Stop & Compare Supermarket
Opened: 2021
One of two Stop & Compare Supermarkets in Lynn is here at Lynn Marketplace, downtown and just a couple blocks north of the Price Rite I posted on Friday. It's around 25,000 square feet and located in about half of a former Star Market-turned-Shaw's that closed in 2019. When Shaw's closed, Stop & Compare extensively renovated the store, and while I haven't been inside (the picture above is just from the window of a train), we can see several pictures inside from Google Maps. You enter on the left side of the Shaw's storefront to produce in the front-left corner, and it looks like deli and bakery are in the rest of the first aisle. Grocery aisles in the middle, meat on the back wall, and dairy/frozen on the right side. It looks good, and it's great to see the space continue on as a supermarket. Hopefully I can get back here someday, but we're not done with this post just yet! Let's check it out back in 2019, shortly after Shaw's closed.
Now for a bit of history. The 55,000 square foot Shaw's space was originally a Star Market, built approximately in the mid-1960s. This was one of several Star Markets outside of the immediate Boston area that were converted to Shaw's but never converted back as most of the others were. There was also even another Star Market here in Lynn, at 50 Boston Street (now subdivided).
I was here a couple months after Shaw's closed and vacated the building, so Shaw's remnants were still plentiful. You can clearly see the outline of the removed Shaw's lettering above, for instance.
Some interesting facts about this store, from some Newspapers.com searching: it was expanded and renovated to its present size in 1997, and had been renovated previously in 1980. Back in the 1970s, the store manager here was Henry Nasella, who later went on to become the president and CEO of Star Market.
The windows on the storefront were such that it was extremely difficult to see inside at all, but here's a look inside from when the store was still open. It had this decor package.
A designated taxi pick-up area isn't something I can remember seeing in any other Shaw's, and I wonder if that's a holdover from the Star Market days.
Around back, the loading docks are in the back-left corner of the building. So Stop & Compare, when they moved into the left side of the building, got the loading docks (the gym next door definitely doesn't need loading docks).
And a blanked-out Shaw's sign was still visible in the front corner of the building. Now, it's been removed and the building has gotten a fresh coat of paint including some bright colors on the back. You can see why the loading docks have to be on the side here, because it backs up directly to a city street.
Opened: 2021
Owner: Calvo and Ianotti families
Previous Tenants: Star Market (ca. mid-1960s-early 00s) > Shaw's (early 00s-2019)
Cooperative: none
Location: 43 State St, Lynn, MA
Photographed: May 14, 2022
Original Grocery Tenant: Star Market
Address: 43 State St, Lynn, MA
Opened: ca. mid-1960s
Closed: early 00s
Later Tenants: Shaw's (early 00s-2019) > Stop & Compare Supermarket (2021- )
Photographed: August 3, 2019
And that's all for this store, although I do hope to get back to visit Stop & Compare. Tomorrow we're going to Stop again but this time it'll be to Shop instead of to Compare, about 2/3 of a mile northwest!
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