Stop & Shop Supermarket

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company is a chain of supermarkets located mostly in New England and most of the New York City metropolitan area. It is the fifth largest employer in New England.

Stop & Shop is now the largest food retailer based in New England (though rival retailer Shaws is the largest supermarket chain whose stores are located solely in the six New England states). It operates more than 360 stores throughout New England, as well as in New York and New Jersey. The corporate headquarters is located in Quincy, Massachusetts and the current distribution facility is located in Assonet, Massachusetts. Until 2006 the firm also operated a large warehouse located off of Interstate 91 in North Haven, Connecticut. The company's original warehouse was in Readville, Massachusetts.

In the late 1980s, The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company was acquired by leveraged buyout specialists Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Shortly thereafter, Medi-Mart was sold to Walgreens, and Bradlees was spun off as its own corporation. After a period of several years in which KKR explored merger possibilities with Safeway (which it also controlled at the time), Stop & Shop was sold at public offering.
The Super Stop & Shop in Yonkers, NY

The chain was acquired by the American branch of Dutch food giant Ahold in 1995. Ahold had previously acquired First National Supermarkets, whose Edwards chain also had a strong presence in Connecticut, and Ahold planned to operate both the Edwards and Stop & Shop chains side by side. However, in the wake of the acquisition, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal raised anti-trust questions, as Stop & Shop and Edwards combined had more than half of the grocery market share in Connecticut. Following negotiations with Blumenthal, Ahold decided to convert all of its New England stores to the Stop & Shop banner, while selling some locations to other chains such as Shaw's and Big Y. Ahold continued the transition of its Edwards stores, converting all of its New York and New Jersey locations to the Stop & Shop format in the early 2000s. In 2004, Ahold integrated Stop & Shop Supermarkets with Giant Food LLC and created one combined company with the name of Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover.

In 1994, Giant-Landover began northern expansion by opening stores in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey under the Super G trade name. This was done to differentiate itself from future sister company Giant Food of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. During 2005, the newly formed Stop & Shop/Giant made the decision to phase out the Super G name in New Jersey and Delaware. In New Jersey, four Super G stores were shuttered and the remaining eight stores were converted to the Super Stop & Shop banner and became a part of Stop & Shop's Metro New York division in an attempt to revive sales at the stores. (The stores continued to underperform and were subsequently sold in 2007 to ShopRite Supermarkets.) The Delaware Super G stores were to be remodeled and reopened as Super Giant.

In 2006, Stop & Shop signed a contract with Starbucks Coffee Company, placing Starbucks licensed stores inside certain supermarkets. Many Stop & Shop stores currently feature Dunkin' Donuts outlets inside the store. Also in May 2006, Stop & Shop began piloting the Shopping Buddy program in select stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Shopping Buddy is a personal shopping assistant that allows customers to track their purchases and to do in-cart bagging as they move through the store.

In October 2007, Stop & Shop launched an advertising campaign which was intended to have users submit stories and videos to a website (stopandshop.tv) detailing their Stop and Shop experiences. The campaign was significant in that it is an early example of a regional traditional brand employing Web 2.0 concepts such as user generated content to promote their stores.

On August 22, 2008, Stop & Shop changed its logo as a rebranding project along with its sister company, Giant-Landover.