TOUR: Shaw's - Indian Lake, Worcester, MA

Shaw's

Opened: between 2000 and 2009

Previous Tenants: none
Location: 14 W Boylston St, Indian Lake, Worcester, MA
Photographed: November 4, 2018; December 7, 2018; September 7, 2020; March 13, 2021; October 2, 2021; October 8, 2021; October 19, 2021; and April 4, 2022

What's the highest-volume supermarket in Worcester? Well, of course we don't have access to sales numbers but we do have access to Placer.ai, which estimates that this store gets monthly visits of around 136,700 visits -- the highest-traffic grocery store in Worcester. (Big Y is the second-highest, with around 92,000 visits per month; Market Basket just outside of the city blows them all away with over 215,000 visits.) But at 68,000 square feet, this is a rather large and clearly high-volume supermarket.

We're gonna tour this store a few times. My first set of pictures is from back in 2018, when the store had this pre-Supervalu decor package; then we'll see a few updates over the years, then a more major renovation from 2021-2022.

This has always been a really nice supermarket, though. The store was built from the ground up at some point between 2000 and 2009, replacing an older store just to the north that's now a Price Rite. We'll take an extensive look at that tomorrow! It opened with this decor package, and you can see that it works well for large, modern stores like this.

This store has long been a bit nicer than the Webster Square location, which I believe still has this decor package.

The grand aisle is on the right side of the store, with produce in the front-right corner, deli/prepared foods behind it in the back right corner, and seafood on the back wall. Meat and some dairy lines the back wall, with frozen, HABA, and the rest of dairy on the left side of the store. Bakery, pharmacy, customer service, and floral are in the front-left corner.

I really like the setup of these service departments, with the partial drop ceiling and the lighting and hanging accents over the counters. Notice the service butcher counter next to the seafood cases.

The first few aisles, like Webster Square, had natural foods in the front and international foods in the back, but those were taken out and reset in the renovation.

This area was previously branded Wild Harvest, when Supervalu owned Shaw's. The branding was all replaced with generic Organic & Natural signage.

I kind of liked this organic and natural setup (which included frozen and refrigerated items) but in general I'm not a fan of separated natural and organic selections.

The international food setup was quite good, though, and at least one aisle remains with international foods.

There is a meat window here, possibly from before there was a service butcher over by seafood (which, judging by the lack of signage for it, I'm betting isn't original to the store).

I really like the large-scale food photography on the words with the understated text.

And I do really like this Wellbeing setup, although of course it was removed in the renovation.

I will say that I don't love this department signage as much as the rest of the store, though.

Dairy extends to bakery in the front corner of the store.

And I really like the bold colors of this decor. Some of the Albertsons Companies remodels lately (including this one) are extremely bland color-wise.

Speaking of bland, I don't know why the signage falls flat for the customer service counter. I like the hanging banners but the text on the wall just isn't great.

And a look across the front-end...

Now that we're done touring the store, let's tour it again!

I took some more pictures outside when I returned a little while later, focusing on the signage. I missed this the first few times I was in the store...

...but the Wild Harvest signage remained, just painted over, for a long time!

For no apparent reason, the deli was redone in 2020 with unusual decor, that doesn't exactly match what Shaw's was doing at the time (nor any other Albertsons banner, as far as I know), but I like it.

But then the store got a more serious renovation began in 2021, starting with an exterior paint job.

The side got a new paint job first, which was then done on the front too.

I don't dislike it, but I'm a little bit confused as to why these specific colors were chosen. It ended up looking a little random, but not bad.

You know there's a renovation going on when the storage containers appear in the back!

And from the beginning, we see the welcome sign was removed in the foyer.

You can see here that even when the decor was removed and the store was in progress, it still looks very good. We see the evidence of fairly high volume with the really good-looking produce setup here.

And the meat department painted a bland beige...

The deli kept its unusual decor for some time, but it too was soon to get new decor...

And notice that, while the fixtures weren't replaced, doors were added during this remodel.

Bakery setup now with a bright yellow...

And then the whole store was painted, with some new fixtures, and we start to see the new decor coming together.

These signs remained, though, although I don't think they're there anymore.

Notice that when the deli got the new signage, the orange wall at the top wasn't painted.

Reset as I mentioned removed natural foods and international from the first few aisles.

You see again, though, that the store looks good even with no decor. It's such a new and well-maintained facility that it looks good regardless.

And a look at the front corner...

And now for the grand reopening, which took place officially in spring of 2022!

Again, the exterior paint job looks fine, but a little haphazard. The inside looks really good, but a bit bland compared to the "before".

But I really like the setup of the produce department, and the new fixtures and decor look really good. I just want a bolder color choice!

But it does look really good.

The deli is modified slightly, but the rear wall remains as it was. The top part of the walls have been painted dark brown.

But I want more exciting decor here! More colors! Bigger signage!

But again, the store still looks really good and still seems to do a really good business.

Here's a part of where the international foods have been moved. Obviously, not an amazing international foods department, but solid.

The Wellbeing signage has been removed, but the HABA department still looks really good. I do love the lighting in this store.

Looks like the freezers were painted, but not replaced, in the renovation.

I love the wood paneling here but why oh why did they have to make the sign so bland?

Same goes for the bakery, very attractive but so much lost potential with the signage. I like the script Bake, though.

And more understated signage for the Osco pharmacy and the customer service counter...

The store is spacious and impeccable, though. It really looks good, and seems to be popular among people who live to the west and don't really have a supermarket in their neighborhood. Remember from our Tatnuck/Newton Square posts that that area is very residential and rather high-income. I'm willing to bet that community is largely shopping here, not the slightly rundown, much smaller Price Chopper a mile down the street.

As I mentioned, tomorrow we'll be seeing where this store was previously located just north of here!