The Stop &
Shop Supermarket Co.
Fact Sheet
Company History
Stop & Shop’s roots can be traced back to 1914, when the Rabinovitz family founded the Economy Grocery Stores Company in Somerville, Massachusetts. Four years later, family member Sidney Rabb introduced an idea new to retail: the self-service, modern supermarket. By 1947, Economy Grocery Stores had grown into a flourishing chain of 86 supermarkets and the name of the company was changed to Stop & Shop, Inc. In the 1980s, Stop & Shop pioneered the superstore concept in New England, opening the first Super Stop & Shop in 1982. In 1996, Stop & Shop was acquired by Ahold, one of the largest food retailers in the world. Worldwide, Ahold employs 450,000 people and services the needs of 40 million customers in 28 countries every week.
Based in Quincy, Massachusetts, Stop & Shop operates more than 365 stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York and employs more than 57,000 associates.
Operations/Services
The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company pioneered the superstore concept in New England, opening the first Super Stop & Shop in 1982. The modern Super Stop & Shop averages 65,000 square feet and combines specialty food shops with a broad selection of general merchandise, offering the convenience of one-stop shopping. Stop & Shop stores offer an excellence in perishables, the best variety (52,000 items per superstore on average) and wide aisles in a clean, easy-to-shop environment. Along with the traditional food offerings, Stop & Shop offers many full service departments such as Foods-To-Go, pharmacy, florist, full-service branch banking, bakery, deli, and other services and products such as photo processing, salad bar, bookstore, and small appliances.
In 2001, Stop & Shop aggressively expanded in the New York Metro area, converting 36 Grand Union stores and 63 former Edwards stores. In November of that year, the company opened its first low-energy superstore in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The groundbreaking store uses 30% less energy than the average supermarket.
Twenty years after opening its first Super Stop & Shop and setting a new standard for one-stop shopping, Stop & Shop raised the bar for customer expectations with their new prototype supermarkets. With new departments offering products such as toys, party goods, home accessories and office supplies, this next generation of superstores offers customers an unprecedented level of one-stop shopping convenience. In early 2002, Stop & Shop partnered with Dunkin’ Donuts, the world’s largest coffee and baked goods chain. Today, Stop & Shop has more than 100 full-service Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in its stores.
In 2003, Stop & Shop expanded into the New Hampshire market, where we
currently have three stores. In 2004, Stop & Shop began the process of
integrating its services with that of sister Ahold company Giant Foods in
Landover, MD. The integration, once complete, will create a company with
more than 550 stores, 84,000 associates, and an estimated $16.5 billion a
year in sales.
