Stop & Shop is an American supermarket chain whose locations span the states of Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. It is owned by Ahold-Delhaize, a Dutch supermarket company that has owned Stop & Shop since 1995.
History
Stop & Shop was founded in 1914 by the Rabinovitz family, a Jewish family from Somerville, Massachusetts. The company would expand to 86 supermarkets by 1946, when the company changed its name to Stop & Shop, Inc.
In 1959, Stop & Shop opened its 100th location in Natick, Massachusetts. Two years later, Stop & Shop acquired Bradlee’s, a now-defunct discount store that was based out of Connecticut. The company also expanded beyond Massachusetts throughout the 60s, expanding to Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.
By 1980, Stop & Shop had locations in the states of New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. However, that would not last, as in 1982, Stop & Shop closed all of its stores in New Jersey. All of the New Jersey locations would then be sold to A&P.
In 1988, Bradlee’s was spun off into its own company after Stop & Shop was bought by the DART Group in a hostile take over. Bradlee’s would remain independent until it went out of business in 2001.
By 1990, Stop & Shop was now mostly confined to the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, with only one location left in New York. By then, it looked like Stop & Shop was going to go out of business. That would change in 1995, when Ahold, a company headquartered out of the Netherlands, bought Stop & Shop and would help revie the brand.
In 2000, Ahold would bring Stop & Shop back to the New York City area, resulting in the reopening of its New York and New Jersey locations. In 2005, Stop & Shop was merged with Maryland-based supermarket chain Giant-Landover. Starting in 2007, Stop & Shop would expand into New Hampshire. It also expanded into Maine, but closed it only location in 2009.
In 2008, Stop & Shop’s traffic light logo was retired in favor of a locate that looks like a fruit basket. This logo was also adopted by giant Landover that same year. Stop & Shop would keep this logo until 2018, when the traffic light logo returned.
In 2013, Stop & Shop closed its six locations in New Hampshire in order to focus on its stores in the Boston and New York City metro areas.
After A&P went out of business in 2015, many of its locations in Downstate New York were turned into Stop & Shop locations.
In the spring of 2019, Stop & Shop’s employees in the New England states went on strike. The strikers would be endorsed by members of the Democratic Party, including Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who joined the strikers side-by-side. Eventually, Stop & Shop negotiated with the strikers, ending the strike after eleven days.
In July 2024, Stop & Shop announced that 32 underperforming supermarkets would would be closed to improve corporate financing. Most of the stores closed on November 2, 2024, some closed earlier.