QUINCY, Mass. (WPRI) — Grocery retailer Stop & Shop is preparing to close a number of underperforming stores.
The grocer’s parent corporation, Dutch company Ahold Delhaize, announced during a strategy meeting last week that Stop & Shop plans to shutter an unspecified number of stores.
JJ Fleeman, the Dutch corporation’s CEO, said the closures will help Stop & Shop “create a healthy store base” and “grow the brand.”
Despite fierce competition from other grocers, Fleeman said Stop & Shop has a rich heritage and strong presence throughout the Northeast. Stop & Shop has nearly 400 stores spanning Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
Since 2018, Fleeman said Stop & Shop has remodeled more than 190 stores, which have been outperforming their original counterparts. The grocer has also enhanced its loyalty program, expanded its online offerings and optimized its operational efficiency.
“But that’s not enough and it’s not where we want to be or need to be,” Fleeman said. “We will be decisive and take deliberate and appropriate actions to ensure a stable future for the brand.”
Fleeman said Stop & Shop is focused on “ensuring a stable and thriving future” by “optimizing its portfolio to focus on core markets where it can win.”
It’s unclear exactly which stores are on the chopping block and when stores will officially close. In its strategy presentation, Ahold Delhaize said it plans more than $1 billion in investments to modernize its food brands by 2028.
Stop & Shop has 125 Massachusetts locations, 100 in New York, 88 in Connecticut, 57 in New Jersey and 27 in Rhode Island.
Ahold Delhaize also owns North Carolina-based Food Lion, with more than 1,100 stores, and the D.C. supermarket chain Giant. Outside the U.S., the company owns food companies around Europe that operate thousands more stores.
