A reader kindly pointed out a mistake I made in a recent article about the merger between grocery titans, Kroeger and Albertsons. I stated that local Market Basket and Hannaford’s stores are owned by these giants; that is not so. 

I should have said that Shaw’s and Star Market are owned by Albertsons, while Hannaford and Stop & Shop chains are owned by holding company Ahold Delhaize. This Dutch company is significantly smaller than its US competitor Kroeger, yet slightly larger than Albertsons. Their combined annual revenue is nearly three times larger than New Hampshire’s GDP, a measure of our entire economy! Two-thirds of Ahold Delhaize’s world revenue comes from its US customers.

It is true that in 1964 Kroeger purchased the Market Basket chain headquartered in Pasadena, California. I did not realize that this Market Basket was a completely different company, albeit with the same trade name as our local chain. In 1982, Kroger closed all 42 of those. 

“Demoula’s Market Basket” evolved from its original 1917 mom-and-pop store in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, to a supermarket in 1950. New England Market Basket stores have always been independent and are largely family-owned. Today, there is a chain of 95 Market Basket stores across four New England states.

I regret the error and the confusion it may have caused.

Ken Wells

Andover