Hannaford - Exeter, NH

Hannaford
Opened: 2014

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: Stop & Shop (2006-2013)

Cooperative: none

Location: 141 Portsmouth Ave, Exeter, NH

Photographed: January 8, 2025

Stop & Shop is a powerhouse in southern New England, and is the market leader in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and parts of Massachusetts. In other places, though, they haven't been as successful. In the mid-00s, they began building stores in the southern part of Vermont and New Hampshire, eventually having six New Hampshire stores. A location at 318 S Main St in Rutland, VT was constructed but never opened. That store along with two of the former New Hampshire stores became Hannaford -- opening in Rutland in 2007, and stores in Bedford and Exeter, NH became Hannafords in 2013. The parent companies of Hannaford and Stop & Shop merged in 2015.

Many of these Super Stop & Shop stores were really big -- stores built at this time were as big as 90,000 square feet -- and this one is 65,000 square feet. That's about the size of a normal Stop & Shop, but much bigger than the average Hannaford. While Hannaford seems to be doing a good job running this store, it's definitely bigger than the stores they're used to.

Inside, the store has been upgraded cosmetically (it probably originally looked like this) but the layout remains very similar to the Stop & Shop days. The grand aisle is on the left side of the store, with deli and prepared foods lining the left side wall. I assume bakery was originally in the front-left corner, but it's now at the back of the grand aisle where I assume Stop & Shop had seafood. Seafood has been consolidated into the meat department, which lines the back wall along with dairy. Frozen, HABA, and the rest of dairy are on the right side of the store with pharmacy in the front-right corner.

The track lighting is almost definitely left over from Stop & Shop, but the hanging lamps are new. I really like the setup of this grand aisle, but you can feel there's a lot more space than most stores of this size. Most Hannaford stores are closer to 40 or 50,000 square feet.

I like these fixtures, too. I think this is an attractive reuse of the Stop & Shop.

There are quite a few grocery options here in Exeter and neighboring Stratham. There's a small gourmet grocer called On the Vine Marketplace just south, and a Shaw's and Market Basket (that looks like a former Kmart to me) across the highway about half a mile north in Stratham. This building sure looks like a former supermarket, too.

You can see there's a lot of floor space in front of all the departments in the grand aisle. It's not unpleasant, but it feels like Hannaford is stretched pretty thin in this large store. That said, they're running this a lot better than some similar Stop & Shops are being run these days.

A large cheese island at the back of the grand aisle, definitely a leftover from Stop & Shop.

I would assume the deli previously continued to the back wall, with the seafood department being where the bakery is now. Here's another example of a similar store, but mirror image.

Meat is up next on the back wall.

You can see the flooring is clearly left over from Stop & Shop, as is the rounded meat department overhang.

The grocery aisles sure feel like a Stop & Shop, and the Nature's Promise items on the shelves make it feel even more similar! (Prior to Ahold and Delhaize's merger, Hannaford used a brand called Nature's Place. Nature's Promise was an Ahold brand.)

Hannaford has removed some of the aisles, probably because they don't have enough center-store selection to fill all these aisles.

The rear of this extra-wide aisle has been turned into a very pleasant beer and wine department.

Formerly Something Special, now the combined service meat and seafood counter.

Looking across the back wall of the store.

It doesn't surprise me that Hannaford reused a lot of the Stop & Shop fixtures, because the store had only been built seven years prior. For all intents and purposes, it was still a brand-new supermarket when Hannaford took it over.

That said, the Bedford location has received a beautiful interior renovation while this store hasn't yet gotten the latest Hannaford interior. I'm a bit surprised by that, given the proximity to other supermarkets.

Frozen foods, again with an aisle removed in the middle.

The lack of renovation might be an example of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Per Placer.ai, this store sees monthly traffic of around 85,000 people, while the nearby Shaw's gets 55,000 a month and Market Basket gets only 72,000 (rather low for a Market Basket). In other words, it doesn't seem that the facts that this store feels a bit too big and hasn't been renovated suggest it's underperforming.

HABA on the right side of the store. These aisles are divided in half, although I don't know if that's left over from Stop & Shop or a new layout feature.

Almost a full aisle of greeting cards? Yep, they're trying to fill space. Still, so often in these giant Stop & Shops I see empty shelves or messy displays trying to fill space, so I'm not complaining. For the past five years or so, Hannaford has without a doubt been running stores much better than Stop & Shop. With some of Stop & Shop's recent changes, they're catching up.

Dairy and paper goods in the last aisle. (Paper in the last aisle is a pretty common Hannaford layout.) This area was probably natural foods when Stop & Shop was here.

In the front corner is a Hannaford to Go department, and I don't know if there was previously something else here -- possibly floral, which I believe is now in the former bakery at the front of the grand aisle.

Pharmacy is next to that on the front wall.

Here's a look across the cavernous front-end. It looks like some registers might've been removed on this side, too.

I really like what they've done with this store, though, and I certainly wouldn't complain if the Stop & Shops around me suddenly switched to Hannaford. (Obviously, there's no way that's gonna happen for any number of reasons, but I'm just sayin'.)

And that wraps up our tour at this Hannaford!

I love these oddities and relics from unusual pieces of supermarket history, and I hope you've enjoyed seeing this, too. One more day in this part of New Hampshire, and we're going to be seeing two stores back along the coast on Route 1 tomorrow. Stay tuned!