TOUR: Stop & Shop - Hudson, MA

Stop & Shop

Opened: ca. 1990

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 10 Technology Dr, Hudson, MA

Photographed: July 7, 2024

Welcome to Hudson! The town of around 20,000 has three supermarkets, but two of them are very close to each other here in the southeastern part of town. This 60,000 square foot Stop & Shop was built around 1990, although I don't know if it replaced an older store in town (there wasn't an older store on this property). It competed with an older and smaller Hannaford nearby, although when Ahold and Delhaize merged in 2016, that store was sold to Shaw's.

Clearly this was once a top-notch store. It's still quite nice, but it's also obviously not what it used to be. We can see one of the obvious signs of neglect off the bat, with lights burnt out here in the grand aisle, but the store is big, clean, and pleasant.

It seems like this store has really suffered from the opening of a Market Basket across town around 10 years ago. It was renovated right around the time Market Basket opened, but then not again since then.

We enter on the right side of the store to the grand aisle, with bakery, deli, and prepared foods lining the right-side of the store. Cheese and seafood are at the back of the grand aisle, with meats lining the rest of the back wall. Frozen and dairy are on the left side, with a large natural foods department in the front-left corner.

Unfortunately, this store seems to suffer from the same issues I've seen at a lot of Stop & Shops, or at least it did when I visited last July. Several shelves were noticeable empty in produce, such as this one...

The salad bar is also long gone. I don't think S&S runs any salad bars anymore, but many stores still have the fixtures. (Side note: I doubt the empty shelves are due solely to sales volume, since Placer.ai -- an imperfect but helpful tool -- estimates this store gets only 35,000 visits per month at the time of writing. Market Basket? 135,000.)

The large cheese island is at the back of the grand aisle.

The seafood department is slightly strange, and may be smaller or just in a different location than it was originally. The service counter (which is open here!) is tucked away in the corner, not under the sign which is over a row of freezers.

No service butcher, and the butcher window here didn't seem to have anyone behind it for special orders. Stop & Shop doesn't cut meat in-store, so I don't know how much a butcher would do anyway.

The grocery aisles, though, were pristine and beautifully stocked.

In fact, once we're out of the grand aisle, the store is in really good shape. It still felt somewhat sleepy, though.

But again, outside of the grand aisle, there's no clear signs that the store is slipping. Maintenance is quite good elsewhere, and it's clean and fully-stocked.

The last aisle has the rest of the dairy department and the beginning of the natural foods department. It lines the entire last aisle and has an extension into an alcove in the front corner.

There's a dedicated natural foods frozen department here, too, with one turquoise freezer -- possibly brought in from a seafood department somewhere.

And the natural foods continue! There are several short aisles in the front of the store with the rest of the Nature's Promise department.

Floral is up next on the front wall.

This is a very nice store, and it's got a lot of potential but it also seems like it's not quite living up to its potential here. Tomorrow, we're off across the street to see the Hannaford-turned-Shaw's here in Hudson!