Shaw's
Opened: unknown
Newburyport is known for its scenic waterfront and quaint downtown on the Merrimack River, but The Market Report isn't in town for any of that! Instead, today we're to the northwest of downtown to visit the local Shaw's, one of two supermarkets in town. The other is a Market Basket literally next door to this one, which we'll take a quick look at tomorrow.
A word of advice: if you come to Newburyport for one thing, make it the waterfront downtown, not the Shaw's. While there's certainly nothing wrong with this Shaw's, even I can't recommend it as a destination. It's nice, and newly renovated, but looks exactly like every other recently-renovated Shaw's out there.
We enter to the grand aisle on the right side of the store, with produce in the front-right corner. Deli and prepared foods are behind that on the right side, with meat and seafood at the back of the store. Dairy/frozen are on the left side, and bakery is in the front-left corner. No pharmacy here.
The store is just under 50,000 square feet, and the Market Basket next door is about 10,000 square feet larger.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to dig up that much on this store's history. The current exterior dates it to about the mid-00s, similar to Shrewsbury's remodel, but I don't know if that's when the store opened or was renovated. It's possible that, like locations we saw in Gloucester and Beverly, this was previously a Star Market. I don't know any of that for sure, and I'd love it if someone familiar with the area could chime in!
The standard Shaw's decor is looking pretty good here. Simple but attractive, although I'd of course love to see bigger, bolder decor. For now, I suppose I'll settle for a big, bold lobster balloon.
A look across the back wall of the store. Notice that, unlike most remodeled Shaw's, this store still has separate meat and seafood counters (many renovations combine the two).
A substantial Big Deals section, probably to compete with Market Basket's lower prices. Placer.ai says that this store gets a little over 50,000 monthly visits, while Market Basket next door sees almost 100,000 people a month. That's about right for both of those chains, and apparently they can coexist here. In many places, Shaw's hasn't survived being in close proximity to a Market Basket.
Frozen foods in older cases towards the left side of the store. Notice that the flooring wasn't replaced here, which makes me think this may have been a slightly earlier remodel. Most of the recent Shaw's remodels have been very extensive, including new flooring and new fixtures throughout the store. See Salem.
I'm not too familiar with this flooring that you can see here in the dairy department. I can't remember seeing it in other Shaw's, but I assume it matched the decor this store previously had.
Bakery in the front-left corner of the store, a very typical setup.
And a look across the front-end...
In several locations, including Beverly, Shaw's has moved into a former department store from an older store on the site. Here in Newburyport, a vacant former Kmart is at the other end of this strip mall. Amazingly, though, the Kmart is only around 50,000 square feet -- just about 3000 square feet larger than the Shaw's, so it doesn't really make sense for the Shaw's to undertake a major project like moving into that space now.
Owner: Albertsons Companies
Previous Tenants: unknown
Cooperative: none
Location: 45 Storey Ave, Newburyport, MA
Photographed: July 7, 2023
In Newburyport, you're just about four miles to the New Hampshire border, and very soon we'll be looking at some stores along the New Hampshire coastline. For right now, we're going to see two more right in this area before crossing the border very soon. Come back tomorrow for a look at the Market Basket next door!
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