Stop & Shop is getting a makeover. The new logo features “a yellow bowl with three colorful halves that can be interpreted as bowls of fruit, bread or ingredients, the company’s spokesperson said.” She also said that the new logo “shows customers that we’re making changes and committed to providing great food and meal solutions at low prices everyday.” Meal solutions! Alright! That sounds delicious! [Boston Globe]
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I used to go to Shop Rite, but more and more I go to Stop and Shop lately because their price is getting very competitive. And today I just went to Stop and Shop to get a pack of steaks for dinner… somehow the saving card discount didn’t show up. I went over to the Customer Service Desk to ask for a refund on the difference. The girl at the Customer Service Desk told me that I can have the steaks for free because it was their mistake, and she gave me a full refund. That’s very nice of them as the steaks are not cheap at all.
@Fallom: Wow, way to find the -ism in everything you see, dude.
What I meant was that Market Basket looks the same as it did back in the 70′s. The aisles are way too narrow to fit through comfortably. Its always crowded. The checkout lines go on forever. Every other aisle has that spill soaker-upper sawdust all over it. They never have what I want, and everything is laid out in a very counter-intuitive way.
Nice try hunting for racism where there isn’t any, loser.
@shorty63136: its a store spread mainly throughout the northeast
@MsClear: Ever since I saw the guy in the deli sneeze into his hand and then just stand there waiting to serve meat to someone, I’ve never been back to the Danvers store, ugh.
SS new logo has clearly affected the circular this week, everything is $.50 higher.
@homerjay: The “atmosphere” of a Market Basket store can vary from “unpleasant” to “pretty decent”..it depends on the store. The newer NH ones seem to be in much better shape then the older ones.
Market Basket looks the same as it did 20 years ago..maybe 30…it says “Get your cheap groceries and get the hell out!!!” Fine with me….it’s a matter of spending $50 at Market basket, $70 for the same stuff at Hannaford’s, and $100 at Shaw’s.
The Stop & Shop I went to in CT was ungodly expensive, but some of that is just Connecticut.
I used to work for S&S Quality Control, back when they had a QC lab, a dairy and were owned by Americans.
This is a major bummer, the chain has a lot of history here in MA and New England in general. The red light/green light always made sense. This weirdo fruit bowl motif is blandly pleasant corporate logo that means nothing.
Now as far as prices go; there are several things to consider– pricing strategies… One model is “EDLP” Every Day Low Prices. The other is the regular coupon-based structure.
Shaw’s and Hannaford follow the EDLP model. S&S follows the ‘traditional’ model.
Usually in my shopping, Hannaford and Shaw’s are always less than S&S by 15% or so. Now S&S has double and triple coupons and an aggressive pricing for specials. So, there what ends up happening is, the typical consumer spend more than they want because the specials are so good. So, you might spend more, but you seemingly get a lot more stuff.
Both strategies can be worked by you, the consumer as long as you are prepared.
What is interesting is how they (Shaw’s and S&S) now tout how they monitor ‘local’ prices. Which is roundabout way of saying, “Uh-oh, we gotta account for Wal-Mart now…” And they’re the big beast. We drive down once every two weeks to the local Super Wal-Mart and even when accounting for $4/gal of gas we still come out $30-$40 ahead of Shaw’s/Hannaford…
Giant-Landover employee here. The changeover is mostly cosmetic. $30 million in signs, sales, coupons, new uniforms, and, granted, some real streamlining.
One of the failures of the last few years is that sometime after Ahold merged GL and S&S, they lost track of what made the chains the best. Giant’s whole philosophy was that customers would pay a little more for a quality product. They always made a point of not being Wal-Mart.
Giant had a great reputation for community commitment, one they still fulfill through Bonus Bucks, Triple Winner, or individual stores passing out $20 gift card to pretty much any good cause that asks. But they don’t promote it!
Giant, too, has 70 years of history in the area. I’m not sure how all this is going to fly with customers.
(And Ahold’s other problem, owning another chain also called Giant just to the north, is still a problem.)
I shop at Stop And Shop, and use the store bonus card all the time – typically save at least $5 per trip. Of course, I am very careful about buying things that are on sale, or that the card reduces the price on. Somethings are $1 or more off with the card. I like S&S much better than Shaws, which is the other large chain around here.
There is a local chain called Dave’s which blows all these other stores away, but they are pricey. Worth it, but not for everyday items.
I live on Long Island and must say that S&S has the most ridiculous prices in my area. Even their specials are outrageous compared with the every day prices of other local stores or Wal Mart.
There is nothing special about Stop and Shop, and it provides every reason to avoid shopping there.
@orlo:
Agreed!!! 20mpg stinks!! But since I live close to everything I need to get to, my driving is almost all city. And I have a V6. Im not complaining about the mpg, but fact is that 10 miles each way = 1 gallon of gas (and even if I got 30mpg its still about 3 bux in gas)
And….meatloaf mix is a mix of ground veal, pork and beef. Wife uses it for meatloaf and homemade meatballs, and it sure is good.
Oops….
And speaking of gas, the only real advantage to S&S around here is the gas program……every 50 bux spent in the store = 10 cents/gallon off at their gas stations (located in the store parking lots). But alas, “current promotion ends Sept 4″, and I dont know if that means the discount program altogether, or if they change the points tiers. If the program goes away altogether, the only real reason to even think about shopping at S&S is the proximity to my house……which is nice, but if the food stinks, its not worth it.
I spent a long time working for supermarkets in my youth, with my carrer taking me from Stop and Shop to Shaws. All I can say is that I’m so lucky I jumped into loss prevention before the aprons became a big deal for cashiers to wear.
I mean seriously, being a cashier is the.worst.job in the fucking store. Why make them dress like assholes? What function does an apron serve someone who deals with money? If anything its just another place for them to pocket cash
@Nick1693: Are you serious? I LOVE self check out! Fresh and Easy and Ralphs here in LA both have them and I would prefer them to a cashier anyday. Its people that can’t figure out how to use them that F it up everytime.
I wish they were everywhere, seriously.
@paxetaurora: I miss the stop and shops in Queens, the nature’s promise store brand of organic or healthy or whatever is SO good. They had some amazing bread. The grocery stores in LA are eons better than most any of the ones in NYC but they are EXPENSIVE. I stick to the “ethnic” markets now…
@lostsynapse: It’s an ax stuck in a.. in a… in a…. log?
One of the local Price Choppers here in my city went for weeks with the light behind the “e” in “Price” burned out. Ouch!
Whatever Stop and Shop’s logo looked like before the change, it couldn’t have been that memorable. I just went to look at their site to remind myself what it looked like, and it’s been changed already. Guess I need to dig out my loyalty card to see. I chuckled at their site– “You talk. We Listen. Your needs have changed, so we’re changing too.” Yeah, I can just hear all those consumers shouting, “YOU NEED A NEW LOGO!”. How much do you think it will cost to change out all the signs, store branded packaging, repainting all the trailer trucks, etc.? And who pays for that, stockholders? Right.
New logo to me looks like a grapefruit half squirting three different colored juices at me.
@SuffolkHouse:
Agreed. Even on sale, their prices on most things is still higher than other stores regular prices. This is the second time in the past year they have announced a “New Lower Price Policy”. I rarely shop there. Shoprite, Waldbaums are better. Shopping in Walmart is like a cross between shopping in the Old Soviet Union, empty shelves and seedy people in the store.
Bring back Edwards, better yet bring back Finast.
Good to know that the Stop&Shop prices are coming down. It’s the nicest and most easily shopped store in my area, but it’s also the farthest away and wasn’t that cheap. But I just may kill myself if I have to endure the limited selection, long lines and impassable aisles of my ShopRite one more time. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve just abandoned a full cart in line and walked out because it was such a circus. Thrilled that ShopRite might actually be getting cheaper!Everything about it has always been better!
@Grabraham: Actually, there are still a few Star Markets (or Stah Mahkits), all in Mass. They are basically Shaws inside, but use the different name. Some of them are pretty close to Shaws, for some reason.
Stop & Shop is big in Rhode Island.
Last week I noticed one that I frequent no longer had a salad bar but in its place (prominent; near the entrance) was a display of “meals” — ready-to-eat packaged sandwiches and ready-to-heat entrees. I was so mad that the salad bar was gone!
I thought the new S&S logo looked like various slices of citrus fruit — an orange and a lime which make sense, but the others were off. Maybe a ruby-red grapefruit, or a blood orange, but the purple one doesn’t look like any citrus I know. So I thought maybe a plum, but still, I think the new logo looks stupid.
Did we already address the Price Chopper logo? Were you kidding or does it not look like an ax chopping a penny. Price Chopper.
Did they approve this logo before or after they decided to paint the store walls light diarrhea?
@Grrrrrrrrr: What part of CT?
As an employee of this store, it’s basically business as usual. Sure, they added a discount, but it isn’t much. None of the new uniforms have come in either (supposedly because of a delay in…what a surprise – China.) They didn’t change anything except signs.
What they need to do is try to pick a genre it’s trying to be in. Their current job of mixing EDLP and weekly sales is pretty bad, as nothing makes you say “Ooh, I’m shopping here this week.” Whoever lays out the prices listed in the flyer should be fired. Either lower the EDLP prices while highlighting the actually good EDLP bargains (and risk shooting a salvo towards Walmart and Target), or return to the traditional weekly sales plan (and be like all the other supermarkets).
Their aim towards the prepared foods is a bit off, too. If they need to look to see what they should be doing, they should take a look at stores like Wegmans, Uncle Giuseppe’s (a local mini-chain on LI) or Fairway (another mini-chain). No one cares about refrigerated uncooked foods in unappealing plastic. Have a department in the stores where employees can cook foods up for the customer (like the previous three I mention do) and make people say “yum, I want to try this.”
Also, the new logo is generic. A fixing up of the old one (to what you see on most newer stores) would have been just fine, and wouldn’t have pissed away a recognizable logo.
The only thing that Stop and Shop does better than most of its competitors is having new technology. They were the first ones around here to have self-scan, and they have a system where you can place an order for deli items without waiting. They’re also introducing a scan-as-you-shop thing called EasyShop in more stores, but I have no idea if it will be rolled out near the NYC region.
Ultimately, Stop and Shop is middling, mediocre, average. It’s not as bad as people say, and it’s not as good as people say.
@SuffolkHouse: King Kullen is far worse, and Pathmark and Waldbaums can be worse too if an item you’re shopping for isn’t on sale (but they have better sales than S&S). Since Pathmark got merged into the A&P company (of which Waldbaums is a part of), their sales have gone downhill and they’re still the usual ghetto Pathmark.
I’d like Shoprite, but I’m not driving 15 to 20 miles to one. I’ll just have to wait until they open one here.
@homerjay: Their original choice of Final Solution for the registers was rejected.
Until S&S figures out how to provide customer service, baggers, a clean store and bags that don’t rip, I will continue to drive past them to get to Big Y. We have a Super Stop & Shop that isn’t super at all unless I need something in a pinch. I have shifted all my grocery $ to Big Y.