Original Stop & Shop Location

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

 I didn't realize until I saw this from the Herald that S&S started in Somerville.

"In its 94th year since the Rabinovitz family founded Economy Grocery Stores Co. in Somerville, the chain of 389 stores now known as Stop & Shop is refreshing its look."

Does anyone know where the original store was and/or where any of the other S&S stores were prior to the one they built at the old Somerville Lumber site?  

I find it odd they didn't have any Somerville locations for a number of years. 

Comments

[ron_newman]

When I first moved here, what's now AJ Wright on Somerville Avenue was a Stop & Shop store. In fact, that whole strip-mall was made up solely of stores owned by the Stop & Shop company: Bradlees, Medi Mart pharmacy, and the supermarket itself.

Over time, the supermarket closed and was replaced by Fretter Superstores (an electronics chain), then by AJ Wright. Bradlees closed and was replaced by Target. MediMart was sold to Walgreens, which kept this location for a while, but eventually closed it. Some auto parts store is there now.

[elbren]

In Cambridge, not Somerville, there used to be a grocery on Mem Drive, where the Microcenter is now, that I think was a S&S, but I'm not completely sure. (At the time the Trader Joes there was a Salvation Army.)

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

That sounds right. When I googled this earlier, I found someone lamenting the loss of their S&S on Mem Drive and there's only so much non-MIT/Harvard space on that road.

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

yes, I remember it as a Stop and Shop when I was growing up.

[elbren]

I understand they closed it because they formerly had a special permit to bring their trucks down Mem Drive (which must have been super-short trucks) where they're normally prohibited, and that permit expired or was revoked or somesuch.

[ron_newman]

Yep, I remember that one. Also, the Whole Foods at Fresh Pond Mall used to be a Stop & Shop.

In Boston, at least two other Stop & Shop locations were replaced by Whole Foods: the one by Symphony Hall, and the one in Charles River Plaza (Cambridge Street).

[ron_newman]

I vaguely recall that Stop & Shop wanted to expand this location, which would have generated much more truck traffic, and either the neighbors or the state objected to that. So instead they clsoed it.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

It's too bad when a neighborhood loses a supermarket, but IMO, it's better to have multiple small supermarkets in urban neighborhoods than a few huge ones, both because of truck traffic and walkability.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

But that's exactly what happend on Mem Drive; S&S out, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods in.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-days-of-stop-shop.html talks about Stop & Shop's early history and has some photos, though it doesn't give the exact location of the original store. It does say that the Memorial Drive location was the first self-service store. (Before there were supermarkets, at a grocery store the guy behind the counter would get you all the stuff you needed.)

The book "The Death of an American Jewish Community" says that the Rabinovitz brothers opened the first Economy Grocery Store in 1914 in Grove Hall (Roxbury/Dorchester), but that might be a mistake, since so many other sources on the web mention Somerville.

[ron_newman]

And then, eventually, Harvest Coop in Central Square and Star Market in the nearby University Park hotel.

The ultimate casualty of all the Cambridge supermarket shuffling was Purity Supreme (aka 'Poverty Supreme') in Central Square.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Well, someone posted an answer at http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2008/02/before-tom-brad.html :

"... at the northeast corner of Cedar and Highland, where the East Cambridge Savings Bank now stands."

[ron_newman]

A bank that was originally built as a Friendly's Ice Cream, according to someone who's been around longer than me. I forget whether I learned that on LJ or on the News blog.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

So there was actually a S&S in Davis Square? Sounds like they were everywhere back in the day, which makes sense. I think the old CVS location in Ball Square was a Foodmaster once upon a time.

[gildersleeve.livejournal.com]

IIRC, there was a S&S roughly where The Burren/Family Dollar is (I think it was a Stop and Shop , then the first McDonald's, then The Burren.)

The original CVS was indeed a Foodmaster.

Original Stop & Shop Location... but

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

I'm probably going to regret this, but I'll bite:

>I understand they closed it because they formerly had a special permit to bring their trucks down Mem Drive (which must have been super-short trucks) where they're normally prohibited, and that permit expired or was revoked or somesuch.

Don't Trader Joe's and Whole Foods use trucks too?

Or do they hire eco-conscious cyclists to bring the food the store in little baskets?

Re: Original Stop & Shop Location... but

[elbren]

heh. Good point. Maybe they changed the rules after the S&S closed?

Re: Original Stop & Shop Location... but

[ron_newman]

I'm sure TJ's generates less truck traffic than an expanded Super Stop & Shop would. And trucks to Whole Foods probably use River Street and Western Ave rather than Memorial Drive or small residential Cambridgeport side streets.