Amid new investment and store closures, is Stop & Shop nearing a new chapter, or a ‘death spiral’? (2024)

The Boston Globe

The No. 1. grocer in Massachusetts, which plans to close 32 stores, is renovating locations and expanding promotions to stay in the game

By Diti Kohli, The Boston Globe

August 16, 2024 | 5:00 AM

In Allston Yards, the newly renovated Stop & Shop location is a picture of the best the grocer has to offer.

Buffalo tenders and pepperoni flatbreads line an expanded prepared foods counter, and watermelon and greens are walled off in fridges — not simply chilled in the open — to save energy. The row of cashier lines can all be converted to self-checkout in minutes. There’s a kosher-certified bakery, wider aisles, and higher ceilings.

“A palace of produce,” spokesperson Jennifer Barr told a Globe reporter on a tour of the store. (She lives nearby and frequently shops there.) “It’s like a dream.”

But is it enough?

Once the darling of Northeast grocery chains, Stop & Shop recently announced it will close 32 underperforming stores by November across its footprint in New England, New York, and New Jersey. It may be a sign of trouble brewing: The chain, owned by Dutch food giant Ahold Delhaize and managed in Quincy, will operate 359 stores after the current wave of closures. It already runs 20 fewer than it did in 2018, according to its annual reports.

In an earnings call in May, JJ Fleeman, chief executive of Ahold Delhaize USA, said Stop & Shop is “not where we want to be or need to be” and that “the value proposition and pricing … are simply not strong enough.”

These developments have stoked fears that the chain could go the way of other once-loved grocers that have faded into obscurity, such as Grand Union and A&P.

“This isn’t my first ride at the rodeo,” said John Niccollai, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union chapter that represents Stop & Shop workers in New Jersey. “I’ve seen many companies going into a death spiral, and this is the beginning of it.”

But Stop & Shop president Gordon Reid believes a reinvention is underway.

The company intends to renovate most of its 300-some stores in a bid to modernize, with more than 190 already completed. New locations are opening, including an Acton store that should be finished late this year. And Stop & Shop is “investing in price,” as Reid often puts it, by expanding digital coupons, 99-cent deals, and other promotions to help inflation-battered shoppers save money — and to convince them the chain is worth the visit.

As for closures, Reid notes, many of the shuttered stores were also nearing the end of their leases.

“We’ve been around for 110 years,” he said. “The market changes. The world changes. Competition changes, and there is a time when you get to a situation where having some stores is just no longer viable. This has always been a part of the way we run the business.”

But there are other challenges.

In a climate of ever-growing competition, grocery store consultant David Livingston said Stop & Shop suffers from a lack of personality as a “sterile, middle-of-the-road grocery store.” It has not done enough to maintain service and selection to compete with Roche Brothers, Big Y, and more, he said, while corporate giants are investing in supermarkets — Aldi or Amazon-owned Whole Foods, for example — and undercutting Stop & Shop prices.

Stop & Shop still dominates visit share across southern New England, according to February data from Placer.AI. In Massachusetts, it captures 25 percent of shopper visits, the most in the state and two percentage points ahead of Market Basket.

Experts said that, for years, Stop & Shop has responded to pressure on its profit margins by rolling back its fresh-cut butcher counter, reducing high-paying union jobs in the butcher and seafood departments, and raising prices. That can translate to a smaller selection of products from fewer vendors.

As a result, Stop & Shop is at risk of losing bulk shoppers, who are the lifeblood of grocery stores, said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director at Strategic Resource Group, a retail consulting firm. Those who stock up for the week with $100 purchases keep chains alive, rather than the “$35 snack stop.”

“If consumers see refreshed stores that are not so commercially clinical, as they see more depth and variety, particularly in produce, a return to fresh-cut custom meats, they may come back,” Flickinger said. “But there’s no guarantee. People can always leave and go to Big Y, Roche Brothers, Target, BJ’s, Costco, Aldi and see better value and a quicker shop.”

While the company said renovations have boosted sales in redone stores, Flickinger noted, the attractiveness of a new-looking store only lasts for so long.

“It’s not a long-term strategy,” he said.

And renovations have not always gone as planned. Since 2018, Reid said, Stop & Shop has spent between $250 million and $300 million annually on remodels. But that slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and higher construction costs since mean that money does not go as far as it used to. The slowdown in remodeling contributed to a loss in market share, according to a company presentation in early 2022.

In 2023, Stop & Shop only completed 19 store remodels, compared with 45 renovations the year prior.

Other problems date back further. The 2019 strike by 31,000 unionized Stop & Shop workers led to more than $200 million in net sales losses for the company, and the pandemic brought new challenges soon after. Sales growth at the chain jumped 21 percent in the second quarter of 2020, but Stop & Shop is now readjusting, with some difficulty, to its predictable slow growth after years of booms and busts.

Ahold Delhaize does not break out Stop & Shop figures, but said comparable sales growth at its US operations overall — about one-fifth of its stores in the United States are Stop & Shops — have slumped since the start of 2023 and were in negative territory in two of the last three quarters. They estimate now that the Stop & Shop closures would dent overall revenue next year by between $550 million to $575 million.

Then last November, Ahold Delhaize announced plans to sell the online grocery service FreshDirect, which it had hoped would juice Stop & Shop sales around New York City, to Getir. It’s a step back from online sales, though the chain is still offering delivery through Instacart and DoorDash.

Now Ahold Delhaize plans to launch a series of strategic price reductions to woo back shoppers, a move it estimates will cost $1 billion at Stop & Shop, Hannaford, and three other grocery chains it owns over the next four years. It could be a make-or-break moment for Stop & Shop, which has been receiving miserly reviews from its European leadership.

As Ahold Delhaize’s Netherlands-based chief executive Frans Muller said in a May call, executives are “not content yet” with the performance of Stop & Shop.

“There’s more to do.”