Stop & Shop

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, known as Stop & Shop, is a chain of supermarkets located in the Northeastern and New England regions of the United States. From its beginnings in 1892 as a small grocery store, it has grown to include 415 stores chain-wide. Stop & Shop has also been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dutch supermarket operator Ahold since 1995 and was part of the Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover division with its sister chain Giant-Landover between 2004 and 2011.

History

According to the company's website, Stop & Shop was founded in 1914 in Somerville, Massachusetts, by the Rabinowitz family as the Economy Grocery Stores Company. Four years later, the store adopted the new self-service supermarket model which was pioneered by Piggly Wiggly. A second store opened later in 1914, several stores opened a year later and by 1917, the chain had 15 stores. Initially the stores sold only grocery items but soon after added meats, produce, milk, dairy, and some frozen foods. Like A&P, they were pioneers of the modern grocery store, selling all types of food items under one roof. Stores were 10,000 to 15,000 square feet and in downtown and inner city areas in the Boston and Springfield Metro areas. The chain had grown to 86 supermarkets by 1946, when the name was officially changed to Stop & Shop, Inc.

By 1980, Stop & Shop had supermarkets in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Southern New York state. The stores were then typical in size at about 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) on average. Many of them were next door to their then-co-owned Bradlees Department stores. In the New York and Philadelphia metro areas, Stop & Shop was not able to compete successfully. In 1982, Stop & Shop exited New Jersey, selling most of the stores that were profitable to A&P, which would use these stores to replace their aging fleet of stores. A few stores were sold to ShopRite owners as well as Foodtown owners. Other stores were closed and converted to other uses. In New York State, they sold some of their stores to A&P while selling others to Grand Union and closing others as well.

Current operations

Also as of 2021, Stop & Shop has 415 operating in 5 states with 82,000+ employees working, and with 15.2 billion in revenue. Its sister chains are Giant-Carlisle, Giant-Landover, and including Food Lion and Hannaford thanks to the Ahold-Delhaize merger. Also to mention, their headquarters are located in Quincy, Massachusetts