Stop & Shop closing 32 underperforming grocery stores in the Northeast

Stop & Shop said Friday it will close 32 underperforming grocery stores in the Northeast U.S. by the end of the year.

The chain, which is owned by the Dutch supermarket company Ahold Delhaize, said it will close 10 stores in New Jersey, eight stores in Massachusetts, seven stores in New York, five stores in Connecticut and two stores in Rhode Island.

The company said employees at affected stores would be offered other jobs within the company. Asked by The Associated Press how many people are employed at the 32 stores, Stop & Shop wouldn’t say.

Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid said in a statement that the company decided to close the stores to create a “healthy base for the future growth of our brand.”

Ahold Delhaize said in May that it planned to close some Stop & Shop locations as part of a plan to strengthen the brand. The company said it wants to build new stores and remodel remaining ones, increase the number of store-brand products it offers and reduce prices.

Burt Flickinger, a longtime retail consultant and owner of Strategic Resource Group, said many of Stop & Shop’s problems were self-inflicted. The brand closed fresh meat and seafood counters in some stores, for example, which cut down on the amount customers spent in those stores.

Stop & Shop is also getting squeezed by big rivals like Walmart and Costco, and discount chains like Aldi and Lidl.

“Wherever a Target, a Walmart a Costco or a BJ’s has been built, a Stop and Shop’s in jeopardy,” Flickinger said. “While they have a plan going forward, I’m not sure the plan’s going to be fully competitive given the intensifying level of competition.”

Stop & Shop, which got its start in 1914 in Somerville, Massachusetts, operates around 400 grocery stores and has 60,000 employees.