Skip to main content

Special Report: Stop & Shop (closing) - West Side, Stamford, CT

Image
By Zachary
Stop & Shop
Opened: ca. 2007
Owner: Ahold Delhaize
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: none
Location: 1937 W Main St, West Side, Stamford, CT
Photographed: August 18, 2024
Closing Date: October 31, 2024
Stamford, CT is a city of ShopRite. Grade A Markets, which recently rebranded as Cingari Family Markets, owns two ShopRites in the city along with two branded Grade A Markets. The rebrand has come with major renovations. And one of those renovated stores is directly across the street from this Stop & Shop. I assume that was the final nail in the coffin of this store.
The Main Street Stop & Shop is around 70,000 square feet, having been constructed around 2007. It doesn't appear to have been renovated in that time, as it still has the decor package from before the fruit-slice logo. It's been kept up pretty well, but there are definitely signs of decline, such as the lights burnt out we can see in the grand aisle here.
The grand aisle has bakery, deli, and prepared foods lining the right side wall, then seafood and meat on the back wall. Beer and dairy take up the rest of the back wall, with frozen and the rest of dairy on the left side. Floral and a previously-closed pharmacy are in the front left corner.
Obviously, even as far back as August, this store had begun its closing.
Still, the store was generally in good shape and, like Ansonia, another operator could easily move in here. But there doesn't seem to be any interest yet. In my opinion, the most likely candidate would be Food Bazaar, but they've taken on four closing Stop & Shop stores (and not this one).
These Super Stop & Shops have generally aged very well, but they haven't gotten any investment to propel them forward. You can see in those pictures of the remodeled Grade A stores that they're way ahead of what the stores used to look like.
And it still remains to be seen whether Stop & Shop will accelerate serious investment in their remaining stores, which would be necessary in my opinion for them to stay relevant. Having changed presidents recently, and announced price cuts (in Rhode Island at least), Stop & Shop might be on course to turn itself around. We'll see if that happens.
I do love the massive cheese islands these Super Stop & Shop stores were built with.
And here's where we see the store has declined. At the back of the grand aisle is a closed salad bar and a long-gone service seafood department.
And, of course, a closed butcher window. This appears to be a permanent thing at all locations, not just the closing one, driven by Stop & Shop's decision a few years ago to stop cutting meat in-store.
This store's grocery aisles were very well-stocked, though of course that was only temporary.
These fixtures are all almost definitely original to the store, although maybe the frozen cases have been replaced as we'll see.
There's a beer case on the back wall and then more in one of the grocery aisles...
Dairy looks a bit lighter on stock, but the lighting on the wall decor is really well-done here.
And I love the skylights above the grocery aisle.
I'm a bit surprised that this store was built with the earlier exterior prototype, and not the later one that would've been in use through the time this store was built. However, this model was used (occasionally) through at least 2011.
But I believe this decor was only in use through the original traffic-light logo, and when the logo changed, the decor was switched to what we saw in Ansonia.
Floral and the pharmacy, which had previously closed, in the front-left corner.
Some clear signs the store is set to close in the nonfoods aisles...
One factor that might've contributed to this store's failure is that the ShopRite across the street is in the back of a large, busy strip mall, while this store stands alone and faces away from Main Street (you can't see it at all).
HABA was still mostly stocked, though.
Dairy and natural foods in the last aisle.
Here's the designated Nature's Promise frozen section in the front corner.
Again, we see an extraordinarily clean and shiny floor. Looking good!
And a look across the front-end...
I went a little overboard on my pictures of this store because I wanted to document it before it disappeared forever. These posts are definitely one part eulogy and one part analysis.
And that's all for this Stamford Stop & Shop! Another Stop & Shop remains in Stamford about two miles northeast of this one, at 2200 Bedford St. And don't miss the other posts this weekend!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment