| Type | Subsidiary of SuperValu |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (Grocery) |
| Founded | 1860 (Portland, Maine).[1] |
| Headquarters | West Bridgewater, Massachusetts |
| Number of locations | 169 |
| Key people | Craig Herkert, CEO Mike Stigers, President[2] |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, floral, frozen foods, grocery, liquor, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, sushi |
| Website | http://www.shaws.com/ |
Shaw's, along with companion store Star Market, are wholly owned subsidiaries of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu. Together, Shaw's and Star Market comprise the third-largest grocery chain headquartered in New England; behind Stop & Shop and Hannaford, although Shaw’s is the largest grocery chain whose stores are located exclusively within the New England states. Until 2010, Shaw's operated stores in all six New England states; as of 2011 Shaw's remains the only supermarket chain with stores in five of the six. The company is based in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, employing about 30,000 associates in 169 stores. The company markets products under its private labels — including products by Richelieu Foods.[3]
Shaw’s was acquired by Albertsons in 2004, which acquired the chain from J Sainsbury plc for $2.5 billion. In 1999, Shaw’s acquired the Star Market chain of supermarkets. Star Market was formerly owned by Investcorp, which in turn purchased the chain from American Stores in 1994. American Stores had acquired Star Market through its hostile takeover of Jewel Companies, Inc., in 1984. Jewel acquired Star Market in 1964.
Shaw's operates stores in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, while Star Market operates in Massachusetts. Shaw's has an advantage over its competitors in that it operates stores in both the more populous areas of New England (including Greater Boston, Manchester, Burlington, and Portland) and many of its vacation/resort areas (including Cape Cod, the mid-coast of Maine, and Vermont's ski towns). The chain's largest competitors are Hannaford, Market Basket and Stop & Shop
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In 1862, George C. Shaw opened a small teashop in Portland, Maine. Meanwhile, Maynard A. Davis established a group of small downtown grocery stores in Brockton and New Bedford, Massachusetts, called Brockton Public Market, or BPM. 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 grocery warehouse would be needed for the future growth of the two companies. In 1961, a warehouse in Brockton was purchased.
By 1965, George C. Shaw had begun to expand into northern Massachusetts and into New Hampshire. This expansion, combined with BPM's growth in volume in southern Massachusetts, moved the companies to build a distribution center in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts in 1972. In the 1980s, a warehouse was built in Wells, Maine, and in January 1991, Shaw’s opened a distribution facility for perishable food items in Methuen, Massachusetts.
In 1978, BPM stores in Massachusetts changed their name to Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc. to maximize advertising. It was the first step in the contemplated merger of 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 three other New England food retailers: Iandoli's (1987), Cerretani's (1993), and the Star Market Company (1999).
In 1995, Shaw's entered Connecticut, opening five stores. The next year, Sainsbury purchased 12 former Edwards supermarkets and two future sites from Royal Ahold.
The largest supermarket chain to join the Shaw's family is the Star Market Company. This 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 a long line of "firsts" in the supermarket industry. Star was the first New England supermarket company 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, Massachusetts, laying off over 300 Local 25 Teamster members. In May 1999 Local 25 agreed to a 6 month extension with J. Sainsbury/Shaw's Supermarkets on the current contract to bargain in "good faith".[4] In 2001, J.Sainsbury/Shaw’s Supermarkets closed the Shaw’s Distribution Center in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts laying off over 400 UFCW 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 in Brattleboro, Vermont at the time.
In 2004, J Sainsbury sold Shaw’s to Albertsons for US$2.48 billion. On June 2, 2006, a partnership of SuperValu, 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, which included Shaw’s and Star Market, along with other well-regarded regional chains such as Acme Markets (Philadelphia); Jewel, and Jewel-Osco (Chicago). Unfortunately, the Shaw's chain has been beset by store closings nearly every year since its acquisition by Supervalu. At its peak, Shaw's operated more than 200 stores across New England, but closings have slowly reduced that number since 2006. At least one store has closed in every New England state except Vermont.
The first round of closings was in late August 2006, when Shaws announced it would be closing six underperforming stores in October. These stores were in New Britain, Southington, and Bridgeport, Connecticut; and in Worcester and New Bedford, Massachusetts.[6][7][8] In September 2007, Shaw’s closed its stores in Providence and Pawtucket, Rhode Island; and Waterbury, Connecticut, because of poor sales. The closings left Shaw’s with 204 stores; 12 in Rhode Island. A total of 224 workers were laid off or transferred.
On July 25, 2009, Shaw’s closed its Bristol and Shelton, Connecticut, stores.[9] In early 2009, Shaw's had closed stores in Gorham, New Hampshire and Bangor, Maine. The largest round of closings was in 2010; Shaw's announced in February that it would sell or close its 18 Connecticut stores. Eleven of those were sold to New Jersey-based Wakefern, operator of ShopRite and PriceRite supermarkets; and 5 to Stop & Shop.[1] The other two never found a buyer, though one will be subdivided for a Supervalu-owned Save-A-Lot.[10] 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.
The most recent round of closings was in early 2011; on January 5, Shaw's announced that three Massachusetts stores and two Rhode Island stores that were unprofitable would close by February 17.[11] After the closures, Shaw's was left with 169 stores.
According to their website, as of December 2009, Shaw’s 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). Including the 2011 closings, there are only 10 stores in Rhode Island and 84 in Massachusetts, leaving 169 stores as of February 2011.
Shaw's' current store footprint extends (south to north) from the coastal town of Westerly, Rhode Island to the Canadian border in Derby, Vermont. Shaw's strongest presences are in Greater Boston (where its largest competitor is Stop & Shop) and throughout New Hampshire and Vermont (where its largest competitor is Hannaford).
Despite the closings, Supervalu has remodeled and updated many Shaw's stores. In late 2010, Supervalu introduced a newly-redesigned website for Shaw's; the website design is shared with sister stores Cub Foods and Jewel-Osco. Shaw's has also increased their marketing efforts, partnering with the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox Radio Network as their "official supermarket," airing advertisements frequently on New England radio stations, and maintaining a Facebook page with more than 20,000 fans.
Before it was acquired by Shaw’s, Star Market Company had been part of Jewel 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 by American 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 England Osco Drug locations to Jean Coutu group, which added them to its Brooks Pharmacy group. When American Stores sold Star Markets in 1994 to Investcorp, the Osco connection was ended, or so it seemed. 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 Shaw’s and Star Markets with pharmacies were renamed "Shaw’s-Osco" and "Star-Osco." Today, nearly 60 Shaw's and Star Market stores operate an Osco Pharmacy within.
Shaw's Star Market has gradually acquired brands, including:
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.[12]
The Shaw’s Supermarket's history comes from the most recent version of the Shaw’s Associate Handbook.
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