Special Report: What's Up with Stop & Shop?

This isn't how I typically post, but I feel like I need to ask: what's up with Stop & Shop? Over the last two weeks, I've visited around two dozen locations in New Jersey and New York, and what I'm seeing is not encouraging. I was tipped off by some posts on Reddit and Facebook by customers talking about empty shelves and declining in-store conditions in Stop & Shop stores, combined with complaints about drastically reduced online ordering. Employees said their hours were cut back severely, too. So I had to check it out for myself. Recently, Ahold Delhaize sold Fresh Direct (based in the Bronx), and then eliminated Peapod, closing a warehouse in Jersey City and shifting delivery to Instacart and DoorDash, while also cutting the areas they deliver to significantly. What about the stores? Here's a survey from what I've seen the last two weeks...

One thing that's obvious is that Stop & Shop is struggling. The vast majority of these stores appear to be very low-volume, and/or with minimal investments. Even the stores that have been remodeled recently feel out of date because the remodels are so minimal. Across the board, stock and staffing seem to be kept at a bare minimum -- even more extreme than they have previously. Most of the stores I visited had serious problems with empty shelves, and almost all of the stores felt too big even though some of them were moderately sized.

West Caldwell

Walking into some of these stores felt an awful lot like the A&P stores did right about 10 years ago. You can feel when a store is kind of dead. Plus, the data seem to suggest the same thing: Stop & Shop's traffic is declining.

Franklin Lakes - it seems like they're struggling to fill even this fairly small store

Wyckoff - empty refrigerators are placed in front of a closed service counter

Lyndhurst - across the store, big expanses are filled with nothing but air and pallets of sale items

The most confusing part is how inconsistent this all is. Some of the stores are looking great, fully stocked, busy, and well taken care of, like Pompton Plains (which was renovated not too long ago). Others, like here in Lyndhurst, look like an independent in over their head in a giant space.

Lyndhurst

Lyndhurst - this store has serious problems in a few departments

Lyndhurst

A few categories seem to be hit particularly hard. Produce is uniformly understocked, and then depending on the stores, I noticed big gaps in cooking oil, garbage bags, yogurt and sour cream, eggs, toothpaste, and deodorant. Is it simply that Ahold Delhaize is changing its supply chain and running into bumps? Or is there something more going on here?

Carlstadt

A few stores had absolutely minimal staffing, with a few even having just one person running multiple service counters. Few stores had more than three or four cashiers, and I visited only on Fridays and Saturdays when other stores are crowded.

Carlstadt

A conservative theory is that Stop & Shop is doing poorly, and Ahold Delhaize executive management has directed Stop & Shop management to cut costs wherever possible -- cut staffing, order just the bare minimum of stock, do remodels as cheaply as possible. But it's anyone's guess if the situation is bigger than that. Could a bigger number of the stores be closing? Could they be looking to sell them? Who would buy Stop & Shop stores?

Carlstadt

Many stores seemed to have sections of filler, like the seltzer at Carlstadt above which isn't even in the seltzer area. And, of course, each row is only one bottle deep. Obviously, this is a major decline from how the stores had been run previously. Even if they weren't the best supermarkets, they were at least fully stocked. I just can't imagine how the stores would get to this point in the normal course of business.

Hackensack

There's a lot of pictures here of stores empty of stock and empty of customers. But I have to acknowledge that some Stop & Shop stores seem to be extremely well-run -- Pompton Plains, Wanaque, Emerson, Teaneck, Union, Elizabeth, and a few on Staten Island seem to be just fine and dandy. I was really impressed with Elizabeth, a store that's clearly gotten very very little love from corporate with original Edwards fixtures and just a minimal renovation 15 years ago, but it was impressively stocked across the board. It felt to me like a high-volume store and one that its own staff and management take a lot of pride in, but that is ignored by corporate (probably because of the lower-income, urban location). The pharmacies in Union and Wanaque have recently closed, which is rarely a good sign, though.

Hackensack

Hackensack

If I saw, for instance, the shelves with the water above, I wouldn't think twice about it. The thing that concerns me is the pattern of understocking and understaffing stores in so many different examples.

Dumont

Dumont

Even in the stores that look fully stocked, many of them are still extremely light on stock. Here in Dumont, the shelves were faced nicely but there was very little behind the front row or two of product. Again, it feels like Stop & Shop is struggling to fill the space, but that's concerning in and of itself -- Dumont is only 40,000 square feet.

South Orange

Maintenance is pretty poor across the board, too, with lights burnt out, beat-up floors, and in the older stores, damaged decor. The South Orange store is missing a few letters around, still has Pathmark logos on the cart corrals, and has at least one sign frame that's completely empty inside.

South Orange

I assume it goes without saying that no other grocery store chain in this area is having any problem with stock right now. ACME, Kings, ShopRite, and various other stores I've been to lately have been completely fine. It also appears these problems are localized to Stop & Shop -- Hannaford and Giant-PA don't seem to be having any problems with stock or staffing. I think it's also telling that the remodels at those two chains are way more extensive than what Stop & Shop has been doing. Personally, I believe something might be about to happen with Stop & Shop -- either a larger number of closures or a sale of some or all of the stores (maybe even a spinoff, like what happened with Tops?). I just can't imagine it's sustainable to operate supermarkets like this -- you're going to alienate customers because of the limited choices.

South Orange

In fact, that page from Placer.ai I linked above suggests that a bigger announcement might be coming in May. "Muller promised a full answer to Stop & Shop and the other banners in May when they hold an investor day," according to that writeup. The problems seem widespread -- we know they go as far south as Toms River (check out those barren produce displays), and as far north as Chelmsford, in northeastern MA, where a source sent me screen shots of a local Facebook message board where people are talking about exactly the problems I'm observing in the stores here.

South Orange

South Orange seemed to be doing alright, and there's not a whole lot of competition in the immediate area, but still, a lot of the perimeter was very sparse. The bakery is almost half empty.

Union

Even in a well-run store like Union, it feels too big because of the long stretches of limited stock and just one product all the way down.

Bayonne

Speaking of that, an entire row of produce cases in Bayonne was filled with apple cider. It's a shame, because the Bayonne store is relatively newly renovated and honestly was looking pretty good.

Bayonne

To their credit, there was one employee stocking, but he was stocking things that already were pretty well stocked. Nobody seemed to be addressing any of the other shelves.

Bayonne

Bayonne

Organic produce seems to be especially a problem, which has a relatively low turnover even in most higher volume stores. Bayonne's volume seems to be meh at best.

Bayonne

This isn't just like a bad week when an order or two didn't come in, this is obviously a more serious and prolonged stock problem.

Staten Island - Forest Ave

The deodorant section at this Staten Island store was absolutely decimated. I just can't imagine they're moving that much product that they're having trouble keeping it in stock.

Staten Island - Forest Ave

It seems like this endcap is used for selling bulk frozen things, but there's not much to choose from here. A few other areas of frozen foods were equally barren. This store seems pretty busy, but it also seems poorly run. When I was there, there were only about three or four registers open with long lines. No toothpaste either...

Staten Island - Forest Ave

Not every store was in bad shape. The store at the Expressway Mall on Staten Island was holding its grand reopening and had just completed a minimal but attractive remodel. Still, empty shelves...

Staten Island - Expressway Mall

Now again, the above display could be fully excusable if there weren't a pattern of empty shelves across so many stores.

Staten Island - Richmond & Platinum

Staten Island - Richmond & Platinum

Why would there be so little toothpaste on the shelves if Stop & Shop were running business as usual? I don't have any good explanations. Does anyone else?

Staten Island - Hylan Blvd

Staten Island - Hylan Blvd

Staten Island - Hylan Blvd

Staten Island - Hylan Blvd

Above is another good example of good facing. The dairy department all was mostly faced quite well, but most items were only one or two rows deep. Here you can see some holes showing through in sour cream and cottage cheese.

Keyport

Inexplicably, Keyport was down to the very end on chocolate milk. Keyport has a ShopRite, an ALDI, a LIDL, and a Grocery Outlet just a mile down the road, and I get the sense that nobody much shops at the Stop & Shop.

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is a truly massive store of over 90,000 square feet, and I am not exaggerating when I say you could literally reduce the store in size by half and not lose anything. Empty space abounds around this place, and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. That's the other odd thing -- quite a few of the Stop & Shops either didn't play any music or had extremely quiet music, meaning in many of the deserted ones, there's no sound other than the refrigerators churning away.

Aberdeen

I don't blame Stop & Shop for having trouble filling this store, but there's no excuse for some of the smaller ones. Speaking of...

Berkeley Heights

An acquired Grand Union of around just 35,000 square feet. Stop & Shop shouldn't have trouble stocking it, but apparently they do. It was also renovated relatively recently, and beside the fact that this may truly rank as the most boring supermarket decor ever devised by mankind, here we see maintenance slipping again with half the lights in the bakery sign burnt out...

Berkeley Heights

So all these visits left me wondering: what's up with Stop & Shop? I don't see how anyone could look at these pictures and see what the stores look like and be confident that this is a healthy chain sure to last for years in the future. At the same time, it's backed by Ahold Delhaize, one of the largest supermarket operators in the world, so it's not like they're going to run short on cash anytime soon. Some of the stores were really excellent, seemed busy, and were taken care of well. But still, the vast majority I've visited in the last two weeks have really seen better days. Is it possible that Stop & Shop might be pulling out of New Jersey -- again? New Jersey, New York City, and Long Island have seen repeated Stop & Shop closures over the years with very few openings. Are there more to come? Or is this nothing more than a blip on the chain's 100+ year history? Maybe by May, we'll know.