Shaw's - Beverly, MA

Shaw's

Opened: early 00s

Owner: Albertsons Companies

Previous Tenants: Zayre > Ames

Cooperative: none

Location: 71 Dodge St, Beverly, MA

Photographed: May 14, 2022

These days, Star Market is mostly in Boston and its immediate suburbs. But the chain once stretched much farther out from the city, including up here to Beverly about 20 miles north of Boston.

Star Market constructed an approximately 53,000 square foot supermarket here at the North Beverly Plaza in the early 1960s. It anchored the mall along with a Zayre department store, later Ames. Shaw's and Star Market were merged into the same company in 1999, and shortly thereafter Ames closed. Shaw's constructed a new, approximately 70,000 square foot supermarket in the former Ames, and it opened in the early 00s replacing the Star Market. Unlike the Boston-area locations, this store never returned to Star Market branding and has remained Shaw's.

You enter on the left side of the store to floral and a Starbucks, with produce in the front-left corner. Deli and seafood are behind that in the grand aisle, with meat and dairy on the back wall. The rest of dairy and frozen are on the right side of the store, with bakery in the front-right corner. No pharmacy here, because there's a CVS in the same strip mall.

This is not the first Zayre-turned-Ames-turned Shaw's I've posted, by the way. See Webster Square, where Shaw's also moved from a smaller and older store in the same mall.

This store was renovated shortly before I visited in 2022. See here for a look at the interior prior to the remodel.

This store seemed to be a well-run, pretty high-volume store. Placer.ai says this store sees monthly traffic of 75-80,000 visits, while the nearby Stop & Shop gets less than half that traffic. Statistics aren't available (on the free version, at least) for the much smaller Henry's Market nearby, but that store seems to do a lot of business.

A friend of mine who used to live in town told me that during and after the coronavirus, Shaw's picked up a lot of business of people who used to shop at the Enon Street Stop & Shop, where we're headed tomorrow. It's about half a mile north, so they're quite close together. That Stop & Shop is slightly smaller than this Shaw's, at around 57,000 square feet. Another friend, who's lived in a nearby town for many years, was uh... a bit more graphic in her description of why people don't shop at the Stop & Shop, but said basically the same thing: that the Stop & Shop has lost a lot of people to this store over the years, but not for any one particular reason.

The grocery aisles here are very straightforward. There used to be a natural and organic department in the first few aisles, which may have been where this beige flooring is now located. The rest of the grocery aisles have white flooring.

Star Market developed the Wild Harvest natural and organic brand, which is what that department would've originally been branded. Wild Harvest became the natural and organic brand for all of Supervalu, and now is used by UNFI. When Albertsons merged with Safeway, they took on the Safeway storebrands, including O Organics.

Star Market also developed the Shop the World Food Hall international departments, which were later brought to certain other Albertsons-owned stores. But Albertsons never quite had the savvy to effectively merchandise those international departments.

Meats lining the back wall. Notice that the perimeter flooring has all been replaced here. It looks like this refrigeration was probably just painted, not replaced, in the remodel. Still, this store is in great shape (and isn't really that old anyway).

HABA on the right side of the store before dairy and frozen. As I mentioned, no pharmacy here.

It does look like the frozen foods cases were replaced in the remodel, though.

Although there's no Market Basket in town, there's the one in Salem and another just three miles from here in Danvers. Even when there's no Market Basket in the immediate area, it's still the ever-present force in eastern Massachusetts.

Dairy lines the last aisle in what look like older cases with new doors. Notice that the flooring was replaced here, too.

Bakery is in the front-right corner of the store.

It doesn't appear there ever was a pharmacy here, as there's not really a place for it.

And a look across the front-end. You can see the maintenance here is really good, too, with no lights burnt out and no scuffs on the floor and things like that. Most, but definitely not all, of the Shaw's/Star Market stores in this area are taken care of really well.

And that wraps up our look at the Beverly Shaw's! But before we move along...

Original Grocery Tenant: Star Market
Address: 65 Dodge St, Beverly, MA
Opened: early 1960s

Closed: early 00s

Later Tenants: subdivided

Photographed: May 14, 2022

...here's a look at the original Star Market building in the mall, which is just next to the current Shaw's store. It's now subdivided between a few tenants, and has been remodeled with a facade to match the Shaw's facade. Tomorrow, we're headed up Dodge Street to the last store in Beverly we'll be seeing. Come back to check it out!