Stop & Shop closures

[marketreportblog]

Oh and you haven't fully photographed the store with the Edwards decor you should. That is straight out of the late 90s/early 2000s when Giant-PA went to the large dual entrance stores. I'm amazed that Stop and Shop is still operating a store with that old, old decor.

The only one in NJ is in Piscataway, which I have photographed! It's kind of half Edwards and half Super Stop & Shop. There was another one in Brooklyn, but that became a Food Bazaar last year and they were really quick to remodel it (it only closed overnight for the transition, but within the first month they had pretty much removed all the decor). I got to it about five or six weeks after the transition happened and the decor was basically all gone. Looks like there's at least one more Stop & Shop remaining with a full set of Edwards decor, and that's in the Bronx. I don't know when I'll be able to get there, but it's on my list.

[mjhale]

Could they just rebrand some of these to Giant-PA format?

Ahold could got back to using the Edwards format that they had gotten in the their acquisition of First National Stores. Some number of the current North Jersey Stop and Shop stores were Edwards locations managed under Giant-PA. The current Stop and Shop format doesn't seem to working and ShopRite seems to have the mid-line grocery store format locked up. Maybe a price impact format in a standard grocery store like Giant-PA used to be in the late 90s/early 2000s would serve the market better. My perception is that Walmart and Aldi don't have as much penetration in NJ as in other areas. I wonder if Ahold would be willing to run a price impact format in a union store. Giant-PA is non-union. Moving Stop and Shop, even if rebranded, to Giant-PA would be a no go I would assume, although I'm sure the UFCW would love to get their hands on Giant-PA.

Is Strategy B that they need Stop & Shop out of the way to avoid divest/overlap issues with Albertsons if they are to swoop in and replace Kroger as a buyer? If that is the case how does DC Safeway/Acme get addressed? Kroger buys Acme (bad idea) and DC Safeway sold to C&S perhaps? Just throwing wild ideas out there.

What would Ahold want with DC Safeway? Safeway has been contracting and their stores are inconsistent in execution. Unless Ahold was looking to pick up some Safeway locations as fill in for areas that there are not Giant-MD stores nearby. Safeway has more urban locations than Giant-MD does. That might be attractive to Ahold if they want to get more mass in the residential areas in DC itself. Beyond that, if Ahold was the merger partner, they'd be better off selling Safeway to C&S or someone else who is interested. The question is who is that someone? We know Publix isn't buying union stores. ShopRite doesn't seem to be interested in trying again in the DC area considering they have pulled out with their PriceRite locations and the Cherry Hill ShopRite closed. Would Weis be interested? They are non-union so that is an issue. Only other thing I could think would be someone way out of town who wants to make a non-contiguous expansion.

[storewanderer]

Could they just rebrand some of these to Giant-PA format?

Ahold could got back to using the Edwards format that they had gotten in the their acquisition of First National Stores. Some number of the current North Jersey Stop and Shop stores were Edwards locations managed under Giant-PA. The current Stop and Shop format doesn't seem to working and ShopRite seems to have the mid-line grocery store format locked up. Maybe a price impact format in a standard grocery store like Giant-PA used to be in the late 90s/early 2000s would serve the market better. My perception is that Walmart and Aldi don't have as much penetration in NJ as in other areas. I wonder if Ahold would be willing to run a price impact format in a union store. Giant-PA is non-union. Moving Stop and Shop, even if rebranded, to Giant-PA would be a no go I would assume, although I'm sure the UFCW would love to get their hands on Giant-PA.

Is Strategy B that they need Stop & Shop out of the way to avoid divest/overlap issues with Albertsons if they are to swoop in and replace Kroger as a buyer? If that is the case how does DC Safeway/Acme get addressed? Kroger buys Acme (bad idea) and DC Safeway sold to C&S perhaps? Just throwing wild ideas out there.

What would Ahold want with DC Safeway? Safeway has been contracting and their stores are inconsistent in execution. Unless Ahold was looking to pick up some Safeway locations as fill in for areas that there are not Giant-MD stores nearby. Safeway has more urban locations than Giant-MD does. That might be attractive to Ahold if they want to get more mass in the residential areas in DC itself. Beyond that, if Ahold was the merger partner, they'd be better off selling Safeway to C&S or someone else who is interested. The question is who is that someone? We know Publix isn't buying union stores. ShopRite doesn't seem to be interested in trying again in the DC area considering they have pulled out with their PriceRite locations and the Cherry Hill ShopRite closed. Would Weis be interested? They are non-union so that is an issue. Only other thing I could think would be someone way out of town who wants to make a non-contiguous expansion.

Price impact would be polar opposite of this Stop & Shop thing which seems to have worse pricing than Giant MD or Giant PA which are both moderately priced chains.

A price impact format in a union store would probably involve a re-worked contract if how it was handled in the 90's in CA with converting conventional stores to a price impact format is any indication.

Tough to say who could take over in DC in the event of an Ahold/Albertsons acquisition where obviously DC Safeway goes.

[retailfanmitchell019]

Could they just rebrand some of these to Giant-PA format?

Stop & Shop is very weak. Market Basket has been kicking them around for years. What I find strange is Hannaford seems to have smaller stores but seems run better and is more effective. I am not sure what the issue with Stop & Shop is, but it has not been run properly for quite some time and Ahold has not fixed that issue despite appearing to have two strong/well positioned Giant chains that know what they are doing with similar size stores...

It looks to me like Shop & Shop is getting Bi-Loed. This feels like how Ahold handled Bi-Lo in the end.

Is Strategy B that they need Stop & Shop out of the way to avoid divest/overlap issues with Albertsons if they are to swoop in and replace Kroger as a buyer? If that is the case how does DC Safeway/Acme get addressed? Kroger buys Acme (bad idea) and DC Safeway sold to C&S perhaps? Just throwing wild ideas out there.

Market Basket is #1 in Boston metro market share by now: https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2023 ... cer-boston
Walmart being #3 is probably misleading- Shaw’s would have higher share than Walmart if you include Star Market.

[storewanderer]

Could they just rebrand some of these to Giant-PA format?

Stop & Shop is very weak. Market Basket has been kicking them around for years. What I find strange is Hannaford seems to have smaller stores but seems run better and is more effective. I am not sure what the issue with Stop & Shop is, but it has not been run properly for quite some time and Ahold has not fixed that issue despite appearing to have two strong/well positioned Giant chains that know what they are doing with similar size stores...

It looks to me like Shop & Shop is getting Bi-Loed. This feels like how Ahold handled Bi-Lo in the end.

Is Strategy B that they need Stop & Shop out of the way to avoid divest/overlap issues with Albertsons if they are to swoop in and replace Kroger as a buyer? If that is the case how does DC Safeway/Acme get addressed? Kroger buys Acme (bad idea) and DC Safeway sold to C&S perhaps? Just throwing wild ideas out there.

Market Basket is #1 in Boston metro market share by now: https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2023 ... cer-boston
Walmart being #3 is probably misleading- Shaw’s would have higher share than Walmart if you include Star Market.

Hard to say what Star Market's share is... it must be under 3% or it would be listed (unless it actually is included with Shaw's). 21 stores...

I also wonder how Wegmans gets to 3%, as in, which locations does that actually include? It may be 4 locations but to include the 4 you have to go quite a few miles out...

[retailfanmitchell019]

Could they just rebrand some of these to Giant-PA format?

Stop & Shop is very weak. Market Basket has been kicking them around for years. What I find strange is Hannaford seems to have smaller stores but seems run better and is more effective. I am not sure what the issue with Stop & Shop is, but it has not been run properly for quite some time and Ahold has not fixed that issue despite appearing to have two strong/well positioned Giant chains that know what they are doing with similar size stores...

It looks to me like Shop & Shop is getting Bi-Loed. This feels like how Ahold handled Bi-Lo in the end.

Is Strategy B that they need Stop & Shop out of the way to avoid divest/overlap issues with Albertsons if they are to swoop in and replace Kroger as a buyer? If that is the case how does DC Safeway/Acme get addressed? Kroger buys Acme (bad idea) and DC Safeway sold to C&S perhaps? Just throwing wild ideas out there.

Market Basket is #1 in Boston metro market share by now: https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2023 ... cer-boston
Walmart being #3 is probably misleading- Shaw’s would have higher share than Walmart if you include Star Market.

Hard to say what Star Market's share is... it must be under 3% or it would be listed (unless it actually is included with Shaw's). 21 stores...

I also wonder how Wegmans gets to 3%, as in, which locations does that actually include? It may be 4 locations but to include the 4 you have to go quite a few miles out...

5 Wegmans stores are in MA, 4 of which are into the Boston metro: Burlington, Medford, Newton (Middlesex County), and Westwood (Suffolk County). The 5th in Northborough (Worcester County, which is its own metro area).

Ahold offloading BI-LO: similar situation happened with Tops. Tops also went bankrupt, and they were sold to Price Chopper/Golub.
Tops was in Northeast Ohio (Cleveland) at one time (their stores there were formerly Finast), but Ahold exited Northeast Ohio in 2006, selling the Tops stores there piecemeal to buyers like Giant Eagle, who is the dominant traditional chain in Cleveland by now. Ahold offloaded Tops to an investment firm in 2008.

I know Kroger was bidding for BI-LO at one point, the end result in that case would’ve been BI-LO being eliminated in favor of Kroger or H-T.

[storewanderer]

Market Basket is #1 in Boston metro market share by now: https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2023 ... cer-boston
Walmart being #3 is probably misleading- Shaw’s would have higher share than Walmart if you include Star Market.

Hard to say what Star Market's share is... it must be under 3% or it would be listed (unless it actually is included with Shaw's). 21 stores...

I also wonder how Wegmans gets to 3%, as in, which locations does that actually include? It may be 4 locations but to include the 4 you have to go quite a few miles out...

5 Wegmans stores are in MA, 4 of which are into the Boston metro: Burlington, Medford, Newton (Middlesex County), and Westwood (Suffolk County). The 5th in Northborough (Worcester County, which is its own metro area).

Ahold offloading BI-LO: similar situation happened with Tops. Tops also went bankrupt, and they were sold to Price Chopper/Golub.
Tops was in Northeast Ohio (Cleveland) at one time (their stores there were formerly Finast), but Ahold exited Northeast Ohio in 2006, selling the Tops stores there piecemeal to buyers like Giant Eagle, who is the dominant traditional chain in Cleveland by now. Ahold offloaded Tops to an investment firm in 2008.

I know Kroger was bidding for BI-LO at one point, the end result in that case would’ve been BI-LO being eliminated in favor of Kroger or H-T.

Bi-Lo was dire. No other word for that chain.

Also someone mentioned up thread somewhere about pharmacies being closed in Stop & Shop Stores in some cases. What is that all about. Does Ahold have a tract record of random pharmacy closures too?

Albertsons/Safeway have ZERO tract record of pharmacy closures. I don't think they've ever closed a pharmacy (unless they close a store). Kroger has almost zero tract record of pharmacy closures- at some point a number of years ago the small number of pharmacies in the F4L/FoodsCo group were closed.

[buckguy]

Could they just rebrand some of these to Giant-PA format?

Ahold could got back to using the Edwards format that they had gotten in the their acquisition of First National Stores. Some number of the current North Jersey Stop and Shop stores were Edwards locations managed under Giant-PA. The current Stop and Shop format doesn't seem to working and ShopRite seems to have the mid-line grocery store format locked up. Maybe a price impact format in a standard grocery store like Giant-PA used to be in the late 90s/early 2000s would serve the market better. My perception is that Walmart and Aldi don't have as much penetration in NJ as in other areas. I wonder if Ahold would be willing to run a price impact format in a union store. Giant-PA is non-union. Moving Stop and Shop, even if rebranded, to Giant-PA would be a no go I would assume, although I'm sure the UFCW would love to get their hands on Giant-PA.

Is Strategy B that they need Stop & Shop out of the way to avoid divest/overlap issues with Albertsons if they are to swoop in and replace Kroger as a buyer? If that is the case how does DC Safeway/Acme get addressed? Kroger buys Acme (bad idea) and DC Safeway sold to C&S perhaps? Just throwing wild ideas out there.

What would Ahold want with DC Safeway? Safeway has been contracting and their stores are inconsistent in execution. Unless Ahold was looking to pick up some Safeway locations as fill in for areas that there are not Giant-MD stores nearby. Safeway has more urban locations than Giant-MD does. That might be attractive to Ahold if they want to get more mass in the residential areas in DC itself. Beyond that, if Ahold was the merger partner, they'd be better off selling Safeway to C&S or someone else who is interested. The question is who is that someone? We know Publix isn't buying union stores. ShopRite doesn't seem to be interested in trying again in the DC area considering they have pulled out with their PriceRite locations and the Cherry Hill ShopRite closed. Would Weis be interested? They are non-union so that is an issue. Only other thing I could think would be someone way out of town who wants to make a non-contiguous expansion.

Safeway once had many more stores in DC and NoVA than Giant but that isn't as true anymore. Giant began making significant investments in DC about 20 years ago and have made at least cosmetic updates in stores since then. Giant is represented everywhere in DC except the far ends of the NW quadrant where they are just over the line Silver Spring east of the park and have a store in Bethesda west of the park. The Chevy Chase (actually Friendship Heights) store closed after being relocated--the high volume Whole Foods nearby probably accounted for that. A number of DC Safeways are close enough to Giant's to be closed: Columbia Road, Georgetown, and L Street. Giant might be interested in the store in SW, Hill East, Alabama-Naylor, and Petworth. The one in Shephard Park may be too close to Silver Spring to keep.. I doubt that Giant would keep the little store on 17th Street, although a niche operator like Streets Market probably would be happy to have it.

[marketreportblog]

Also someone mentioned up thread somewhere about pharmacies being closed in Stop & Shop Stores in some cases. What is that all about. Does Ahold have a tract record of random pharmacy closures too?

Haven't checked outside of NJ, but the thing about the NJ stores is that so few of them had pharmacies to begin with.
57 stores in NJ
34 have pharmacies, 23 don't
8 had pharmacies that closed
15 never had pharmacies

Quite a few of the NJ stores were acquired from Grand Union or Norkus Foodtown down the shore, and those rarely had pharmacies -- I don't think Norkus operated any. I have more or less confirmed that there were 8 stores with pharmacies that lost their pharmacies but are still open, but there might be a few more.

[BillyGr]

Ahold offloading BI-LO: similar situation happened with Tops. Tops also went bankrupt, and they were sold to Price Chopper/Golub.
Tops was in Northeast Ohio (Cleveland) at one time (their stores there were formerly Finast), but Ahold exited Northeast Ohio in 2006, selling the Tops stores there piecemeal to buyers like Giant Eagle, who is the dominant traditional chain in Cleveland by now. Ahold offloaded Tops to an investment firm in 2008.

I guess you got the whole thing, but out of order.

Tops was independent for a time (seem to remember that it was a group of management that took over, maybe from that investment firm) and the sale (more like cooperative working together under a new parent company) with Price Chopper is only in the last few years.

So, a many year gap between them leaving Ahold and joining in to work with Price Chopper.