TOUR: Shaw's - Stow, MA

Shaw's
Opened: unknown

Owner: Albertsons Companies

Previous Tenants: unknown

Cooperative: none

Location: 155 Great Rd, Stow, MA

Photographed: May 11, 2023

Stow, Massachusetts isn't the more famous town by that name in New England -- Stowe, Vermont is a famous ski resort town 150 miles north -- and believe it or not, both actually have Shaw's! The Stowe, Vermont store is a former Grand Union of just 13,000 square feet, but the one here in Stow, Massachusetts is much larger at around 52,000 square feet. I don't know the history too well, but the building dates back to the mid-1970s. It appears that the current supermarket space was originally a department store, and a smaller space now an Asian restaurant was the original supermarket. It looks like the supermarket moved over around 2000, but I don't know for how much of that time it was a Shaw's.

It appears to have been renovated around 2010 with the brown Premium Fresh & Healthy decor (2.0 by Acme Style's definition) under Supervalu, and I don't believe it's been changed in any significant way post-Supervalu.

The grand aisle is on the right side of the store, with bakery and deli on the right-side wall. Produce is opposite, with meat/seafood at the back of the grand aisle. The rest of meat lines the back wall, with dairy/frozen in the back-left corner. Pharmacy and HABA are in the front-left corner.

This store is very attractive even though it's not newly renovated. Given the rate that Shaw's tends to renovate stores, it's possible it's been redone by now.

I assume this store doesn't do as much business as the nearby Market Basket, but it still seems to do just fine: notice well-stocked perimeter departments and fresh foods.

This store has a similar feeling to the Groton Shaw's, but the ceiling is lower (not to mention the difference in decor, although of course the color scheme is essentially the same).

Quite the international selection here...

(Of course, the store was reset to remove or relocate the designated international and natural sections, but the aisle markers were never changed out. That, too, might be a sign of a remodel coming soon.)

The store's aisles are split in half front-to-back, because it's very deep and narrow.

Dairy and frozen on the left side of the store. It looks like these freezer cases are relatively new, possibly installed at the time of the PF&H remodel.

Older cases have new doors on them in the dairy department in the last aisle.

Several shorter HABA aisles are in front of the pharmacy department in the front-left corner.

Notice the carryover of the "wellbeing" branding, something that I believe was unique to Shaw's, from the prior decor package (see Groton). I think ACME used the blue aisle markers for HABA, but didn't brand the department under the Wellbeing name.

And a look across the front-end. We are almost done with this part of the county, but we have one more town before we move along. We're going to head about five miles southwest to Hudson for our stop on Monday. Plus, come back Saturday and Sunday for some updates and looks at new stores!