Stop & Shop
Welcome to Beverly, the suburban town of roughly 43,000 just north of Salem, where we've spent the past few days. There are two Stop & Shop stores in town, so today The Market Report tours the one just outside of downtown towards the southern end of town.
It's not a terribly exciting store. It was built between 1995 and 2001 in the standard style of stores of that era, around 65,000 square feet. I don't know the full remodel history here, but we do know that it had the yellow and purple decor before being renovated in 2022. As you can see from the YAY sign above, I visited right as they were having their grand reopening. I don't know about you, but a picture of a balloon always gets me excited for a grand reopening.
I am, of course, joking. This was undoubtedly the saddest grand re/opening I've ever been to, although I know there have been some pretty awful ones out there. I visited on a Saturday afternoon to find a nearly-deserted store. I do think this store generally does decent business, though, so my visit was likely just a fluke. Per Placer.ai, this store does almost exactly the same volume that the Shaw's across town does (around 80,000 visits a month, which is perfectly solid) but the Stop & Shop on the north end of town does a meager 33,000 visits a month. We'll see that store shortly.
The store had just been remodeled to the very gray decor package when I visited, so while it was definitely looking fresh and clean, it was not exactly inspiring. The grand reopening festivities were also limited to maybe two or three tables of samples in the grand aisle, so they weren't exactly drawing crowds. The 2020-2024 period or so really was an all-time low for Stop & Shop, and I'm really glad to see they're finally on the upswing after changing management in late 2024.
The grand aisle is on the right side of the store with deli and prepared foods lining the right side. Produce was moved into the front-right corner in the remodel, which was previously home to floral and natural foods. Natural foods were integrated into the grocery aisles and floral was moved to an island on the front-end. Meat and seafood are on the back wall along with dairy, and frozen is on the left side of the store. Bakery is in the front-left corner. No pharmacy here.
In the remodel, the refrigeration lining the left side of the grand aisle -- previously holding produce -- was removed and switched to grocery shelving. Refrigerated produce now lines the front-right corner.
We can tell this store does a solid business because of its full-service meat and seafood counter, something that's been removed from a lot of stores (but seems to be going back into many of the newly renovated stores).
And the center store is very straightforward. Very white and gray with not a lot going on, but clean and bright. Not unpleasant, but nothing to recommend it.
I think here, Stop & Shop was going for simplicity on the aisle markers. Something I've noticed with this style, though, is that often they don't mention everything in the aisle because there's only space for four items. Still, I appreciate the sleek design.
It just feels like a chain whose counterpart's remodeled stores look like this could come up with something better than this all-white non-decor decor package. And they have since, if you check out the Brick post linked above. But why spend six years putting this decor in half your stores?
Frozen and dairy on the left side of the store.
Here, dairy continues down the last aisle of the store. Some of these late-90s Stop & Shop stores were wide enough that the entire meat and dairy departments could both fit on the back wall.
And a look across the front-end, with customer service and a bank branch on the front wall...
Opened: between 1995 and 2001
Owner: Ahold Delhaize
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: none
Location: 224 Elliott St, Beverly, MA
Photographed: May 14, 2022
Bakery is in the front-left corner.
Before moving out of this neighborhood, check out a former supermarket just a couple blocks away here. And tomorrow, come back for a look at a small independent grocer on the east side of town!
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