Stop & Shop
Opened: 1989
Take a good look at this Stop & Shop's exterior. Well, this is an easy store to tell the history of -- a mid-00s build Super Stop & Shop, much like this one, right? Wrong. Would you believe this store actually opened in 1989? Granted, it's been extensively renovated, and probably most recently was redone around the mid-00s when the neighboring Star Market moved into a former Ames. That also explains why it's a bit smaller than the type of store Stop & Shop was typically building around the mid-00s. It's around 57,000 square feet -- plenty large, but much smaller than the 76,000 square foot South Bay one I linked above. Some digging on Newspapers.com brought me to the following article...
Quite a few interesting observations here, including the incredible picture of the original exterior of this store. That's what has been referred to as the octagonal model, of which there aren't many still operating. It was the first Super Stop & Shop model, and this article informs us that this Beverly location was the first Super Stop & Shop on the North Shore. The octagonal store model was a precursor to this exterior design, which today is much more common (not least because it continued to be used, at least off and on, until at least 2011). This article also enlightens us about some of the extensive features and services once available in this store -- a Barnes & Noble inside! -- and explains why some of these former Super Stop & Shop stores feel overly large, because they've had quite a few services removed over the years.
These days, this is definitely the forgotten stepchild of Stop & Shop locations in Beverly. The Elliott Street location across town gets more than double the traffic of this one, according to Placer.ai, and was recently renovated while this store still sports is ca. 2005 interior. Here's one other piece of really surprising retail trivia: the Marshalls chain of discount department stores started as a grocery store, and the original store was right here on this property.
I don't know exactly what the layout of the original Super Stop & Shop would've been here, but the layout these days is classic ca. 2005 Super Stop & Shop. (The "Super" branding was dropped in the 2008 logo redesign.)
Grand aisle is on the right side, with bakery in the front-right corner and deli lining the rest of the right-side wall. Produce is opposite with seafood on the back wall. Meat and dairy line the rest of the back of the store, with frozen and HABA on the left side. Here, a Nature's Promise natural/organic department is in the last few aisles, with floral in the front-left corner. It doesn't look like this store ever had a pharmacy.
A really unusual setup here in the seafood department. It's been converted to a self-service department at some point, but there's still a lobster tank (which would be served and packaged by an employee). Obviously, that's highly unusual -- most often, it's either a completely self-service department or a full-service department.
Sale and some natural foods in the first aisle. The main natural department is at the end of the store, on the left side.
I really like this meat department setup, with the rounded wall and the lighting underneath. No service meat department anymore, though.
Looking from dairy on the left side of the back wall to the right side of the store, with meat/seafood visible in the distance below...
All of the general merchandise departments described in that 1989 article are gone, but there's still a larger-than-usual selection of nonfoods here.
The aisle markers were updated at some point more recently than the rest of the store.
As far as I can tell, the store hasn't been renovated since I visited.
Dairy in the back half of the last aisle with natural foods in the front half.
And floral is in the front-left corner.
Here's a look across the front-end...
Opened: 1989
Owner: Ahold Delhaize
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: none
Location: 37 Enon St, Beverly, MA
Photographed: May 14, 2022
And that's all for Beverly! Tomorrow we're headed just north for a look at an independent store in Wenham. Come back to check it out!
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