After over two years of planning, the new Stop & Shop opened on Friday, December 13, at 252 Main St. at the former location of K-Mart. A ribbon cutting ceremony in the produce section capped off the morning’s activities, which included several speeches by Stop & Shop personnel, town officials, and two state legislators. Pat Hickey, district manager, led off, followed by Tori Khoury, the new store manager. Jamie Eldridge, state senator, and Dan Sena, state representative, brought official citations from the State House, and Fran Arsenault, chair of the Select Board of Acton, welcomed the onlooking crowd of over two hundred. Several town officials attended, including Town Manager John Mangiaratti, the chiefs of the Police and Fire Departments, and Select Board members. In an interview after the event, Jamie Eldridge, a self-described “loyal Stop & Shop customer,” was pleased with the new store and happy with its small carbon footprint.
The new store has 58,000 square feet of retail space, over twice the size of the Powder Mill location that shut down the day before, and features over 1,000 new products. The produce department is 25% larger and the deli offers “grab and go sandwiches”. There is a dedicated seafood service counter and a new prepared foods section that includes a “flatbread pizza station, hot bar for chicken wings, and in-store sushi made fresh daily.”
According to the December 13 press release, “Acton is one of a handful of stores in the metro-west area to pilot Stop & Shop’s lower pricing. This is a large-scale effort that the brand will continue to roll out to more Massachusetts locations in the coming months.” All through the store customers will see bright yellow price tags announcing discounts.
In an effort to reduce greenhouse gases, the new store is totally electric with heat pumps for heat and air conditioning, and electric ovens for cooking. The refrigeration units are energy efficient, and all refrigerated food is displayed behind glass doors to optimize efficiency. Stop & Shop has partnered with Flashfood, a service that substantially reduces food waste by discounting food as it nears its “best by” date. Shoppers use the Flashfood app on their phones to purchase discounted food and pick up their orders from a special cabinet inside the store. Shoppers can also pick up a portable scanner as they enter the store, scan their purchases as they walk around, and at check-out give the scanner to the clerk who then enters your purchases into the register in seconds.
On opening day, the first fifty shoppers received a special gift, and free food samples were given out throughout the store. The Acton Food Pantry was the recipient of a $2000 gift from Stop & Shop in the form of food donations and gift cards. Celebratory events continued over the weekend with activities for kids, free cookies, and pictures with Santa.
Stop & Shop is open from 7am to 10pm Monday through Saturday, and 7am to 9pm on Sundays at 252 Main St (Rt27), Kelley’s Corner. For added convenience, Citizens Bank has an ATM machine within the store.
Jeff Brown is the business beat reporter for the Acton Exchange.