Stop & Shop history

Stop & Shop took another step reminiscent of its past when, for the first time since 1924, it once again became a privately owned corporation.

In 1925 Sidney Rabb was named chairman, a post he would hold for the next 60 years.

The Rabbs continued to expand with the purchase in 1932 of 106 Grey United Stores located throughout northern New England.

In 1935 the Rabbs opened New England's first supermarket in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a converted automobile assembly plant.

They started growing by leaps and bounds and by 1946, they were owners of 86 stores.

By 1947 annual sales topped $47 million and the company had changed its name to Stop & Shop, Inc., signaling its total commitment to the supermarket concept.

1951: The Stop & Shop Foundation is established.

In 1959, Stop & Shop had 100 stores by opening in Natick, Massachusetts.

1961: Diversification outside the food business begins.

The Dutch company had first gained a foothold in the United States in 1977 when it bought the Bi-Lo chain in North and South Carolina and Georgia.

In 1978 Stop & Shop bought Off the Rax, a discount women's clothing store chain, but sold it after six less than spectacular years.

Four years later the company celebrated its first $1 billion year; it had doubled that figure by 1980.

Ahold then purchased the Pennsylvania-based Giant Food Stores, which operated under the Giant, Edwards, and Martin's brands, in 1981.

In 1982, Stop & Shop exited New Jersey, selling most of the stores that were profitable to A&P, which would use these stores to replace their aging fleet of stores.

In 1985 Sidney R. Rabb died and was succeeded as chairman by his son-in-law, Avram J. Goldberg.

Bradlees reached a high of 169 units in 1987, combining with the 113 supermarkets to bring in $4.34 billion in sales.

Responding to a hostile 1988 takeover bid by corporate raider Herbert Haft, Stop & Shop's board of directors enlisted the aid of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR) in forming a privately held acquisition company to buy all outstanding shares for approximately $1.23 billion.

Stop & Shop became a public company once again in late 1991 through a public offering that sold 41 percent of the company for $212.5 million, the bulk of which was used to reduce debt at the still highly leveraged company.

The company also owned the 130-unit Bradlees chain, but it was spun off to the public in the summer of 1992 in order to further focus on the core supermarkets and to further reduce Stop & Shop's $1.1 billion debt load.

In 1994, Giant-Landover began northern expansion by opening stores in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey under the Super G trade name.

In December 1995 Stop & Shop spent $87 million for Melmarkets, which ran a Foodtown chain with 17 units on Long Island, thereby gaining its first foothold in the New York region.

The New York stores, however, were located in counties north of the New York City region, as Ahold had decided to halt Stop & Shop's expansion there, turning the Long Island locations acquired in the Melmarkets deal over to Edwards. As a result, Stop & Shop solidified its position as the largest supermarket chain in New England, with nearly 200 units by the end of 1996.

In May 1998 Ahold agreed to acquire Landover, Maryland-based Giant Food Inc. for about $2.7 billion.

In 1999, Ahold and the New Jersey-based Pathmark entered merger talks, and a deal was struck under which Ahold would acquire Pathmark and rebrand Edwards and its Carlisle, Pennsylvania based sibling Giant under its banner.

In 2000, Ahold decided again to try to rebrand the Edwards stores and eventually decided to bring the Stop & Shop chain back to the New York area.

In 2001, Ahold made moves to expand the Stop & Shop brand further into New Jersey and New York; these came as Grand Union, one of its competitors, was going through a bankruptcy liquidation.

With new departments offering products such as party goods, toys, home accessories, and office supplies, Stop & Shop's new superstores offered customers an increased level of one-stop shopping convenience. For example, in early 2002, Stop & Shop partnered with Dunkin' Donuts (Dunkin' Brands Inc.), the world's largest coffee and baked goods chain.

In 2003, Stop & Shop expanded into the New Hampshire market, where it previously had three stores.

Stop & Shop announced that 2004 net sales growth would only be modest in the United States retail business as a result of competitive pressures.

During 2005, the newly formed Stop & Shop/Giant made the decision to phase out the Super G name in New Jersey and Delaware.

Also in May 2006, Stop & Shop began piloting the Shopping Buddy program in select stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

In July 2007, Stop & Shop opened a single Maine store in Kennebunk.

Delhaize opened the store under its Hannaford banner in February 2008.

The store was closed in October 2009, citing slow sales as the primary reason.

People can purchase with their smartphones using SCAN IT! Mobile, which was introduced back in 2010; earlier it was done using a specific handheld device.

In April 2015, Stop & Shop started construction of an anaerobic digester at its distribution center in Freetown, Massachusetts, which now supplies 40% of the site's electricity needs.

In October 2018, Stop & Shop began renovations at many of their Hartford, Connecticut regional stores and began adding new features to these stores including cafes, in-store meat smokers, smoothie bars and taqueria stations.

On January 4, 2019, it was announced that Stop & Shop would be acquiring the King Kullen supermarket chain on Long Island.