Stop & Shop closures

[buckguy]

I'm surprised that they're closing Spout Run. It received a major remodel not that long ago and has been quite busy the few times I've been there. It's in a well-off part of Arlington and has no nearby competition. Getting from there to Virginia Square (the nearest store) isn't exactly a pleasure. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are about the same distance away as that other Giant and seem even less likely to open there. Mom's or Yes!, the organic chains might do well there, although they wouldn't use all the space.

[mbz321]

I'd imagine that ShopRite is so strong being the native NJ chain that it is hard to compete with them.

This is the big one here. I don't think Stop & Shop has ever done particularly well in NJ. They pretty much exited the Southern NJ market several years ago.

As far as the other divisions, Giant (PA) had stocking issues that lingered well beyond the 'Covid' time when others were getting back to normal. That seems to have stabilized though, at least in my last few visits to Giant.

[mjhale]

I'm surprised that they're closing Spout Run. It received a major remodel not that long ago and has been quite busy the few times I've been there. It's in a well-off part of Arlington and has no nearby competition. Getting from there to Virginia Square (the nearest store) isn't exactly a pleasure. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are about the same distance away as that other Giant and seem even less likely to open there. Mom's or Yes!, the organic chains might do well there, although they wouldn't use all the space.

It seems like Giant-MD is now running on the Giant-PA model where if the store can't fit the current prototype the store is either relocated, expanded or closed. In its heyday, Giant-MD had a lot of these smaller stores like Lyon Village/Spout Run that served a small sections of the community that didn't necessarily have other choices. When I cycled more, I used to stop at the Spout Run Giant since it was right of the WO&D trail. As you noted, the store was always busy when I was through there. Are there any more of these small Giant-MD locations left in the DC area?

[mjhale]

Here's some pictures from what I found:

• Carlstadt, NJ

• Carlstadt, NJ - 2

• Franklin Lakes, NJ

• Hackensack, NJ

• Hackensack, NJ - 2

• Lyndhurst, NJ

• West Caldwell, NJ

Of the pictures above that show store decor, they all have the yellow walls and purple writing decor package. At this point that decor is 20 years old. It wasn't a great decor, in my opinion, when it came out and now it just gets lost on the walls of the store. I guess Ahold is just not putting any money into the Stop and Shop stores even for a decor swap. Are the Stop and Shop stores in general on any sort of remodeling schedule? And the NJ stores too? I feel like one of the indicators of a store closure or relocation is outdated decor and maintenance issues. One of the pictures above shows cracked up flooring in front of one of the fresh display units. Again, comparing to the two Giants, Stop and Shop appears to be far behind in decor and in some cases maintenance.

[marketreportblog]

Of the pictures above that show store decor, they all have the yellow walls and purple writing decor package. At this point that decor is 20 years old. It wasn't a great decor, in my opinion, when it came out and now it just gets lost on the walls of the store. I guess Ahold is just not putting any money into the Stop and Shop stores even for a decor swap. Are the Stop and Shop stores in general on any sort of remodeling schedule? And the NJ stores too? I feel like one of the indicators of a store closure or relocation is outdated decor and maintenance issues. One of the pictures above shows cracked up flooring in front of one of the fresh display units. Again, comparing to the two Giants, Stop and Shop appears to be far behind in decor and in some cases maintenance.

You're right. The investments are minimal. However, quite a few of the stores have gotten this really simple decor package that is a renovation, but barely. It's really a downgrade for a lot of the stores. See Wanaque in 2021 and 2024. Now of course Wanaque needed something, but that's definitely not an upgrade. Almost looks like it should've gone in the other direction.

And many stores have this decor package, but as you see the renovations are really minimal. They're inconsistent, too -- some include switching to polished concrete floors, many just leave the old floors there. Some stores have gotten updated outside signage but still have yellow and purple inside. Some exteriors are painted to match the interior color scheme (see Wanaque), some are left the way they were (see Hackensack). When you compare this to the remodels Hannaford is doing, for instance, or even Giant-PA, these look amateurish.

So here's my best estimates, judging by online photos for the stores I haven't been to. I don't have names for most of the decor packages, but here's the list:
Total stores in NJ: 56

• White: 12

• Wood Fruitbowl: 3

• Backlit Fruitbowl: 6

• Yellow & Purple: 21

• Taste & Time: 7

• Super Stop & Shop: 7

• Edwards: 1

If I have time later today, maybe I'll do a comparison to other states with Stop & Shop, but what other Ahold banners are still using decor from before Yellow & Purple? Yellow & Purple was discontinued around 10 years ago (definitely by late 2015), and to have almost 2/3 of the stores in NJ with that decor or an older decor package is a serious sign of lack of investment. That surprised me when I did those numbers, but I think the thing that was most surprising here was how suddenly the store operations seem to have declined. You can have ancient decor but still run a clean, well-stocked, and well-staffed store -- independents like this one do it all the time.

I have always wondered if Ahold is letting Stop and Shop go by the wayside so they can close or offload them. Or maybe rebrand to Hannaford?

As for this, this is exactly my suspicion. That "white" decor isn't beautiful, but it is simple and it makes it REALLY easy to sell or rebrand the stores without having to cover up a million fruitbowls. I do wonder who in New Jersey would want 56 more stores. I could see ShopRite and ACME each taking some, but the stores tend to be close to ShopRites and in need of significant investment that ACME isn't willing or able to do. Closed stores could get independents or be subdivided (Grocery Outlet would have a field day), but I'm not sure if there's anyone who would buy the chain whole. Weis, Northeast Grocery (Tops/Price Chopper/Market 32), Redner's are the chains that come to mind that border the S&S market area but I strongly doubt any of them are interested. In the past 10 years, ACME has liked these random acquisitions (think A&P in 2015 and Kings in 2020), but I'm not sure they're in a position at this moment to actually make that happen.

Edit to note that there is actually a newer decor package than "white", but it's not being used on NJ/NYC remodels. Instead, they're going with what's basically a cross between white and wood fruitbowl, with again almost no branding inside the store.

Edited again to make two notes: first correct the numbers (57 stores in NJ, not 56) and second that there is in fact one NJ store with the traffic light decor.

[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.

[marketreportblog]

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.

I love wild ideas. A lot of this could make sense but I struggle to come up with a buyer who could get S&S "out of the way" for an Albertsons deal. I think it's much more likely that in fact ACME would take on NJ Stop & Shop stores if the merger fails (or maybe even if it doesn't). It seems like Stop & Shop is a bit of a fixer-upper, and Kroger doesn't like that. ACME, for better or worse, doesn't seem to mind (look at A&P and Kings).

The problem with that theory is Long Island. There are a lot of Stop & Shops on Long Island, and they generally seem to perform really well. Meanwhile, the NJ and New York City ones don't. I could see Ahold Delhaize getting rid of NJ (ACME? Maybe a few to Wakefern but there's a lot of overlap) and NYC (easy enough, there are always operators looking to take stores in NYC), but would they really want to keep just Long Island? The MA stores seem to do fine enough, especially where Market Basket isn't, but the CT and RI stores seem to really do well. I don't see why Ahold Delhaize would want to get rid of them. So maybe the remaining New England stores are kept and the NJ/NY stores are sold to someone else or closed?

[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.

I love wild ideas. A lot of this could make sense but I struggle to come up with a buyer who could get S&S "out of the way" for an Albertsons deal. I think it's much more likely that in fact ACME would take on NJ Stop & Shop stores if the merger fails (or maybe even if it doesn't). It seems like Stop & Shop is a bit of a fixer-upper, and Kroger doesn't like that. ACME, for better or worse, doesn't seem to mind (look at A&P and Kings).

The problem with that theory is Long Island. There are a lot of Stop & Shops on Long Island, and they generally seem to perform really well. Meanwhile, the NJ and New York City ones don't. I could see Ahold Delhaize getting rid of NJ (ACME? Maybe a few to Wakefern but there's a lot of overlap) and NYC (easy enough, there are always operators looking to take stores in NYC), but would they really want to keep just Long Island? The MA stores seem to do fine enough, especially where Market Basket isn't, but the CT and RI stores seem to really do well. I don't see why Ahold Delhaize would want to get rid of them. So maybe the remaining New England stores are kept and the NJ/NY stores are sold to someone else or closed?

It sounds like they need to do something to basically dissolve it and split it up. They could move the remaining New England Stores that do well into Hannaford. Maybe C&S could take some of the other stores.

What is the average store size of these Stop & Shop units? The ones I saw in the past which wasn't all that many were modern full size stores (50k square foot type). I think if they are mostly larger combo food/drug stores Kroger could take interest in a fix up. But if they are skewed toward smaller under 40k square foot stores without pharmacy, then unlikely.

[marketreportblog]

It sounds like they need to do something to basically dissolve it and split it up. They could move the remaining New England Stores that do well into Hannaford. Maybe C&S could take some of the other stores.

What is the average store size of these Stop & Shop units? The ones I saw in the past which wasn't all that many were modern full size stores (50k square foot type). I think if they are mostly larger combo food/drug stores Kroger could take interest in a fix up. But if they are skewed toward smaller under 40k square foot stores without pharmacy, then unlikely.

Total guess here, but I’d say 1/4 of the Stop & Shops are below 40,000 square feet, 1/2 in the 40-60k range, and 1/4 above 60k. At least two NJ stores are at or under 20k. Thing is, the way they run the stores, anything above 40 feels too big. I think they have a few extremely large stores in the 80k range but not many that big. They’ve also closed a lot of pharmacies, and my guess is 2/3 of the stores have pharmacies. In NJ alone, it’s probably less than that. I suspect the stores Kroger might want in New England are also the ones Ahold Delhaize might want to hold onto — and the ones easiest to convert to Hannaford.

[mjhale]

So here's my best estimates, judging by online photos for the stores I haven't been to. I don't have names for most of the decor packages, but here's the list:
Total stores in NJ: 56

• White: 12

• Wood Fruitbowl: 3

• Backlit Fruitbowl: 6

• Yellow & Purple: 21

• Taste & Time: 6

• Super Stop & Shop: 7

• Edwards: 1

If I have time later today, maybe I'll do a comparison to other states with Stop & Shop, but what other Ahold banners are still using decor from before Yellow & Purple? Yellow & Purple was discontinued around 10 years ago (definitely by late 2015), and to have almost 2/3 of the stores in NJ with that decor or an older decor package is a serious sign of lack of investment. That surprised me when I did those numbers, but I think the thing that was most surprising here was how suddenly the store operations seem to have declined. You can have ancient decor but still run a clean, well-stocked, and well-staffed store -- independents like this one do it all the time.

The majority of Giant-MD stores are either Wood Fruit Bowl or this decor which seems to have originated in Giant-MD. Ahold seems to like the Wood Fruit Bowl look in stores that were built prior to the Ahold buyout. Those stores have lower, drop ceilings. The Wood Fruit Bowl look is modern enough that it seems like an improvement but not so bold and busy that it is overwhelming. New and relocated stores get the second decor with the large black and white department signs as most of them have warehouse type ceilings or high drop ceilings. There are some exceptions. The rebuild of the Braddock Road store near George Mason University got Wood Fruit Bowl and the Centrewood Plaza store in Centreville, VA got the black and white signs look. The Wood Fruit Bowl looks good in the Braddock Road store. However, the black and white signs are very overwhelming in the Centrewood Plaza store which is a 1990s pre-Ahold store. There are still some stores with the yellow and purple look. The store with yellow and purple I've been in most recently is the Owen Brown store in Columbia, MD. The store was built in the early days of Ahold owning Giant-MD. The store has a Giant-PA layout but with the Giant-MD design aesthetic - lower drop ceilings and a non-warehouse type feel. I believe the store opened with yellow and purple. With that said, overall, at least in the DC area, Giant-MD has a modern fleet of stores. They have been aggressive with remodels and relocations. The stores have a very middle of the road product but what they have is of good quality. The stores seem busy as well. It is the opposite of what you describe of Stop and Shop. Perhaps there is some kind of realignment or offloading coming up with Stop and Shop. I'd agree that the stores without the fruit bowl would be much easier to rebrand if those are the ones that Ahold has targeted for retention to rebrand. Let whoever buys the other stores deal with remodeling... or not. 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.