Shaw's
Opened: 2002 or 2003
Just next door to yesterday's Stop & Shop is this 66,000 square foot Shaw's, built in 2002 or 2003 -- or about 10 years after Stop & Shop -- and still going strong after Stop & Shop has closed. Like the Stop & Shop, I visited this store twice -- once back in 2019, then again in 2022. Shaw's remodeled shortly after Stop & Shop closed, so we get to see the before-and-after of the store.
The exterior is looking sharp with a fresh coat of paint, but the renovation didn't change much outside. To be fair, not a whole lot changed inside, other than cosmetics, but it's looking very good inside.
You enter to the produce department in the front-left corner, with deli and prepared foods behind it. Meat and seafood are on the back wall, with dairy, frozen, and HABA on the right side. Bakery and pharmacy are in the front-right corner. Sound familiar? It's almost exactly the same as Stop & Shop's layout.
I do really like this old decor package -- which eventually evolved into this one -- but it was time for a refresh.
The remodel brought in new flooring, lighting, decor, and fixtures, and I like the new look. It's simpler, but still attractive.
It does seem like this store is pretty high-volume, and I'm sure its business has only gotten brisker since Stop & Shop closed.
The flooring from this decor package is one we've seen in plenty of renovated stores.
But here, the flooring was replaced around the entire perimeter and in some of the grocery aisles.
I'm going to bet this store has done more business than the Stop & Shop for quite some time. Of course, it's still open, which is always a good sign. But you can see that the service departments here are fully stocked and looking good -- and even were back in 2019, before Stop & Shop closed -- when Stop & Shop had removed the service seafood department, for instance.
Looking across the back wall...
The first few aisles were previously a natural foods department, which was removed in the remodel. The products were integrated in the other aisles.
The most creative reuse of a former natural foods department I've seen was at the ACME in Bordentown, NJ, where the refrigerator and freezer cases previously holding natural foods were switched to all breakfast items, opposite the cereal.
As I recall, the flooring was replaced in certain grocery aisles.
Nice custom health and beauty aisle markers in the HABA aisles, before the renovation at least.
I believe the decor this store had in 2019 was the original decor, and the ca. 2020 remodel was the first remodel in this store's life.
The freezer aisles look very similar, just with new category markers and a new coat of paint on the freezers themselves. No new flooring here.
But in the back aisle of the store as well as the last aisle, which has dairy, new flooring went in.
A lot of other Albertsons Companies divisions are doing polished concrete floors in their remodels, but that hasn't really come to Shaw's/Star Market or ACME. I'm not entirely sure why, other than that those northeastern chains simply use different decor packages.
Hard to tell, but it doesn't look like the dairy cases were replaced. They were just painted and had doors installed on the front. Still, they look new.
Bakery in the front corner.
And a look at the front-end, which you can see did previously get some of the historical photos -- perhaps as a nod to Shaw's Brockton origins.
Opened: 2002 or 2003
Owner: Albertsons Companies
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: none
Location: 641 Belmont St, Brockton, MA
Photographed: July 6, 2019 and November 11, 2022
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Here's a look at the grand aisle in 2019.
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Floral is in the front-right corner, next to the pharmacy and bakery. This store is set up with an entrance and exit on each side, which you can see below.
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This store is looking very good after its remodel, and is one of two hometown Shaw's here in Brockton. We'll see the other shortly, but tomorrow we're headed north to check out the former Price Rite and the America's Food Basket that replaced it!
I feel like the Shaw's decor has so much more personality than ACME's Quality Built.
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