Stop & Shop
Opened: 1970s-2019
Location: 148 Heights Rd, Darien, CT
Photographed: May 2019
This longtime Stop & Shop looks pretty much the same outside now as it did in the 1970s when it opened, save for the fact that the tiny 1970s-era signage has been replaced by tiny 2000s-era signage. I'm assuming it has to do with the local zoning regulations.
This store, which opened as a Medimart (later Walgreens) / Stop & Shop combo, has closed in December 2019. The 30,000 square foot store had to be one of the smallest and oldest in operation at the time of its closure. (There's a second Stop & Shop still in business across town.) It's also just across the street from a 23,000 square foot IGA, Palmer's Market, which we'll be touring on The Independent Edition tomorrow!
Probably one that could challenge that is 424 Raritan Ave. in Highland Park NJ (though I believe that was a Grand Union they took over in that bankruptcy). Actually, had you not said this was always Stop & Shop, I would have thought it might also have been a GU (looks close enough to have been).
ReplyDeleteAh, you are correct. At 27,000 square feet, that one is actually slightly smaller. Actually, Highland Park was a Mayfair-turned-Edwards, not a Grand Union (I was almost positive that was the case due to the produce being on the back wall, and JoshAustin610 confirms that here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/62355920@N00/8437833067/).
DeleteThat also makes sense - probably just being in (more upstate) NY that any smaller older looking store is likely to have been a Grand Union at some point.
ReplyDeleteActually, if you go into the full photostream of that picture you linked, there are a couple others that could vie for the small stores title.
(Point Pleasant being a recent convert from Foodtown, Long Branch above it also from Foodtown and the Westfield one that follows the same Mayfair/Edwards/S&S pattern as Highland Park
And farther down you'll see Warwick NY (as CVS) and Hamilton NJ (shown vacant) that are both noted as former GU stores but not S&S that have the white sign panel against the dark roofing, which look very much like this one as well (that being what made me think this one you posted could have been GU, had you not said it had been a S&S since the 1970's).