Stop & Shop / bfresh
Opened: 2018 - August 2024
Today we're going to take a look at three of the Stop & Shop stores that have already closed as the majority seem to be closing on October 31 -- Newton, MA; Jackson, NJ; and Carlstadt, NJ (which became a Food Bazaar on Friday). Newton is a fascinating store, a small-format location of just about 20,000 square feet that opened in late 2018. My understanding is that, at the time, Stop & Shop wanted to build a larger new store here but was rejected for zoning reasons. The store opened as a Stop & Shop, which is the banner it was operating under when I visited back in the summer of 2019, but by 2020 it was converted to bfresh -- a separate chain of small-format supermarkets in and around Boston -- although, unlike the other bfresh locations (all of which have closed) it was branded bfresh by Stop & Shop. Newton, for those unfamiliar, is just outside Boston, and we're about nine miles outside of downtown here.
This was one of the first stores to receive the decor package that later became the norm for new and remodeled Stop & Shop stores, and I must say it looked really good in this location. While the bfresh locations I visited seemed haphazard and strange in terms of selection and pricing, this one felt genuinely like a scaled-down full supermarket. We'll see a few bfresh stores when we get to the Boston area.
The grand aisle is on the right side and front half of the store, with produce in the front-right corner and deli in the back-right corner. Seafood and meat lined the back wall, with bakery and prepared foods in an island facing the front-end. The grocery aisles ran side-to-side in two sets, with dairy on the left-side wall and frozen in the front-left corner.
Despite experimenting with small-format stores a few times through locations like this and the bfresh stores, Stop & Shop has yet to nail a small-format store. Notably, with these 2024 closures, all of their alternative formats are gone (the bfresh stores and Eastside Marketplace, an independent in Providence, RI that they acquired). All that remains are the standard Stop & Shop stores, although small locations do still exist.
I love the integration of the branding, such as these colorful fruits below the produce signage here that also appear in other uses.
The grocery aisles run side-to-side, and you can see here the back of the bakery/prepared foods counter looking towards the dairy department on the left side. Other than the need for prep space, why group bakery and prepared foods but separate deli? Isn't the more logical grouping deli and prepared foods with bakery separate?
And here's a look at the meat department, which runs across the back wall.
The grocery aisles extend beyond the middle island on the left side of the store...
...and in front were rows of prepared foods. I have to assume this area took a big hit during the coronavirus, but Stop & Shop overall has been phasing out most of the fresh or made-to-order prepared foods in the stores I've visited.
Here's an overview of the prepared foods area, with the checkouts just behind me.
I do wonder if this store will get a new grocery tenant now that Stop & Shop is gone (and the store was the first closure to happen, back on August 29th). Local chain Roche Brothers runs an upscale small-format banner called Brothers Marketplace, which might be a logical fit for this space. In the other direction, there are no ALDIs nearby -- there are none in the immediate Boston area, in fact -- and it's possible they could expand into this area.
As you can see here, there is definitely a full selection here, including a scaled-down HABA department (something we often see cut entirely in smaller supermarkets, especially urban ones).
Milk and dairy are on the left side of the store...
I think this simple, understated decor works well in this space, but it completely falls flat in the (very low-budget) remodels we see in a lot of Stop & Shops.
Frozen foods are opposite dairy.
And the registers are on the front wall, and if I remember correctly, are set up in rows rather than individual checkouts.
Opened: 2018 - August 2024
Owner: Ahold Delhaize
Previous Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants
Cooperative: none
Location: 165 Needham St, Newton, MA
Photographed: July 20, 2019
Closing Date: August 29, 2024
That's all for now, but we'll be back to the area to check out Newton's other supermarkets shortly when we make our way out to the Boston area! In the meantime, check out Jackson as well as...
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