Stop & Shop lowers prices at all R.I. stores, with plans for more discounts at Mass. stores – The Boston Globe

While economic markers show inflation has eased and the economy has remained resilient overall, that rosy picture has eluded many Americans, who remain frustrated by the nation’s ever-growing cost of living, as reflected in increases across the board, from housing costs to a carton of eggs.

Higher prices have also contributed to a jump in food insecurity. In Rhode Island, hundreds of people line up twice a month in Pawtucket to receive food and household items — a turnout that advocates and officials say is a sobering reminder of the great need for basic necessities locally.

Amid the rising costs, federal lawmakers have accused some corporations of driving the issue through “price gouging,” or using inflation as an opportunity to increase profits.

Last week, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Frans Muller, CEO of Stop & Shop’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, suggesting the chain could be “engaging in corporate profiteering schemes that squeeze residents and families in Massachusetts.”

Warren’s letter came after youth organizers with the Hyde Square Task Force in Jamaica Plain found pricing differences between the company’s stores in Greater Boston, and alleged groceries were less expensive in more affluent neighborhoods than in those that are not, as the Globe reported in June 2023.

Stop & Shop said last week that a variety of factors affect how much a particular store may charge for a given item, including the cost of rent, labor costs, and size — not a “neighborhood’s socioeconomic makeup.” The company has defended its prices, and once described the task force’s reports “misleading.”

In Rhode Island, the decision to drop prices is part of Stop & Shop’s larger, multi-year strategy “to improve the customer experience through price investments, store remodels, and a focus on in-store service” that was first announced in May, Stephanie Cunha, a company spokesperson, told the Globe on Wednesday.

“This statewide effort in Rhode Island has been in the works for many months, and we’ve launched a full-scale marketing campaign to support it,” Cunha wrote in an email.

The lower prices are “in no way a response to the Globe’s reporting or to the letter we received last week from the Senator,” Jennifer Barr, Stop & Shop director of external communications & community relations, said Wednesday in a statement to The Globe. “Nor would it have even been possible to execute such a large-scale effort across our Pricing, Marketing, and Operations teams across an entire state in such a short timeframe.”

The grocer has already lowered prices on items in stores in Western Massachusetts, Connecticut, and at several locations around Greater Boston, and has plans to extend the discounts to locations around Eastern Massachusetts in the coming months, according to Cunha.

Stop & Shop currently operates 123 stores in Massachusetts and 86 locations in Connecticut.

“We have a bigger footprint in Massachusetts, so that state will take a little more time,” Cunha said.

Stop & Shop has detailed a few of the cuts shoppers can expect at its Rhode Island stores: A boneless chicken breast value pack, for example, will see a 30 percent decrease, dropping from $3.99 per pound to $2.79 a pound.

An 8-ounce bag of Lay’s potato chips will also drop by 30 percent, from $4.99 to $3.49; Hass avocados will fall 25 percent, from $1.66 to $1.25 each; and a 64-ounce bottle of store-brand apple juice will decrease by 20 percent from $2.49 to $1.99, the company said, noting however that pricing may vary by location.

The company will also remove the 10-cent fee for paper bags at Rhode Island locations, and will launch “savings kiosks” in stores, where “customers can save on their groceries with digital coupons, printed in-store or delivered to their phone, every time they shop,” a press release said.

Through the ongoing, multi-phase strategy, Wheeler said Stop & Shop is also investing in remodeling stores, and pointed to renovations made to its Richmond, R.I., location.

Earlier this year, the chain said it would close 32 stores across the country by Nov. 2, including eight in Massachusetts and two in Rhode Island.

Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.