TOUR: Shaw's - Northbridge, MA

Shaw's
Opened: between 1985 and 1995

Previous Tenants: none
Location: 1177 Providence Rd, Northbridge, MA

Photographed: September 4, 2021

It's time for another Shaw's tour! Although the exterior logo is the older one we saw in Auburn (not like Sturbridge), this store has actually been renovated more recently than either of those other two. The roughly 50,000 square foot store was built at some point between 1985 and 1995, although it's possible it replaced an older store in this strip mall.

There's a slightly unusual but very nice awning and signage over the entrance, which I haven't seen in other Shaw's.

Let's head in! We begin in the front left corner with floral and customer service in a small alcove next to the entrance, then the rest of the first aisle is produce. Service meat/seafood and deli are at the back of the first aisle, with packaged meats lining the back wall. Natural foods are (or were? Many Shaw's have removed separate natural foods departments) in the first few aisles, with dairy/frozen on the right side of the store and bakery in the front right corner. There's no pharmacy here.

The store has the latest Shaw's/Jewel-Osco decor package, which looks pretty good here but honestly rarely looks spectacular. The store was generally in good repair, although in the below picture we can see two burnt out lights.

In the renovation, Shaw's replaced the produce fixtures.

Notice the doors added to the older cases on the far left of the below pictures.

The flooring wasn't updated in the renovation, and I'm just never a fan of green floors.

I like a lot of the signage here. Unfortunately, again we see lots of lights burnt out. That's generally not been my experience with the Shaw's stores I am most familiar with in New England, so it's possible the Market 32 nearby has really taken a toll on this store.

I'm not a fan of the flooring here on the perimeter. It matched the old decor pretty well, but it's outdated these days even though it's in pretty good shape.

Some of the signage is great, like this signage here on the front wall. But I want this decor to be bolder overall, with more color and more personality.

The natural foods section has its own freezer cases, although again I'm not sure if this section has been removed since my 2021 visit. I've only been to this store once.

Sometimes it's a little hard to tell where lights are burnt out and where the odd lighting is just a result of the lighting being left over from a previous decor package, and it wasn't designed for this signage.

The grocery aisles are thoroughly unremarkable. The lighting is older than at many Shaw's.

Aisle 12, even though I'm no longer on Flickr...

The freezer cases look like they're on the older side and painted. They're in good shape, but again, I don't care for the flooring here.

Second-to-last and third-to-last aisles are frozen. Dairy starts with milk in the back corner and then continuing down the last aisle.

16 aisles in total here. I do in fact really like the wood paneling here although again it's very muted.

Shaw's dates back to 1860 when it was the Brockton Public Market in Brockton, south of Boston. We'll be looking more extensively at the history once we get to Brockton!

Bakery in the front corner. It looks like these are older fixtures with new signage on the top. The renovation here looks solid, but it really wasn't a whole lot of work to update the store, it was all simple cosmetic things.

Here's an overview of the bakery. Again, I like the wood but I want more exciting graphics.

And a look across the front-end...

This Shaw's is the only supermarket in Northbridge, but there used to be one down towards downtown, or what's sometimes called Whitinsville. We'll be headed there on Monday. Have a great weekend, everyone!