TOUR: Shaw's - Groton, MA

Shaw's

Opened: 2005

Owner: Albertsons Companies

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 760A Boston Rd, Groton, MA

Photographed: October 9, 2021

Shaw's has a lot of density in the Boston area, and much of Worcester County, although they don't go west of Worcester County in Massachusetts. But in the Middlesex County area, there are only a handful of stores. In fact, all of Middlesex County -- around 850 square miles -- only has three Shaw's, this one, one in Burlington, and one in Melrose. The Groton store was built in 2005, spanning around 70,000 square feet. I'm not sure if it replaced a smaller and older store nearby, but I don't see evidence of that.

This store has a bit of an atypical exterior design, but it's similar to this type. Inside, we'll see it looks quite familiar with one unusual change.

I assume the sign is smaller and over the left-side entrance, rather than in the middle like it is in Webster Square, because of zoning regulations, but I don't know for sure.

As of summer 2024, the store hadn't been renovated to Shaw's latest decor package. I believe it still has the decor package it opened with back in 2005, and to be honest it's still looking really great.

It doesn't seem to be a particularly high-volume store, but when I've been here it's always looked to be busy enough and fully stocked, especially on the perimeter.

This decor package is the same as what we saw in Webster Square, and prior to the renovation here. A key difference, though, is that the walls are all painted gray (with much more sparse wall decor) rather than the usual bright colors with flavor text and graphics.

The design is minimal, but since the facility is really nice and very modern, it's not unpleasant at all. My initial assumption was that the store had been painted, which may be true, but I can't find any pictures prior to a repaint.

In a typical layout for Shaw's of this era, the produce department is in the front-left corner, with deli lining the rest of the grand aisle on the left and cheese in the back-left corner. Meat and seafood service counters are on the back wall, with meat on the rest of the back wall. Frozen and dairy are on the right side, with bakery and pharmacy in the front-right corner.

Here's a look across the back wall. I really like the different concrete floor colors here, and I think it serves the store well. You can see it's a very similar store to the West Boylston Street one in Worcester, just a mirror image.

Shop the World remains from the Supervalu days, a feature removed in West Boylston Street's remodel (but which, as far as I know, remains in Webster Square).

And natural foods remain separated here, again something that Webster Square still has but the majority of remodeled stores no longer do.

I don't know if it was an earlier variation on this decor package or something specific to this location, but the colors in most of the store are very muted.

Still, the decor's bones are the same.

In fact, there's some extra decor here, with several aisles branded as specific departments, like Home Central here. This decor predates Supervalu's Shaw's ownership, which gives you an idea of how old it is (and how well it's been kept up for years).

Wellbeing-branded aisles extend from the pharmacy department, which is on the front wall.

Bakery is just to the left of pharmacy in the front-right corner.

Once again, for a nearly 20-year-old store that hasn't received a renovation, the decor is in really spectacular condition (and so is the store's condition in general -- I've been here a few times and haven't seen really anything in need of work).

Dairy and bread in the last aisle.

I love these curved metal signs, and it's a shame they've been removed from most stores that had them.

Back on the back wall, looking towards the grand aisle on the left side...

This is Groton's only supermarket. There's independent stores in Pepperell and Ayer, and two other big supermarkets in Littleton, where we're headed next.

That wraps up this tour of the Groton Shaw's, and on Monday, we're off to Littleton!