Basics Food Warehouse

Basics Food Warehouse, Was a grocery store in Boston Massachusetts that offered the bacics and eventually so much more including speciality cuts of meat and hard to find items. They genuinely loved every single one of their customers as family members!!! It was originally owned by Morris and Viola Factor and then later taken over by their daughter Joyce (factor) Stone and son in-law who they loved as a son Paul Michael Stone. Years later Joyce sold her share of the business to her then ex husband Paul Michael Stone who in turn shared his business with his best friend and honorary bother Norman Gottschalk of Massachusetts and North Carolina. Later the basics business took a small turn towards opening a much smaller store Randolph Massachusetts but sadly it just wasn't profitable so Paul and Norman closed down for good! Selling the basics name to cover there losses! Throughout the many wonderful years that basics remained proudly open many charities greatly benefited from there kindness! Such as Rosies place in Boston, local food banks who would reach out as well as local schools that Viola Factor and Morris insisted on helping with! They simply adored children. They also gave to a number of Jewish cause as well. They'd give anyone a job as long as they were a hard worker and they never judged anyone. Just show up, do your job and here's your pay! Equal opportunity and equal pay for everyone! If you didn't have somewhere to stay most of the time the employees were offered the office space obove the store because it heated, air conditioned and even had a fully functional living space with a bathroom! All the comforts of home! Nothing fancy but certainly livable and plenty to eat and drink downstairs! Everyone loved shopping there and everyone loved working there!!!! Rest in peace basics food warehouse 617-442-1414

This was edited by the original owners granddaughter Julie shira stone. I am Paul Michael Stone and Joyce (factor) Stone's/Strauss daughter, Morris and Viola Factor's granddaughter. Everything is 100% authentic!

Concept
Basics Food Warehouse stores featured overstock products, sold directly out of the boxes and not traditionally stocked on shelves. The stores were also smaller, and had a much more limited offering, noted in one article to be only 3,200 items compared to a typical supermarket's 13,000. The stores also did not provide bagging services or plastic bags, requiring customers to bag items themselves in bags they brought, though bags were offered for 2c each, and boxes for free.

History
Basics Food Warehouse began with a store in Sunrise, Florida which opened on November 16, 1979 and was converted from an existing unprofitable Grand Union store. The success of the Sunrise store briefly created local concern, with the volume of traffic leading to 33 accidents in front of the store, with councilman John Montgomery calling the store "an illegal wholesale operation" that "...should not be allowed in shopping centers of this nature". A second store opened in Hileah, Florida in 1980, followed by a third store in Miramar. The chain's first store outside Florida opened on March 16, 1980 in Wood-Ridge, NJ. A location opened in Marlow Heights, Maryland shortly thereafter.

In February 1984, all six stores in Florida were closed, with one store sold to Pantry Pride, as part of Grand Union pulling out of the state entirely. In March 1984, ten stores in the Washington D.C. area were sold to Food-a-rama, after being put up for sale that February. In 1987, the Wood-Ridge store was converted back to a normal Grand Union, at a cost of $700,000.

In 1985, Food-a-rama was acquired by wholesaler Super Rite Foods, who converted all stores to the Basics name. In 1990-1991, some stores were converted to the Metro Food Market banner, following it's introduction. The Basics name was finally phased out for good in 1995, with the acquisition of Super Rite Foods by Richfood Holdings, who either sold off or converted the remaining Basics stores to the Metro Food Market banner.