be wary of the men associates. I can't tell you how many times I had some derogatory sexual remark made to me or winking, staring, saying things under their breathe, etc. Yes I told the manager immediately. Some of those guys got fired because it was on camera and some I was even told by the managers that they were already investigating into certain associates for that same reason with other customers. Terrible place it has become. Not a great family friendly environment anymore and I loved this place in...

Beyond awesome. Biggest, cleanest, CHEAPEST place to buy food in the United States. Proof of the "If you build it, they will come" premise: lots of customers but lots of store, too: there are 40-plus checkouts. Dirty little secret: it says they open at 7 am but... let's just say I've gotten there at 6:30 in the morning on the weekends to do some recycling (before they open) and there are people, baskets groaning under the weight of the food they've bought, leaving the store. When did they get there? BUT, it's usually better to wait because they start stocking after 7 am, and by 7:30 or 8 am you're looking at the best of the fresh just set out that morning.

Friendly, helpful employees who appear to love working there. Prices that average $10 a bag less for a weekly grocery order ($100 of food at Market Basket would cost you $140-150 for the same items at any other store) and who else has a Bosnian food aisle? Or better doughnuts than Verna's? Or a complete array of Santos? Or a florist shop where the flowers - roses, especially - cost $7.99 or $9.99 a dozen depending on the length of the stems and last a week? Not Whole Foods, where they're $39.99. You get a half-gallon of milk for $1.69; 15 rolls of paper towels, a running special, for $9.99; MB brand canned soda 12-packs, when on sale, five for $10; great deals (better than any chain drugstore or Target) on vitamins, toothpaste, and personal care items; and an amazing variety of good meat if you know what to look for. If, on the other hand, you don't look for meat, plenty of vegan items, an awe-inspiring array of fresh produce and a huge selection of organic produce as well. Amazing in-store bakery (dangerously calorific, but terrific, too), a cafe, ready-made food to take home, fresh sushi with Spanish-speaking Asian sushi chefs - where do they find 'em?), and a sandwich shop. Awesome fresh fruit, whole and cut-up; and a full-service deli that always has a line. They'll steam fresh lobsters for you and if you ask in advance, they'll make up lobster salad. There isn't much they don't sell there. And at prices that'll ruin you for any other supermarket, anywhere.

I used to shop at the Somerville Market Basket and overlooked the cramped aisles, the constant (necessary, as they sell so much) restocking, and the free-for-all parking lot and still do if I need 12 items or less but for a week's worth of groceries, the Chelsea Market Basket is...

I’ve never been in a supermarket like this, and I doubt there’s one anywhere in the world like it. All the global cultures mix here – Caribbean, South American, African, Asian, Eastern European, Portuguese, plus old-time Italian-American and Irish-American. You’ll find vegetables you never knew existed here, alongside plain old cabbages and rutabaga; the fish counter – and I was a commercial fisherman for years, so I know what I’m talking about -- is the best I’ve ever seen; there are many different ethnically-focused areas that make you (me) think, “I never knew anybody ate this kind of thing!”; and the variety among the shoppers, as you might expect, reflects all this variousness, so you see clothing and personal styles that are sometime gorgeous. It’s also – and this is the main reason so many people shop there – the fact that in the Market Basket tradition, most things there (although not all) are dirt cheap. It’s huge; clean; well-organized; and has an efficiently adaptive operating process, so the number of checkouts is always in correct proportion to the volume of traffic. (Sometimes, when it’s really crowded, the mood inside can get a little testy, as one impatient person cuts across the sort of interstate highway ring-road that all the carriages use to navigate their way through it, cutting off another person, sometimes leading to words; there’ve even been occasional fistfights, although rarely!) It can also be hard to find a store employee who speaks English; but no matter, they’re almost all friendly and considerate. Every visitor we have who comes to Boston from somewhere else, after showing them the Old North Church and Bunker Hill, etc., we finish the tour by taking them to the Chelsea Market Basket to do a little shopping. They never fail to be amazed – and it shows them how active and alive Boston really is now, today -- in addition to having such an...