Special Report: Stop & Shop - Allston, MA

Stop & Shop
Opened: June 21, 2024

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 305 Guest St, Allston, Boston, MA

Photographed: July 6, 2024

Welcome to Boston, everyone! I know we're in Worcester County for our regularly scheduled programming, but let's jump about 35 miles northeast for a look at a brand-new supermarket in the Allston section of Boston, about four and a half miles west of downtown!

This is also the newest Stop & Shop, and the first new-build store in several years (possibly since the Newton store, which opened in 2018 and is set to close by November). In January of this year, Stop & Shop opened up a new store in Waterbury, CT, but that store had been built as a Price Chopper and later became a ShopRite. It replaced an older 90s store across the street. There's a similar story here in Allston, where a late-90s-built store closed in June of this year to be replaced the next day by this new-build store on the same property. In this case, the property is set to be redeveloped, and the large suburban store with a big parking lot in front doesn't fit particularly well in the urban neighborhood. We're also at the Boston Landing railroad station, which takes riders directly into South Station.

The store is on the second floor of its building, and there are elevators and a staircase bringing customers up and down. I believe the parking garage has been constructed in the basement, and other retail will come into the ground floor eventually. It's a rather similar setup to the Harlem Food Bazaar, for instance. This store is a bit larger than the Harlem Food Bazaar, at 52,000 square feet (Harlem Food Bazaar is 45k and the closed store that this location replaced was 70k). The store still feels plenty spacious, though...

...and it's also really nice! You enter to the grand aisle, with service departments on the right side and produce straight ahead. A Starbucks and a small cafe are in the front right corner with prepared foods, deli, and bakery on the right-side wall; service seafood is at the back. There's no service meat department (and meat isn't cut in-store, as is standard for Stop & Shop), but packaged meats line the back wall and then dairy is in the back-left corner and continuing down the last aisle. Frozen is also on the left side of the store, continuing onto the front wall. There's no pharmacy, but the old location didn't have a pharmacy either. The old store had a Dunkin' Donuts inside -- their first location was in Quincy, Massachusetts, which is also home to Stop & Shop headquarters -- but the new one has a Starbucks.

I really, really like this new decor package for Stop & Shop. I think it's better than any of their decor choices for a decade or two, except for this decor package.

Here's a look at the produce department, with the service deli and bakery on the right side of the shelving and wall on the right.

There's also a very nice Kitchen area, with prepared foods in the front corner next to the Starbucks. I've seen similar things closed shortly after opening in other locations, though, so I wonder how long this is going to last. At least for now, it's a really nice setup, with a self-serve hot food bar, sushi, flatbreads baked to order, and a few other choices. (I've been in at least one other store with the flatbreads, and I really like the idea.)

Here you can see the former Stop & Shop just across the street from the cafe! More on the old store in a little bit.

Produce is to the left of the island in the middle here, with deli-bakery to the right.

As Stop & Shop continues to remodel stores, I hope this decor package continues to make its way into more locations. I think it's a big step up, but also the stores need to be getting more extensive remodels. It's obvious the chain is struggling -- my instinct is that there will be more store closures coming, and I've now seen a few comments on social media that say there will be similar waves of store closures for the next few years, but I haven't been able to confirm that. And minimal remodels like this just aren't going to cut it anymore, because Stop & Shop needs to turn around the chain, not just modernize and refresh a few locations here and there.

And that's perhaps a good transition to the not-so-great parts of this store: I don't think it's getting nearly enough sales volume. It wasn't crowded when I visited, but given that it was around 11 am on a Saturday, that doesn't worry me much. (A nearby Star Market was similarly empty of customers.) What does concern me is the fact that, just about two weeks after the store opened, I found rotting corn on the cob and wilted, yellow kale on the shelves. About 1/4 of the meat department was reduced for quick sale. And the majority of the milk in gallons and half-gallons expired within 3-4 days. Those really signal something's wrong here. A new store -- notably, a new store replacing an older store on the same property -- shouldn't be struggling to get customers in its first few weeks. Incidentally, the Star Market a few blocks away had beautiful corn and kale, only a few meat packages reduced for quick sale, and milk good for closer to a week when I visited right after going to this store.

Worth noting, too, that for the grand opening, it looks like this store was really piled with merchandise -- probably too much, to make it look impressive -- and that the selection and quantity of merchandise on the shelves will be reduced over time as they decide what sells and what doesn't, so some of what I was seeing might just be a result of that. But it's a bad first impression.

Still, those are just a few problems. There's ample opportunity to nail down the few loose ends here and make this really the best Stop & Shop in the chain. But we'll see how it goes, given that the chain overall needs to reevaluate a few things.

There is a full bakery department, but they're not baking a lot in-store -- like the other Stop & Shops. Stop & Shop, over time, has cut so many specialty services (prepared foods bars, service cheese counters, service seafood counters, butchers, bakeries) that the chain has positioned itself slightly below the mid-level mainstream supermarket. That's fine, and not a bad idea, actually -- you just need prices to reflect that, and so far, Stop & Shop hasn't been able to match pricing to services.

This store does have a service seafood counter. The older store on the property opened with a service seafood counter, but eventually removed it.

Looking back up towards the front of the store.

I really like the decor and lighting in this store, though, especially around the perimeter.

Moving on to the meat department on the back wall. This is a pretty standard layout for Stop & Shop, I would say, and one they've been using variations on for at least 20 years, so it feels familiar.

This is one of the relatively few Stop & Shops I've been to with doors on all the refrigerators. I have to assume it's more energy-efficient, and I like the sleek look.

The grocery aisles feel like a standard Stop & Shop, and again, I'm sure the selection and product mix will be tweaked over time. For now, it was beautifully stocked.

One thing that Stop & Shop has really perfected over the last few years is the in-aisle call-outs for natural items. See the "organic & free-from" sign on the left? Starting with the ca. 2016-17 remodels (this decor package), they began removing dedicated natural foods departments in the stores, but they've done an exceptional job making sure those items are still labeled in the aisles.

HABA with really nice lit shelving. This has become extremely popular among several different chains lately, and I love the way it looks.

Dairy continues along the back wall, which bumps out into the store towards the left side.

And I believe there are two frozen foods aisles. There's a few places where large columns or structures are in the middle of the store, and I love what they've done with them, with the brightly-colored images you can see below.

The decor does peter out a bit on the left side, which made the end of the store feel a little dead. Too much gray, I think.

Again, check out the organic call-out on the right side here.

Dairy and frozen take up the rest of the last aisle...

And I love the big windows in the front! Lets in so much great natural light.

And that really helps the store not feel dead -- big windows are always a plus.

And here's a look across the front-end from the frozen foods section on the left side of the store.

As we see, the design is very attractive, and a bit of a departure from what Stop & Shop has done in the past. (I'm aware of this decor package, by the way, appearing in at least two or three remodeled stores so far, and it looks good if not this good.)

Now for a quick look at the old store across the property!

This Stop & Shop was a very standard, roughly 70,000 square foot Super Stop & Shop built between 1995 and 2001. My guess is that it was built on the later end of that range and then not remodeled, but it's also possible it was built on the earlier end of that range and then remodeled around 2005. If it were earlier, I would expect it to look more like this -- notice how there isn't a lower ceiling over the service departments, like we see here. But I also think it's likely Stop & Shop, at least for a little while, used those two store models simultaneously. They continued to build stores with that exterior design until at least 2011, although the interior design varied significantly.

The "Taste & Time" decor made it to the end here. I took these pictures when I lived in Boston, back in mid-2019.

For context, Stop & Shop currently has 9 stores within the city of Boston. Shaw's and Star Market have a combined total of 9 also; only one of those is a Shaw's. Whole Foods has six stores, Trader Joe's has four, and America's Food Basket, a New York-based cooperative, has five locations. Don't worry, we'll see all of those stores eventually -- I've photographed every supermarket in Boston, except for the newest Trader Joe's.

I find it interesting that the new store has a Starbucks instead of a Dunkin' Donuts.

And then returning to the old store once it had closed, from my early July visit.

This store is set to be demolished with new mixed-use development on this site.

Here's a look in through the front windows. The fixtures and equipment are set to be auctioned off.

And of course, a sign directing customers to the new location, which is directly across the street. It's on the same property, which you can see here when the building was under construction, so even "across the street" is strong wording.

That's all for this Stop & Shop, and we'll see what other stores get this decor package and what else the chain is up to! (Don't forget to read about the upcoming store closures here.) And here's the other things we'll be looking at today!