TOUR: Stop & Shop - Westborough, MA

Stop & Shop

Opened: between 1995 and 2001

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: unknown

Cooperative: none

Location: 32 Lyman St, Westborough, MA

Photographed: October 23, 2021

Stop & Shop has a very significant presence in its home state of Massachusetts, and even in many locations where they've closed, another store remains nearby. That's the case here in Westborough, where a location two miles west closed in 2021, leaving this one going strong.

This one is a bit larger than the recently-closed one, measuring around 73,000 square feet all told. It's a second-generation Super Stop & Shop, placing its opening between 1995 and 2001. The first-generation so-called "octagonal" prototype doesn't remain on too many stores (are there still any octagonal Stop & Shops out there?), while this second-generation prototype is extremely common. It first appeared in roughly the late 90s, when it appears to have replaced the octagonal prototype. Stop & Shop continued building stores with this design in full force through around 2005, when the third-generation prototype was introduced. To my surprise, I recently learned that the second-generation design wasn't dead by the time SS&S 3.0 came around -- as recently as 2011, Stop & Shop was building stores with this second-generation design. Stop & Shop hasn't been building a lot (or practically anything) for several years, but they used this prototype for a while, then some of this.

My best guess is that this store opened with this decor package, although I don't know for certain. It was remodeled to the yellow and purple decor package at some point after 2008, when the logo was changed. As far as I can tell, this store has yet to be remodeled to the newer decor.

But it's a very nice interior, if a bit bland. Well-executed, this decor package can be quite attractive.

Grand aisle is produce on the right side with natural foods and deli on the left side. Meat, seafood, and dairy are on the back wall, with dairy continuing down the last aisle on the right. Frozen is also on the right side, and bakery and pharmacy are in the front right corner.

This is a very attractively-merchandised natural foods area. In remodels, S&S tends to remove the natural foods departments and integrate the products into the regular grocery aisles, so I wonder what this area might be used for if this store is renovated.

I really like these somewhat scaled-down signs (Super Stop & Shops of this era tended to have very low ceilings, compared to the third-generation prototypes which had extremely high ceilings).

The deli had been cut back significantly when I visited as a result of the coronavirus, but I'm not sure if it's been fully reopened. Many locations haven't had their delis fully reopened.

Cheese islands sit opposite the deli, again with a really nice display and setup.

Sale items take up the first aisle, which is double-wide.

This store must do a rather good business, because the service seafood and meat counters are still open and fully-stocked here. That's quite the rarity in Stop & Shop stores, especially the ones that haven't been renovated.

The store is really big, at over 70,000 square feet, but doesn't feel crazy large, probably because of the low ceiling.

I would say maintenance here has been exceptional. The store still looks quite new, save for the somewhat dated decor (I don't think anyone else is using yellow and purple together these days. Was it a good idea then?).

Frozen and dairy lining the last aisle.

And the bakery department, which also is very fully stocked, takes up the front right corner with the pharmacy next to it.

And looking across the front-end...

Even though this store isn't that old, Stop & Shop has actually been here in Westborough for quite a few decades. They moved from an older location just across the strip mall in the late 1990s.

Original Grocery Tenant: Stop & Shop (?)
Address: 18 Lyman St, Westborough, MA

Opened: between 1966 and 1971

Closed: between 1995 and 2001

Later Tenants: Tatnuck Booksellers

Photographed: October 23, 2021

That location is today the Tatnuck Booksellers, a large independent book store that was originally in Worcester's Tatnuck neighborhood, opening here in 2004 and closing its Worcester location two years later. The roughly 30,000 square foot store was previously a Stop & Shop, but I don't know if the location was built as something else originally. The building was constructed in the late 1960s.

Tatnuck Booksellers hasn't changed much about the bones of the building, but the space is now a very expansive book store. It's just shelves of different items, though, and the basic setup is the same. Here we're in what presumably was the produce alcove looking out to the main sales floor...

I presume this was deli in the back left corner, and the swinging doors to the backroom are definitely left over from Stop & Shop.

Looking across the back wall of the store, which was presumably the meat department.

And here on the far right side of the store, what I believe was dairy and frozen is today home to children's books. It's also possible this side was produce, but it didn't strike me that way.

Here's a look at the front end, which looks pretty Stop & Shop-like.

The bathrooms even more so. I'm pretty sure this sign is left over from Stop & Shop, as I've seen the same one in still-existing Stop & Shops.

Here's another look across the front-end, where Tatnuck now has their registers and some clothing and gifts.

The space definitely still feels like a former supermarket, though!

There's another supermarket in Westborough Center, just about a mile south of here. Let's tour that one tomorrow!