Stop & Shop closures

[buckguy]

You guys are slipping. S&S took advantage of a slow news day to announce an unspecified number of closures. This link has more details than the others: https://www.retail-insight-network.com/ ... osures-us/

It also mentions more investment in Food Lion and Hannaford. The implication may be that they are bullish on New England (Hannaford) which would suggest that the closures will be in places like northern NJ.

[marketreportblog]

You guys are slipping. S&S took advantage of a slow news day to announce an unspecified number of closures. This link has more details than the others: https://www.retail-insight-network.com/ ... osures-us/

It also mentions more investment in Food Lion and Hannaford. The implication may be that they are bullish on New England (Hannaford) which would suggest that the closures will be in places like northern NJ.

That came from the Ahold Delhaize strategy day, which we discussed in detail here. I attended the call where the announcements were made and transcribed quite a few more quotes than any news outlet reported, which I posted to that discussion topic.

I think yes, Hannaford and Food Lion are doing really well and looking to expand, while Stop & Shop is looking to shrink. They discussed exiting certain markets, without providing specifics. My guess at this point is central Jersey (probably anything south of Elizabeth) and central/western Massachusetts (probably west of Framingham) will see the most closures. Those stores are neglected and seem mostly low-volume. My guess is they’ll also close a lot of the more remote Connecticut stores, while renovating the rest and probably the remainder of the MA and RI stores.

[marketreportblog]

32 stores closing by end of year

Updating to add a link to my page, where I've posted some more details and pictures.

[storewanderer]

There we go...

You called it months ago...

Now the question is of the stores closing how many were the "empty" ones you saw?

[marketreportblog]

There we go...

You called it months ago...

Now the question is of the stores closing how many were the "empty" ones you saw?

Every Stop & Shop I've been to lately has been empty in some way. Some have empty shelves. Others are empty of customers. Some are both.

This list doesn't surprise me too much (among the stores I'm familiar with, at least). But what does surprise me is that it's a much shorter list than I was expecting. There are lots more Stop & Shop stores that are very obviously struggling that aren't on the list, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were more lists coming. Possibly a group of stores per year, maybe due to things like lease terms.

Off the top of my head, there are stores that are decidedly in worse shape than these that I am surprised aren't closing. For instance, the store on Inman Avenue in Edison is a bit small and seems fairly low-volume, but it's quite nice and in really good shape. Westfield, on the other hand, is ancient and much smaller (but I believe S&S owns that property). Lyndhurst seems to do no volume at all and is very large, and I would say the same for stores like Keyport. Several of the acquired A&P stores seem to be doing rather poorly, and many are in bad shape at this point (South Orange, Closter, and Kinnelon come to mind). Then there are stores like Middletown or Berkeley Heights, which are very nice but absolutely dead.

But I've said it before and I'll say it again. Store closures or no store closures, something is seriously wrong at Stop & Shop. I went to three stores in Massachusetts about two weeks ago, including the brand-new one at Boston Landing. Sure, that store is beautiful, but the produce department had rotting corn on the cob and yellow, wilted kale. About 1/3 of the meat department was reduced for quick sale. All the milk was expiring in 3-4 days. That tells me they're not doing any volume at all -- and it's not even a new store, just replacing another on the property. Chelmsford is a beautiful store, but feels 30,000 square feet too big. Huge empty spaces in multiple departments, big rack of reduced for quick sale produce, and white cardboard boxes behind HABA items to make the shelves look more full. Hudson is also enormous, with inexplicable gaps in several departments. Shaw's around the corner is much smaller, but really beautiful (a Hannaford divest, actually, in the Ahold-Delhaize merger).

Maybe a week before that I stopped at the Union, NJ Stop & Shop two pick up two very simple things. One was zucchini. All the zucchinis were floppy and bruised. The yellow squash had all turned brown. Half the mushrooms had visible mold on them. I picked up a bell pepper and my thumb went through it, it was so soft and wrinkly. And that's in a newly-renovated store that seems to do a decent volume. If Stop & Shop doesn't fix things in a hurry -- and there's not a whole lot of signs they're doing so -- I fully expect to see lots more store closures in the next few years.

[storewanderer]

I think Ahold will just dump this division off at some point similar to how they handled Bi Lo, Tops, etc. They clearly don't care. This is very inconsistent for how they run their stores. Even Food Lion doesn't have rotting stuff sitting around (anymore..).

They may think some of the customers displaced by these closures are loyal to Stop & Shop and will continue to shop the chain and perhaps help some of the staying open stores. I don't buy that idea at all.

I also learned all MA Stop & Shops assess a 10 cent bag fee even in cities with no bag regulations. About 60% of cities in MA have bag fees so I get their logic in one respect to try and have a consistent policy in all stores... The problem is Market Basket, Hannaford, and Wal Mart are not charging any bag fees in MA unless it is in a city with a bag fee. Stop & Shop already seems to be higher priced than these competitors. I guess the division is focused on this sort of thing, as opposed to running stores properly.

[BillyGr]

I also learned all MA Stop & Shops assess a 10 cent bag fee even in cities with no bag regulations. About 60% of cities in MA have bag fees so I get their logic in one respect to try and have a consistent policy in all stores... The problem is Market Basket, Hannaford, and Wal Mart are not charging any bag fees in MA unless it is in a city with a bag fee. Stop & Shop already seems to be higher priced than these competitors. I guess the division is focused on this sort of thing, as opposed to running stores properly.

Seems odd, since at least Hannaford does charge (5 cents) in stores in NY, even though the majority of counties did not require it (Albany County being the only one in this region, along with the city of Troy that may cover one of their stores).

As I remember, Walmart got rid of bags totally other than reusable ones, so they obviously charge for those.

[storewanderer]

I also learned all MA Stop & Shops assess a 10 cent bag fee even in cities with no bag regulations. About 60% of cities in MA have bag fees so I get their logic in one respect to try and have a consistent policy in all stores... The problem is Market Basket, Hannaford, and Wal Mart are not charging any bag fees in MA unless it is in a city with a bag fee. Stop & Shop already seems to be higher priced than these competitors. I guess the division is focused on this sort of thing, as opposed to running stores properly.

Seems odd, since at least Hannaford does charge (5 cents) in stores in NY, even though the majority of counties did not require it (Albany County being the only one in this region, along with the city of Troy that may cover one of their stores).

As I remember, Walmart got rid of bags totally other than reusable ones, so they obviously charge for those.

Much of the non-coastal side of MA has no city bag regulations and stores there just use thin plastic bags. But Stop & Shop stopped that about a year ago and moved all stores in MA to paper bags with 10 cent fee even in cities with no bag laws. The competitors did not do that in those non-coastal MA cities.

Most/all NY grocers charge the 5 cent fee in all stores, then keep the money in some of them and remit part of the money to the city/state/county? in the others where the politicians voted the fee in. I think the statewide grocer lobbying group came up with this idea. This seemed to be a scheme the grocers engaged in to be "consistent across the state" and subsidize the cost of paper bags. At this point with paper bag cost what it is the 5 cent fee doesn't come close to covering the cost of the bag which is over 20 cents for many smaller grocers ordering paper bags through their wholesalers. For larger chains paper bag cost hovers around 10 cents. Thin bags continue to cost less than 2 cents each to the store.

[BillyGr]

I also learned all MA Stop & Shops assess a 10 cent bag fee even in cities with no bag regulations. About 60% of cities in MA have bag fees so I get their logic in one respect to try and have a consistent policy in all stores... The problem is Market Basket, Hannaford, and Wal Mart are not charging any bag fees in MA unless it is in a city with a bag fee. Stop & Shop already seems to be higher priced than these competitors. I guess the division is focused on this sort of thing, as opposed to running stores properly.

Seems odd, since at least Hannaford does charge (5 cents) in stores in NY, even though the majority of counties did not require it (Albany County being the only one in this region, along with the city of Troy that may cover one of their stores).

As I remember, Walmart got rid of bags totally other than reusable ones, so they obviously charge for those.

Much of the non-coastal side of MA has no city bag regulations and stores there just use thin plastic bags. But Stop & Shop stopped that about a year ago and moved all stores in MA to paper bags with 10 cent fee even in cities with no bag laws. The competitors did not do that in those non-coastal MA cities.

Most/all NY grocers charge the 5 cent fee in all stores, then keep the money in some of them and remit part of the money to the city/state/county? in the others where the politicians voted the fee in. I think the statewide grocer lobbying group came up with this idea. This seemed to be a scheme the grocers engaged in to be "consistent across the state" and subsidize the cost of paper bags. At this point with paper bag cost what it is the 5 cent fee doesn't come close to covering the cost of the bag which is over 20 cents for many smaller grocers ordering paper bags through their wholesalers. For larger chains paper bag cost hovers around 10 cents. Thin bags continue to cost less than 2 cents each to the store.

Actually, when they first did it, the stores framed it as trying to get people to use reusable bags, rather than just switching from the plastic bags to paper ones (figuring the fee would help people get used to bringing their own bags), when it was not required by the law.
The law was allowed to be adopted by counties and some cities, but not by the state itself in terms of fees.

Can't say I've noted plastic bags in supermarkets in MA (this would be the Berkshires area, so basically Big Y, S&S and PC), though it was kind of funny with Dollar General, one had the old yellow plastic bags, and the others had very thick grey plastic bags that seemed much like what (as I remember) you mentioned about plastic bags from CA that were done to replace the thin ones.

[storewanderer]

Seems odd, since at least Hannaford does charge (5 cents) in stores in NY, even though the majority of counties did not require it (Albany County being the only one in this region, along with the city of Troy that may cover one of their stores).

As I remember, Walmart got rid of bags totally other than reusable ones, so they obviously charge for those.

Much of the non-coastal side of MA has no city bag regulations and stores there just use thin plastic bags. But Stop & Shop stopped that about a year ago and moved all stores in MA to paper bags with 10 cent fee even in cities with no bag laws. The competitors did not do that in those non-coastal MA cities.

Most/all NY grocers charge the 5 cent fee in all stores, then keep the money in some of them and remit part of the money to the city/state/county? in the others where the politicians voted the fee in. I think the statewide grocer lobbying group came up with this idea. This seemed to be a scheme the grocers engaged in to be "consistent across the state" and subsidize the cost of paper bags. At this point with paper bag cost what it is the 5 cent fee doesn't come close to covering the cost of the bag which is over 20 cents for many smaller grocers ordering paper bags through their wholesalers. For larger chains paper bag cost hovers around 10 cents. Thin bags continue to cost less than 2 cents each to the store.

Actually, when they first did it, the stores framed it as trying to get people to use reusable bags, rather than just switching from the plastic bags to paper ones (figuring the fee would help people get used to bringing their own bags), when it was not required by the law.
The law was allowed to be adopted by counties and some cities, but not by the state itself in terms of fees.

Can't say I've noted plastic bags in supermarkets in MA (this would be the Berkshires area, so basically Big Y, S&S and PC), though it was kind of funny with Dollar General, one had the old yellow plastic bags, and the others had very thick grey plastic bags that seemed much like what (as I remember) you mentioned about plastic bags from CA that were done to replace the thin ones.

I would assume the Dollar General units with the thick gray bags must have had city bag laws in place, and the ones still using thin bags in MA are in cities with no bag laws in place. Or Dollar General is just screwed up on what bags are getting sent where (wouldn't surprise me).

The CA bag law doesn't apply to dollar stores unless they sell liquor but most Dollar Generals do. So most of them use those thick gray bags. Dollar Tree "self participates" in the CA bag law despite not being covered by it and uses super thick plastic bags if they have bags at all.