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Shaw's - Merrimack, NH (Daniel Webster)

Shaw's Opened: ca. 2000 Owner: Albertsons Companies Previous Tenants: none Cooperative: none Location: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH Photographed:  July 2, 2026 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 Sha...
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Coming Up Next!

Remember the Lowell area (also see here )? Now, it's time to return to that general area -- though this time, we're across the border on the New Hampshire side. It's time to visit Nashua and a few of its suburbs, including Merrimack, Milford, and Hudson. We'll see only a few stores over the next couple weeks -- I haven't spent a lot of time in this area -- but some good news here: recently (like, earlier this month), I got to return to Nashua for the first time in about five years and significantly expanded my collection. So you'll see some late-breaking additions to this group of stores. Over the course of this group, we'll travel from north to south, from Merrimack near Manchester down through Milford, Nashua, and Hudson. After Nashua, we're all done with New Hampshire and we move west to Vermont! FYI...  July's 10th year feature has sadly been delayed because of adding stuff to Nashua, so keep an eye out for two coming in August!

Special Report: LIDL - Brooklyn, NY (Crown Heights)

LIDL Opened: March 18, 2026 Owner: Schwarz Group Previous Tenants: none Cooperative: none Location: 1730 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY Photographed:  July 15, 2026 Time for another new New York City LIDL! This store opened back in March, but I haven't been able to get to the area until more recently. It's really large for a New York City supermarket, at around 33,000 square feet, and it's on the second floor of a new-build development here in Crown Heights. Once we enter, the layout (and the store in general) is really straightforward and, frankly, not exciting. Produce and bakery are in the front-right corner, with cold cuts in the rest of the first aisle and meat/seafood on the back wall. Dairy and frozen are on the left side here. Except for the slightly jagged layout and the big columns, you'd forget you're not in the suburbs once you get inside this store. LIDL has a handful of other stores in progress in and around New York City, but ALDI has made a splash wi...

Special Report: Key Food Supermarkets (coming soon) - Brooklyn, NY (Crown Heights)

Key Food Supermarkets Opening:  TBA Owner: Pablo Espinal Previous Tenants: none; A&P (late 1960s-ca. 1990) > Associated (1991-2021) previously on property Cooperative: Key Food Stores Location: 975 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn, NY Photographed: July 15, 2026 Keep an eye on this ground floor space at 975 Nostrand in Crown Heights, Brooklyn: It's soon to become a Key Food supermarket, according to a real estate listing . (Knowing Key Food, it's entirely possible it'll actually open under a different name but still be connected to Key Food.) The supermarket will be around 17,000 square feet, so substantial but not that big. The interior build-out doesn't seem to have started yet, but the building is complete so now it's up to the supermarket operator. Who will run this Key Food? Well, it seems that it'll be run by Pablo Espinal. He had previously owned an Associated at this spot for 20 years before the store closed to make way for the new development, with m...