Shaw's
Opened: ca. 2000
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Welcome to Merrimack! This town of around 30,000 is a suburb located between Nashua and Manchester (so we're just five miles south of the Kilton Road Hannaford here). Like Kilton Road, this is a roughly 70,000 square foot supermarket, and Shaw's built this store around 2000. It was a new store when it opened, possibly replacing another location in town but I don't know where that might be. Now, it's one of two Shaw's in Merrimack, which are also the only two supermarkets in town. Possibly because of the lack of competition, Merrimack is a serious time capsule when it comes to the supermarkets.
Yep -- this Shaw's has hardly changed a bit since opening day around 2000. That's awesome for us retail enthusiasts, but it's definitely not a good thing in general. This was the first Shaw's I'd been to in many years that felt downright bad -- dingy, dated, and in surprisingly bad repair. Shaw's stores aren't typically particularly beautiful, but they tend to be kept up extremely well. This one felt like it was hanging on by a thread.
It also is way too large, especially for an apparently low-volume store. The layout is standard for Shaw's of around this time, with produce in the front-right corner, deli in the rest of the first aisle, and meat/seafood at the back. Meats line the rest of the back wall, with frozen and dairy on the left side. Bakery, pharmacy, and floral are in the front-left corner.
Yep, this store is about 30,000 square feet too big and about 15 years out of date...
There's a very short list of Shaw's out there still left with this decor (if there even are others), so this was a real shock to me. It's even a generation older than this similar, but newer, decor package. Spoiler alert: that's actually the decor that's in the other Shaw's here in Merrimack, but while it still hasn't been renovated around two decades after its opening, it's in far better shape than this store.
With Shaw's closing so many stores over the years, I just have to wonder how this one has continued to stick around. Are they just trying to keep out Market Basket or Hannaford from Merrimack? Is a much larger remodel slated for the future? Is it waiting out a lease?
I'm amazed that there's even still a pharmacy here. Many low-volume supermarkets close their pharmacies, but both Shaw's in Merrimack still have fully functioning pharmacies.
It looks like there was once a walk-in floral cooler here, which is now mostly disused. Floral displays are across from it.
Opened: ca. 2000
Owner: Albertsons Companies
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: none
Location: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH
Photographed: July 2, 2026
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Crazy to see a time capsule like this! Of course I hope this store is modernized because it needs some updating, but I'm also glad that I got to preserve this when it still had its original decor. Come back tomorrow for a look at the other Shaw's in town!
Since you noted no other supermarkets in that area, likely that they do fine even if not as busy as other places, and renovating is less likely to change that. So, they'd only be spending money to get the same coming in, which winds up being a net loss.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't mention, but are there also not any (many) other pharmacies in that area - if so, that may make those run more profitably as well (since people often want to have that close to home).
A Shaw’s in 2026 still having that ancient decor package (which I assume first came about in the late 90’s-early 2000’s) is probably an indication that the store isn’t bringing in a lot of money. I’m surprised they didn’t close this location last year when they closed one of the Concord NH stores and one of the Gloucester MA locations, both of which had been more recently remodeled. As someone already mentioned though, the pharmacy may be doing a lot of heavy lifting for this location, or maybe Shaw’s just doesn’t want to give up the location. I think the only other Shaw’s that still has this look is the one in Ipswich MA, and that one seems to be very low volume as well.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that other low volume one has other uses - like procuring shellfish for the chain? ;)
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