Hannaford - Bar Harbor, ME

Hannaford
Opened: ca. 2003

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: Don's Shop 'n Save

Cooperative: none

Location: 86 Cottage St, Bar Harbor, ME

Photographed: June 15, 2022

Welcome to everybody's favorite vacation destination, the parking lot of the Hannaford in downtown Bar Harbor, Maine. Okay, not really. But more than four million tourists visit Acadia National Park every year, located here on Mount Desert Island. And this Hannaford is less than a mile from the outer border of the park.

Bar Harbor is a small, quaint town, so this is a smaller Hannaford measuring just about 26,000 square feet. It was previously Don's Shop 'n Save until around 2003. Before we head in, here's a look at a fire exit floor plan posted in the store to give you an idea of the layout...

The top wall in that diagram is the front wall of the store, so produce is in the front-right corner (top-left above), with dairy lining the rest of the first aisle. Bakery, deli, a tiny service seafood counter, and meat are on the back wall, with frozen foods on the left side (that's the right side above) and a pharmacy in the front-left corner.

At the time of my 2022 visit, this store had not yet been updated to the most recent Hannaford decor package, but was looking really good, especially for a small store. The exterior was extensively remodeled around 2010. Here's what it used to look like.

This is a really unusual layout for a Hannaford, and I'm betting it's left over from the Shop 'n Save days.

Despite the small size, it does look like there's a full in-store bakery here. According to that floor plan, it's not set up as a service counter because the bakery prep area is not actually behind this wall -- that's produce prep -- but behind the deli counter.

Here's the deli and seafood area, with meat just beyond this.

Notice the ratio of grab-and-go items to raw ingredients like meat -- the meat department is much smaller than the deli-bakery here, and if I had to guess, that's probably because tourists staying in town don't want to buy raw meat but a quick dinner or something easy to carry into the park for a picnic.

Still, there's plenty of staples here, and it's definitely a full-line Hannaford.

Frozen on the left side of the store...

Beer is also visible here, which is next to the pharmacy at the front.

Although this decor package is getting older, it doesn't look particularly dated these days, especially when maintenance is good.

Here's another unusual setup: the pharmacy counter isn't actually under that Pharmacy sign. Instead, it's just off to the side, which you can see below.

And a look across the small front-end with produce visible beyond that at the other side of the store.

That, friends, brings us to the end of our time on the Maine coast. We're not done with Maine just yet, though, and we'll move inland for a look at the Bangor and Augusta areas after seeing the latest 10th year feature tomorrow!