TOUR: Save-A-Lot - Liberty Heights, Springfield, MA

Save-A-Lot
Owner: Anthony Pena

Opened: unknown

Previous Tenants: unknown

Location: 655 Liberty St, Springfield, MA

Photographed: July 9, 2023

When is a Save-A-Lot not a Save-A-Lot? Well, I've been asking myself that question quite a bit lately, with many of the stores between northern New Jersey and Massachusetts becoming more and more like their Key Food or CTown counterparts. Some have reset their product mix, and others even are selling other storebrands like Urban Meadow from Key Food. Here in New England, seven Save-A-Lot stores were purchased by a Key Food owner in 2021. Two have since closed, and one is now actually a Key Food in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield. Another, over in Holyoke, is transitioning to SuperFresh. The others have been reset to look and feel more like Key Food stores, but haven't seen any major renovation beyond a few new fixtures and a coat of paint on the walls. Despite the updates, this store felt a bit neglected -- it was a little messy and maintenance was not amazing, right from the start with the S missing on the front sign.

This Save-A-Lot (excuse me, ave-A-Lot) takes up around 18,000 square feet of a 33,000 square foot former A&P. The A&P was built between 1970 and 1976, then closed around the early 90s.

Produce is in the front right corner of the Save-A-Lot, with the sale items in the rest of the first aisle (apologies for the terrible picture). Meats are on the back wall, with dairy and frozen in the last aisle. Naturally, there are no service departments here.

This store feels similar to Waterbury in its setup and selection. Notice, though, that this store actually has the older decor package with new paint around it, and that one has the new decor package.

Some of the fixtures have been replaced, such as this grocery shelving.

Much of the store's grocery shelving, though, is left over from when the store was corporately owned. It looks, though, like the store was working on a reset when I visited, or perhaps had just completed one.

Oddly, these planograms were printed out and posted on almost every shelf in the store. So let's see how we're doing. This is the planogram for the cracker shelf, which as we see focuses on storebrand items with a few name brands mixed in.

Now let's zoom out and check out the shelf this is posted on...

As we see, the shelves are quite a bit different from the planograms, and consistently with more name brands and a wider selection than the planograms suggest. That goes for all the categories across the store. That in and of itself is not a surprise, since that seems to be the trend with a lot of these Save-A-Lot resets, with more name brands and more selection coming in. But why bother posting the planograms on every shelf if you're not even going to follow it?

Notice some other maintenance issues, such as the fallen picture next to the deli meats sign. Again, we see a reset dairy and frozen department with new shelving facing it...

It's possible that, one by one, these acquired Save-A-Lot stores will be switched over to Key Food or another brand over time, like Indian Orchard and Holyoke. It looks like those stores also are undergoing a renovation with service departments added in.

Here's a look across the front-end...

That's all for this Save-A-Lot, and it's going to be really interesting to see what happens to the few remaining Save-A-Lot stores in this area over time. On Monday, we're headed around a mile south to another supermarket just east of downtown Springfield!