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 Shaw's: Perfecting the art of fresh Star Market: See what makes us shine! | |
.jpg) Exterior of a Shaw's inSouth Kingstown, Rhode Island | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (Grocery) |
| Founded | May 1860 (165 years ago) (1860-05) inPortland, Maine[2] |
| Founder | George C. Shaw |
| Headquarters | West Bridgewater, Massachusetts |
Number of locations | 133 (Shaw's), 21 (Star Market) (2017) |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, floral, frozen foods, grocery, liquor, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, sushi |
| Parent | J Sainsbury (1987–2004) Albertsons (2004–present) |
| Website | shaws starmarket |
Shaw's andStar Market are two American supermarket chains under united management based inWest Bridgewater, Massachusetts, employing about 30,000 associates in 150 total stores; 129 stores are operated under the Shaw's banner inMaine,Massachusetts,New Hampshire,Rhode Island, andVermont, while Star Market operates 21 stores in Massachusetts, most of which are in or nearBoston. Until 2010, Shaw's operated stores in all sixNew England states, and as of 2021 Shaw's remained the only supermarket chain with stores in five of the six, after it sold its Connecticut operations. The chain's largest competitors areHannaford,Market Basket,Price Chopper,Roche Bros.,Wegmans, andStop & Shop. Star Market is a companion store to Shaw's, Shaw's having purchased thecompeting chain in 1999.
Shaw's and Star Market are wholly owned subsidiaries of theBoise, Idaho–basedAlbertsons. The combined chain has the largest base of stores that operate in New England, but is the third-largest New England–based grocer behindQuincy, Massachusetts-based Stop & Shop andScarborough, Maine-based Hannaford; Hannaford operates stores in upstate New York, while Stop & Shop's operations extend through downstate New York and into New Jersey; only Shaw's does business solely in New England.
As of July 5, 2013, Shaw's and Star Market no longer use loyalty cards at their stores, as a way to compete with other local stores that do not have them.[3] However, like most of Albertsons' chains, Shaw's and Star Market participate in thejust for U rewards program, which does not use a physical card.
In 1860, George C. Shaw opened a small teashop inPortland, Maine. Meanwhile, Maynard A. Davis established a group of small downtown grocery stores inBrockton andNew Bedford, Massachusetts, called theBrockton Public Market (BPM) food retailers. In 1919, Davis purchased the George C. Shaw Company and made it a subsidiary of BPM.
As George C. Shaw and BPM continued to grow, it was decided that a central warehouse would be needed for the two companies. In 1961, a warehouse in Brockton was purchased.
By 1965, George C. Shaw had begun to expand northward, intoNew Hampshire. This expansion, combined with BPM's growth in southern Massachusetts, moved the companies to build a distribution center in 1972 inEast Bridgewater, Massachusetts. In the 1980s, a warehouse was built inWells, Maine, and in January 1991, Shaw's opened a distribution facility for perishable food items inMethuen, Massachusetts.
In 1978, BPM stores in Massachusetts becameShaw's Supermarkets, Inc. to maximize advertising. It was the first step towards merging the two companies.
In November 1983,J Sainsbury plc, then the UK's largest supermarket group, purchased 21% of Shaw's outstanding stock. In June 1987, Sainsbury's acquired controlling interest.
J Sainsbury plc acquired stores from four New England food retailers: Iandoli's (1987), Cerretani's (1993), Star Market (1999) and Butson's (2003).
In 1995, Shaw's enteredConnecticut, opening five stores. The next year, Sainsbury purchased 12 former Edwards supermarkets and two future sites fromRoyal Ahold.
In 1999, Shaw's made its largest acquisition by acquiring theStar Market chain. Star Market had been owned byInvestcorp, which in turn purchased the chain fromAmerican Stores in 1994. American Stores had acquired Star Market through its hostile takeover ofJewel Companies, Inc. in 1984 and Jewel had acquired Star Market in 1964. The acquisition strengthened Shaw's position as the second-largest supermarket company in New England. Like Shaw's, the Star Market Company had humble beginnings, and many "firsts" in the supermarket industry. Star was the first New England supermarket to have air-conditioned stores, the touch method of ringing registers, in-store check verification, refrigerated cooked foods, self-service wrapped meats, and packaged produce.
In November 1999,J Sainsbury/Shaw's Supermarkets closed the Star Market Distribution Center in Norwood, laying off over 300 Local 25Teamster members. In May 1999 Local 25 agreed to a six-month extension with J Sainsbury/Shaw's Supermarkets on the then-prevailing contract to bargain in "good faith".[4] In 2001, J Sainsbury/Shaw's Supermarkets closed the Shaw's Distribution Center in East Bridgewater, laying off over 400UFCW members. J Sainsbury/Shaw's Supermarkets indicated that the warehouse was "not centrally located in its service area, and the necessary physical expansion is impossible".[5] C&S Wholesale Grocers does the majority of the work that was performed by the two union-based distribution centers. C&S's distribution center/headquarters were inBrattleboro, Vermont, at the time.
In 2004,J Sainsbury sold Shaw's toAlbertsons forUS$2.48 billion. On June 2, 2006, a partnership ofSuperValu,CVS Corporation, and several investment firms, including Cerberus Capital, acquired Albertsons with the intent to divvy up the parts. SuperValu received what was generally thought of as the best-performing assets, including Shaw's and Star Market, along with regional chains includingACME (Philadelphia);Jewel, andJewel-Osco (Chicago). However, Shaw's was beset by store closings almost yearly between 2006 and 2011 during its acquisition by SuperValu.[citation needed] At its 2006 peak, Shaw's operated more than 200 stores in New England,[citation needed] however, Shaw's footprint has been reduced except in Vermont, and has pulled out of Connecticut altogether.
The first round of closings was announced in late August 2006, when Shaw's announced it would be closing six in October. These stores were inNew Britain,Southington, andBridgeport, Connecticut; and inWorcester andNew Bedford, Massachusetts.[6][7][8] In September 2007, Shaw's closed its stores inProvidence andPawtucket, Rhode Island; andWaterbury, Connecticut, because of poor sales. The closings left Shaw's with 204 stores. A total of 224 workers were laid off or transferred.
On July 25, 2009, Shaw's closed itsBristol andShelton, Connecticut, stores.[9] In early 2009, Shaw's had closed stores inGorham, New Hampshire, andBangor, Maine. The largest round of closings was in 2010; Shaw's announced in February that it would sell or close its 18 remaining Connecticut stores. Eleven of those were sold toNew Jersey–basedWakefern, operator ofShopRite andPriceRite supermarkets; and 5 to Stop & Shop.[10] One of the remaining two ultimately also became a Stop & Shop, while the other was subdivided for a Supervalu-ownedSave-A-Lot.[11] In addition to the store closures, in late March 2010, Shaw's eliminated about 4% of its full-time workforce, which amounted to nearly 650 jobs spread out over the about 120 non-union stores.
A recent round of closings was in early 2011; on January 5, Shaw's announced that three Massachusetts and two Rhode Island stores that were unprofitable would close by February 17.[12] After the closures, Shaw's was left with 169 stores.[citation needed]
In November 2012, Shaw's and its then-parent company, SuperValu, announced that Shaw's would lay off 700 employees in an effort to re-group and end financial losses. It also disclosed it had been looking for a buyer.[13]
In January 2013,Cerberus Capital Management announced a deal to acquire 877 stores in the Albertsons, ACME, Jewel-Osco, and Shaw's and Star Market chains from SuperValu for $100 million and acquisition of $3.2 billion on SuperValu debt.[14] The deal closed on March 21, 2013.
According to their website, as of January 2018, Shaw's and Star Market operated a total of 154 locations: 79 in Massachusetts (21 as Star Market), 8 in Rhode Island, 19 in Vermont, 27 in New Hampshire, and 21 in Maine.[15] This is compared to January 2010, and shortly before the Connecticut stores were sold, Shaws operated 194 stores: 12 in Rhode Island, 18 in Connecticut, 19 in Vermont, 22 in Maine, 34 in New Hampshire, and 89 in Massachusetts (including 12 operating as Star Market at the time).[16]
Shaw's store footprint extends (south to north) from the village ofWakefield inSouth Kingstown, Rhode Island, to the Canada–US border inDerby, Vermont. Shaw's strongest presences are inGreater Boston (where its largest competitor isStop & Shop) and throughout New Hampshire and Vermont (where its largest competitor isHannaford).
Amidst the closings, SuperValu remodeled and updated many Shaw's stores, which has continued under Albertsons ownership. In late 2010, SuperValu introduced a newly redesigned website for Shaw's; the website design is shared with sister storeJewel-Osco. Shaw's also, during that time, increased their marketing efforts, partnering with theNew England Patriots and theBoston Red Sox Radio Network as their "official supermarket", airing advertisements frequently on New England radio stations, and maintaining a Facebook page with more than 93,000 fans.
In December 2013, plans were announced for a new Star Market store in the city of Boston at the site of the Boston Garden redevelopment.[17] The store opened on September 20, 2019.[18] In July 2017, Shaw's announced the opening of a new store inHudson, Massachusetts, replacing a former Hannaford.[19] The Hudson store is the first new Shaw's store to open in nearly a decade, and marks its first expansion under Albertsons ownership.
Also under Albertsons recent ownership, several Shaw's stores in the immediate Boston area were remodeled and re-opened as Star Markets, with the idea of increasing the number of locations of that brand to a possible 30 over the next few years. As of March 2014, four stores had made the switch,[20] which brought the total number of Star Market stores to 18. As of January 2018, there were 21 Star Market stores.[21]
Before it was acquired by Shaw's, Star Market Company had been part ofJewel Companies, and while Jewel owned Star it built many combination food-drug stores branded as "Star-Osco", with common checkstands but separate management teams. While it owned Star, Jewel also built many stand-alone Osco Drug stores in New England. After Jewel was acquired byAmerican Stores in 1984, the Star-Osco stores were re-launched as Star Markets, and placed under a single management team. In 1999,Albertsons acquired American Stores, and in 2001, Albertsons sold its 80 New EnglandOsco Drug locations toJean Coutu group, which added them to itsBrooks Pharmacy group. When American Stores sold Star Markets in 1994 to Investcorp, the Osco connection was severed.
When Albertsons bought Sainsbury's American supermarket assets in 2004, including Star Markets, Star and Osco were reunited under one corporate umbrella. By 2005, the signs on the front of all of Albertsons-owned grocery stores with in-store pharmacies were changed, adding either "Osco" or "Sav-On" to the stores' logos, to emphasize the one-stop shopping available inside. The drug store name chosen reflected which of Albertsons' drug chains operated in the specific marketing area. Because New England had previously been an Osco market area, the Shaws and Star Market stores with pharmacies were renamed "Shaws-Osco" and "Star-Osco". As of January 2018, Osco Pharmacy has 55 locations within Shaws and Star Market stores. Albertsons has since retired the Osco branding for Shaw's and Star Market pharmacies and they are branded under the store banner name instead (Shaw's Pharmacy and Star Market Pharmacy respectively.)
Shaw's and Star Market has gradually acquired brands, including:[22]
SuperValu announced in May 2011, that its national brand equivalent products (including Shaw's) would be renamed "Essential Everyday" in line with its plans to phase out own-brand products carrying the names of its banners nationwide.[23] Some of theseprivate label products are now produced byRichelieu Foods.[24]
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