Stop & Shop to Unveil New Look and Focus on Meal Solutions
Stop & Shop, the Quincy, Mass.-based operator of 389 supermarkets, next month will unveil an upgraded store image with a focus on prepared foods and new “shopping assistance” technology, according to a report in the Boston Herald.
The new look includes a refreshed logo, redesigned store uniforms and continued roll out of its shopping assistance technology.
The range of prepared foods will grow significantly over the next two to three months, and “will be priced well and offer value to customers,” Jim Dwyer, executive vice president of strategy and business development, told the Boston Herald.
Stop & Shop also is testing a product line called Choose and Cook, which is a a refrigerated line of fresh, color-coded food ingredients that can be combined into a meal for four in 20 minutes. Choose and Cook, which comes with instructions for meals such as sirloin beef teriyaki and shrimp pad Thai, is widely available in sister company European stores; Stop & Shop is owned by Amsterdam-based Ahold.
As the prepared food sections expand, Stop & Shop said its store colors and layout will change as well, according to the report.
The expanded technology includes rolling out self-service DeliVision kiosks and EasyShop scanners to more stores. Customers use the touch-screens kiosks to order their deli selections and can continue shopping while the orders are filled. The handheld EasyShop devices allow shoppers to scan and bag their items as they shop and keep a running account of what they’re spending.
These new program come on the heels of Stop & Shop’s aisle-by-aisle price-rollback “value improvement program” at its stores from Massachusetts to New Jersey. About 25 percent of the company’s stores are waiting for the rollback program execution
“We’re trying to make sure that we keep up with what’s important with moms and kids and then make sure the proposition we offer meets her needs,” Dwyer said.
The new logo, which the company declined to share yet, reportedly is brighter and slightly reshaped. “It’s a way for us to make sure consumers receive the signal that we’re improving our stores,” he added. “It’s an opportunity to get them to notice.”
Employees’ two black and dark green short-sleeved shirt choices will be replaced with clothing tailored to fit men and women in eggplant and yellow.