Minority-Owned, Stop Shop Save Closing Baltimore Locations!

Stop Shop Save supermarkets were definitly not know for having the cleanest stores or freshest produce. I know this first hand, having lived in Baltimore most of my life and going in Stop Shop Save many times. This overall lack of good store management in a competitive marketplace has lead to the demise of the chain.

An official of Stop Shop Save, a minority-owned business that has been a Baltimore mainstay since 1978, confirmed Tuesday that it had already closed five stores and will close the last one — on Harford Avenue in Oliver — leaving neighborhoods across the city without a convenient grocery store.

At least two other supermarkets are coming: ShopRite in Howard Park next week and MOM's Organic Market planned for the redeveloped Rotunda in Hampden when it opens late next year. The city will also relaunch its "virtual supermarket" project later this month with ShopRite, allowing residents to shop for groceries remotely and have the goods delivered.

The city is expected to update its food desert map in September, which will show the pockets in the city where poor residents, at least 40 percent of whom lack vehicles, must travel farther than a quarter-mile to shop at a grocery store that offers produce, meat and dairy.

While Stop Shop Save CEO Henry Baines didn't respond to requests for comment Tuesday, Willie Brown, the store manager for the Harford Avenue location and a company employee for 27 years, confirmed the chain's closures.

"Everybody else is already laid off," Brown said. "We [are] the only ones left. We will probably close after we sell out inventory; it could be a couple weeks. They might say today is the day."

While it's not clear how many people lost their jobs, city officials say they connected displaced employees from the stores with job training.

Jeremy Diamond, director at Diamond Marketing Group and an industry consultant, said Stop Shop Save could not be price-competitive with other discount grocers such as PriceRite and ShopRite, spurring city customers to travel farther to escape the food desert.

"Stop Shop and Save, their focus was always on the inner city and appealing to the lower-income household," Diamond said. "At the end of the day, the customers are going to look at their wallet, and if they can get the same product cheaper somewhere else they might hop on the bus or hop in the car."

Source: Baltimore Sun