From all the news stories about store closings, it's pretty clear that retailers and restaurants are struggling these days. Foot Locker, Macy's, Bath & Body Works, Walgreens, Rite Aid, The Body Shop, Rue21, Express, Pizza Hut, Boston Market, TGI Fridays, Popeyes, Cracker Barrel and Applebee's are just some of the chains that have shuttered locations due to financial reasons, and it turns out, the troubles aren't just affecting those types of stores. One of the country's largest supermarket chains will be shutting down an undisclosed number of their 400 locations.
Ahold Delhaize, the Dutch company that owns Stop & Shop, among other grocery chains, announced the news at their Strategy Day last week. Ahold Delhaize USA CEO JJ Fleeman stated, "Stop & Shop has already evaluated its overall portfolio and will make difficult decisions to close underperforming stores to create a healthy store base for the long term." He added that they will instead "focus on the markets that are most important, including those where the brand has strong density, holds a strong market position or has stores that are performing well." To do that, they plan on investing $1 billion in store remodeling projects and price reductions.
They recently did some renovations on many locations and have seen those stores performing better than the ones that haven't been remodeled. They've also been working hard on their online presence and have the best e-commerce numbers among the various supermarket brands that Ahold Delhaize owns. With that, per Fleeman, they still need some work.
As for which Stop and Shops will be closing, that hasn't yet been announced, but closures will affect some of their 400 locations across 318 cities in five states in the northeast.