Look Inside: Stop & Shop - Provincetown, MA

Stop & Shop
Opened: 2008

Owner: Ahold Delhaize

Previous Tenants: A&P (ca. late 1980s-2003) > Grand Union Family Markets (2003-2008)

Cooperative: none

Location: 56 Shank Painter Rd, Provincetown, MA

Photographed: July 30, 2021

Contributor: Lars D.

You can tell from the outside right away that this is not your average Stop & Shop. The roughly 40,000 square foot store was actually built in the late 1980s as an A&P, later becoming a Grand Union Family Markets owned by C&S when A&P left the area in 2003. GUFM sold this and one other location to Stop & Shop in 2008. This is the only supermarket in Provincetown, and the next closest is an independent called Wellfleet Marketplace in Wellfleet, about 13 miles southeast. It's also the farthest-out supermarket on Cape Cod, as Provincetown is the last town on the cape.

Our loyal contributor Lars brings us a look inside the store, and since I haven't been myself I don't truly know the layout. But it looks like produce is on the right side of the store with meat and seafood behind it, then meat lining the back wall. Dairy and frozen are on the left side with deli and bakery in the front-left corner. Pharmacy and HABA appear to be in an expansion on the left side.

It looks like this store was renovated when it opened, but hasn't been redone since. There are some features that may be left over from a previous tenant, including the painting we can see below.

It looks like a rather well-kept store, and I'm sure it does just fine business given its location and the lack of competition. (Food shopping on Cape Cod is notoriously expensive, as it is in many geographically isolated locations.)

Here's a look at the service seafood counter at the back of the store, with the meat department lining the rest of the back wall.

I don't recognize this flooring. It might be left over from A&P.

It does look like there's an in-store bakery here, in the front-left corner of the store.

I wouldn't be surprised if this area originally looked more like this. Notice the similarity in the angled walls, the lower trim, and the lighting.

Dairy and frozen are opposite the deli-bakery on the left side of the store.

In an expansion on the left side -- possibly one done by Stop & Shop, although I'm not sure -- is nonfoods, HABA, and pharmacy.

Unfortunately, that's all for Cape Cod -- although I'd love to go back sometime. Tomorrow, we're headed inland for a look at a large independent supermarket from a different contributor!