Shaw's Planning New VT Location

[marketreportblog]

Shaw's is "strongly exploring" a new location in Johnson, VT. This location is a former Grand Union of just 13,000 square feet that became a C&S-owned Grand Union Family Market. Around 2010, it became an independent store called Johnson's Sterling Market affiliated with the Associated Grocers of New England cooperative, which then acquired the store in 2018. In the summer of 2023, the store flooded and was closed, and after initially saying the store would reopen after renovations, AGNE backed out and, apparently, put the store up for sale. Shaw's has yet to confirm that they are in fact acquiring the store, but it seems likely.

Not huge news, but it does mean two things: first, Shaw's is still looking for opportunities to open new stores, even if they're not doing any major expansion (and I doubt they will anytime in the near future). Second, it also shows that Shaw's is interested in these extremely small stores -- though it likely helps that Johnson is a town of just 3400 people and the next grocery store is in Morrisville, about six miles away (where there's a Hannaford, a Price Chopper, and a natural foods co-op).

[pseudo3d]

Shaw's/Star Market was always a bit of a poor fit for Albertsons, yet at the same time, dabbling in sub-20k square feet stores is something that they've done since ASC, even if the overwhelming majority is from other operators or acquisitions. In Rutland, there's a Grand Union (former Tops, divested). Since that is in Shaw's territory and after the merger C&S will probably lose interest in operating supermarkets again, there's no reason why they can't buy it, unless they think that Price Chopper/Tops might be interested in a merger with them.

[storewanderer]

I think it is a long shot they'll open this store.

Maybe we can work with reverse psychology here and someone in power at Shaw's sees this and says f-you to me and pushes to make the opening happen.

The opening would certainly be a positive outcome.

[BillyGr]

Shaw's/Star Market was always a bit of a poor fit for Albertsons, yet at the same time, dabbling in sub-20k square feet stores is something that they've done since ASC, even if the overwhelming majority is from other operators or acquisitions. In Rutland, there's a Grand Union (former Tops, divested). Since that is in Shaw's territory and after the merger C&S will probably lose interest in operating supermarkets again, there's no reason why they can't buy it, unless they think that Price Chopper/Tops might be interested in a merger with them.

I don't think that C&S would get anything from that region if the merger occurs as it was planned, since Kroger has no presence in the northeast (thus no overlap between that and Shaws from the Albertson's side).

They only got that Tops with the Tops/PC going under a single parent company (though it is surprising it even mattered, as Hannaford is in Rutland also, so the two stores being co-owned wouldn't make it a monopoly).

[BillyGr]

Shaw's is "strongly exploring" a new location in Johnson, VT. This location is a former Grand Union of just 13,000 square feet that became a C&S-owned Grand Union Family Market. Around 2010, it became an independent store called Johnson's Sterling Market affiliated with the Associated Grocers of New England cooperative, which then acquired the store in 2018. In the summer of 2023, the store flooded and was closed, and after initially saying the store would reopen after renovations, AGNE backed out and, apparently, put the store up for sale. Shaw's has yet to confirm that they are in fact acquiring the store, but it seems likely.

Not huge news, but it does mean two things: first, Shaw's is still looking for opportunities to open new stores, even if they're not doing any major expansion (and I doubt they will anytime in the near future). Second, it also shows that Shaw's is interested in these extremely small stores -- though it likely helps that Johnson is a town of just 3400 people and the next grocery store is in Morrisville, about six miles away (where there's a Hannaford, a Price Chopper, and a natural foods co-op).

Maybe sort of surprising that they didn't buy it outright 20 years ago, since they did take over quite a number of former Grand Union locations in VT.
Those include others that are of a similar smaller size and also in towns without other grocery options (along with some that do have other competition, such as Manchester).

[pseudo3d]

Shaw's/Star Market was always a bit of a poor fit for Albertsons, yet at the same time, dabbling in sub-20k square feet stores is something that they've done since ASC, even if the overwhelming majority is from other operators or acquisitions. In Rutland, there's a Grand Union (former Tops, divested). Since that is in Shaw's territory and after the merger C&S will probably lose interest in operating supermarkets again, there's no reason why they can't buy it, unless they think that Price Chopper/Tops might be interested in a merger with them.

I don't think that C&S would get anything from that region if the merger occurs as it was planned, since Kroger has no presence in the northeast (thus no overlap between that and Shaws from the Albertson's side).

They wouldn't. But they currently own the divested Tops/PC stores ("Grand Union"), and them holding onto those stores is "proof" that they could run 400+ more supermarkets. But historically C&S has not held onto supermarkets it has bought. Once this is all over (hopefully), they might end up selling those divested stores or closing them. I can imagine Albertsons buying at least that one and rebranding as Shaw's.

[BillyGr]

Shaw's/Star Market was always a bit of a poor fit for Albertsons, yet at the same time, dabbling in sub-20k square feet stores is something that they've done since ASC, even if the overwhelming majority is from other operators or acquisitions. In Rutland, there's a Grand Union (former Tops, divested). Since that is in Shaw's territory and after the merger C&S will probably lose interest in operating supermarkets again, there's no reason why they can't buy it, unless they think that Price Chopper/Tops might be interested in a merger with them.

I don't think that C&S would get anything from that region if the merger occurs as it was planned, since Kroger has no presence in the northeast (thus no overlap between that and Shaws from the Albertson's side).

They wouldn't. But they currently own the divested Tops/PC stores ("Grand Union"), and them holding onto those stores is "proof" that they could run 400+ more supermarkets. But historically C&S has not held onto supermarkets it has bought. Once this is all over (hopefully), they might end up selling those divested stores or closing them. I can imagine Albertsons buying at least that one and rebranding as Shaw's.

Probably only that one, unless they wanted to move more into NY State (as far as I know, all the rest of the new GU stores and one Piggly Wiggly are in NY).

That is always a possibility, given that there are already a handful of Acme locations (old A&P's) further south (from about the Poughkeepsie area southward), but certainly not a guarantee either way, merger or not.