Thank God For Market Basket Brockton

I spent the better part of the holiday season and about a month and a half in the new year futilely licking game pieces from Shaw's.  You see, Shaw's ran this fun little promotion called "Wish Big, Win Big."  It's just like the McDonald's Monopoly Game, except nobody ever wins a single goddamn thing, and to play you need to have the saliva glands of the dinosaurs that killed Newman in Jurassic Park.Sure, I'm bitter about the time wasted playing that god-forsaken game, but the real reason it pissed me off so much was every time I licked one of those 1995 stamp-like game pieces, my head nearly exploded thinking about how much money I spent at Shaw's building up that game board.One of the toughest things to leave behind when Cait and I moved from Somerville to Quincy was the ridiculously cheap supermarket oasis that is Market Basket.  The no-frills supermarket usually weighs in at about half the price of Shaw's and Stop and Shop, and unfortunately for us there was no Market Basket in the Quincy area.  Enter, Market Basket Brockton.The best thing about Market Basket is of course the low prices.  This holds true in Brockton, Somerville and every other Market Basket location on the map.  And you don't need a loyalty card, either.  All the sales are what they are.  Just show up and shop, and get crazy low prices.  I'm talking prices so low it's going to start a price war in Brockton.The sales are awesome, and the regular prices are low to begin with.  For penny pinchers, it's impossible not to cringe when you see the difference at the big chains.That's not to say life's perfect in Market Basket land.  The Somerville location is like a battlefield.  Complete chaos, no two people speaking the same language, sawdust thrown all over the ground covering up spills, absolutely zero space to move - it's a stressful situation.  You need to sharpen up your elbows and prepare for a fight before you go in there, but you're willing to take a couple of black eyes to save the money.These problems seem to have been addressed in the Brockton location, mainly because the place is friggin' enormous.  It spans 81,000 square feet, which translates to "more space than you could fill if you tried" in supermarket terms.  We went on a very busy Sunday afternoon, and despite the fact that there were tons of people there, it never felt like we were going to get trampled during a run on the iceberg lettuce.The deli counter was stacked with about 15 employees, and we waited about 30 seconds for our number to be called.  There are 24 (!!) registers to check out at, and every last one of them was humming.  But finally, and most importantly, the aisles are HUGE.  It's tough for traffic and chaos to build up when there's so much space to move around.Yup, It's a pretty fantastic place.  I have only one concern about the new Market Basket, and it's a pretty stupid one.  The sushi bar, deli, cafe and other amenities seem to indicate that Market Basket is trending in the direction of high-class, which could mean higher prices.For now though, Market Basket is a life-saver and a money-saver.  No more stamp licking for me.