Groceteria.com

In the late 1980s I recall several Grand Union stores becoming Basics Food stores. This happened around the time that Grand Union pulled out of the DC market. Basics was a deep discount (for the day) grocery with lots of generics and store brands.

What I'm wondering is if Basics was developed by Grand Union as a last ditch attempt at staying in the DC market? Or was Basics created by another food distributor/retailer from stores they purchased from Grand Union? The Grand Union nearest where I grew up in Walnut Hill Shopping Center became a Basics in 1988 I believe. It then became a Food Lion and finally a Weis after the Ahold-Delhaize merger. Weis recently closed the store.

https://lostlaurel.com/2012/02/08/basic ... warehouse/

This looks to confirm that it was connected to Grand Union, just a bit earlier than you were thinking (1980-1984 timeframe).

Basics was the name of GU's house brand generics in the very early '80's. White labels with red or black lettering as I recall. They even had Basics beer which was actually one part beer and a million and one parts water. In other words, not the best quality and neither was the rest of the product line.

Reminds me of the generic beer sold at A&P’s Family Mart. It tasted like weak “beer concentrate“ dropped in water and not fully dissolved.

That said, does anyone know if the Basics line was also sold at Big Star stores in the south? I honestly don’t remember.