Shaw's Supermarket history

1872: Shaw opens second Portland store on Congress Street.

At the time George C. Shaw was expanding his stores in Portland, Maynard A. Davis of Poland, Maine, left the Pine Tree State in 1880 with $23 in his pocket.

Increased sales prompted the company to open a larger facility at 585 and 587 Congress Street in 1881.

By 1896, Davis and a friend had opened a public market in Providence, Rhode Island.

1899: Maynard A. Davis founds small grocery stores in Brockton and New Bedford, Massachusetts, calling stores Brockton Public Market (BPM).

With $1,200 in savings, Charles Von de Ahe opens his 20-foot wide Groceteria on the corner of 7th and Figueroa in Los Angeles in 1906.

At 2:15 in the morning of April 1, 1908, The Shaw family and neighbors were woken up by a loud explosion.

An ambitious young man in the small Idaho town of America Falls in 1915, M.B. Skaggs gets into the business and purchases a tiny grocery store from his father.

In 1916, founder, H.D. Snell, opens his first United Cash Store.

In 1919, Mainer Maynard A. Davis moved to Massachusetts, founding a group of small downtown grocery stores in the Brockton and New Bedford areas called Brockton Public Markets, or BPM stores.

Toward the end of his life, H.E. Shaw began running for United States Senate, but his candidacy was shortened when he died of polio in 1924.

Safeway Inc. is founded in 1926 when M.B. Skaggs merges his 428 Skaggs stores with 322 Safeway (formerly Selig) stores.

Safeway expands into Canada 1929 with 127 stores.

Through the 1930’s Safeway becomes the second largest grocer in the US.

Safeway again opens stores in Hawaii, having exited this market in 1934.

1n 1935 Maynard Davis's son, Halsey Davis, was named head of the George C. Shaw Co. in Portland, while his brother, Stanton Davis, became BPM president in Massachusetts.

His son Gale took over the store and converted the basement of the store into Stowe’s first ski shop in 1936.

In 1941, Shaw’s was one of the first grocers in the United States to offer self-service in its stores.

In 1947, the company began selling house label products and became a leader in private-label business.

The first Tom Thumb store opens in August 1948 at 6909 Preston Road in Dallas.

In 1951, Shaw's opened its first supermarket outside of a downtown district in South Portland, Maine, at the Mill Creek Shopping Center.

By 1965, the company expanded, opening new Shaw’s locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

In 1977 the BPM store in Randolph, Massachusetts, went live with the Sweda Superscanner.

1978: Massachusetts BPM stores change name to Shaw's Supermarkets.

In September of that year, Shaw’s announced that it had entered into an agreement with J Sainsbury PLC, England’s largest supermarket company with sales of $3.5 billion in 1982, to sell up to 25 percent of its stock, opening the door for Sainsbury to purchase up to 251,845 shares at $100 per share.

By 1983, Shaw’s had 41 stores in New England.

In 1987, a 230,000 square foot expansion is added to the building.

Sainsbury invested $90.7 million in Shaw’s in fiscal 1990, and the chain’s profits rose significantly enough for the parent company to open five Shaw’s stores in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire.

Attesting to Shaw’s diligence in industry innovation, the company was awarded the Supermarket Business Award for Retailing Excellence in 1992.

By 1995, Shaw’s moved 5 to 10 percent of weekly grocery shipments through its warehouses with minimal warehouse handling.

In 1996 Shaw’s operated 100 stores in New England, including stores in Connecticut, and boasted a 10.5 percent sales increase to $2.29 billion by March of that year.

Safeway Inc. acquired a 35% stake in Vons, and the two companies fully merged in 1997.

By February 1998, however, Shaw’s canceled its plans to enter New York and announced plans to sell its New York properties.

With the purchase of Massachusetts-based Star Market stores and that company's natural food line Wild Harvest in 1999, Shaw's began operating Wild Harvest in-store departments in over 100 of its Shaw's locations.

Shaw’s had earned a solid position with its parent company, having generated 17 percent of 2001 Sainsbury sales and 20 percent of its parent company’s profits.

In 2002 Shaw’s announced its growth strategy for the next three years, which included plans to open 30 new stores at a cost of over $400 million as well as remodel and upgrade over 90 percent of its existing 186-store base.

Shaw’s predicted that by year-end 2003, over 120 stores would be equipped with self-checkout systems.

Finally, in the summer of 2005, Ann and Ken sold the store to her daughter, Anne-Marie Vespa, and her husband Sal.

The Shoppe opened July 1, 2006.

In 2013, our parent company, AB Acquisition LLC, acquired Shaw’s from SUPERVALU, a transaction bringing all Albertsons stores under singular ownership again.

Shaw’s General Store has had a strong past in the heart of Stowe, and is preparing for its 125th year in business for 2020.

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