Market Basket was a chain of grocery stores that operated in Southern California. Owned by Kroger, Market Basket existed as a chain for 52 years from 1930 to 1982.
History
Market Basket was founded in 1930, with its original location opening in Pasadena, California, which is a suburb of Los Angeles. The original store was located on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Within four years, the company had expanded to 14 locations by 1934. The company continued expanding throughout the 1940s and 50s. By 1959, Market Basket had 42 stores in and around Los Angeles. Its newest location at that time was located in San Bernardino.
In 1963, Kroger, a Cincinnati-based grocery store company, acquired Market Basket. As with other supermarkets purchased by Kroger, Market Basket’s locations were not rebranded into Kroger locations and continued to use their official name.
In 1982, Kroger announced that it would exit from the Southern California grocery business, which was competitive at this point. As such, Market Basket’s 65 locations would be shuttered as a result of Kroger’s decision to exit Southern California. Most of Market Basket’s locations were sold off other chains, including Ralph’s, Vons, and Albertson’s. The remaining locations were shutdown, though Kroger still owns the rights the name Market Basket within the borders of California.
Unrelated Companies with the Same Name
California’s Market Basket shares its name with two other grocery store chains in America. One Market Basket chain operates in Eastern Texas, while another chain operates in the New England states. Despite sharing the same name, neither chain is related to the Market Basket chain in California.
In Pop Culture
In the 1964 Hollywood film The Disorderly Orderly, a store clerk, played by actor Jerry Lewis, has a display of Hi-C cans fall upon him at a Market Basket store. The specific location that this scene was film in was located at 11315 Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles.