Shoppers Food & Pharmacy
Not to be confused with Shoppers Drug Mart, Shoppers World & Shoppers Stop
Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, also known as Shoppers Food Warehouse, is a discount supermarket chain with 24 stores in Maryland and Northern Virginia. The chain was formed in 1978 as a warehouse grocer concept pioneered by Jumbo Food Market. The chain was bought by United Natural Foods Inc. in 2018.
History[edit | edit source]
While floundering with failed supermarket chain Jumbo Food, the owners of the chain launched a new concept: Shoppers Food Warehouse. Deep-discount methods were piloted, such as plain décor, fixed product sizes, computer technology, and warehouse shelving to save storage space. Shoppers also introduced & popularized new ideas such as selling produce by the pound, bulk bins (no longer utilized in all locations), salad bars, and more.
The first store to open opened in Alexandria, VA at the former site of a Safeway (Marina-style) in late 1978 (later Grand Mart, now a New Grand Mart). Over the next few years, more stores opened up in the area. Shoppers was expanding rapidly, thanks to its' low-price concept featuring national brands. In the late 1980s, the reins were handed over to Herbert Haft and others. Jumbo Food also dissolved into the company that would be then called Shoppers Food Warehouse Corporation.
Shoppers Food Warehouse was rapidly expanding, opening stores all around the Greater Washington D.C. area. All stores brought more low prices to customers alike with delis, seafood, bakeries, and more. Shoppers' extensive ad campaigns also took on bringing customers in, like stadium ads, television ad & newspaper ads.
With the company prevailing in new stores, a new, bigger concept was called for. Shoppers Club stores expanded the original formula and brought a whole new dimension of retailing to Shoppers. New features were showcased such as greatly expanded delis/prepared foods and a complementary Shoppers Café, a cheese display, expanded beverage sections, and most importantly, new "club packs", which showcased products in expanded quantities.
More locations were opened/expanded to Shoppers Club from 1994-1995, while older stores were opened respectively in 1997.
Meanwhile, Shoppers' ownership was quickly changing from one to another. Dart's stake in Shoppers was fully expanded in late 1996, which led to some controversy. After a full year under the Hafts, Richfood (already owning Maryland/Delaware chain Metro) swooped in and purchased the retailer.
With the chain still performing well, SuperValu acquired Richfood to expand further in the summer of 1999. With SuperValu now being Shoppers' corporate parent, Shoppers was getting pharmacies and Provident banks into gear. Contrary to belief, these were not present prior to the takeover.
The first stores opened under the Minneapolis grocery conglomerate were remodels/relocations of stores in the chain throughout the early 2000s. Some had desperately needed a makeover due to their age/size/layout. Other changes were happening in these stores, as the warehouse price-impact look was slowly diminished in favor of orienting to shoppers of competing chains like Giant, Metro and Safeway. Shoppers purchased four SuperFresh locations while A&P's Mid-Atlantic decline in 2002, further expanding their reach and new ideals.
For 2003, Shoppers and SuperValu acquired 15 Metro Food stores in the Baltimore region, converting them into Shoppers stores. For this new batch of stores, the chain was rechristened as Shoppers Food & Pharmacy (utilizing the "Food & Pharmacy" label like other SuperValu-owned chains) and a whole new decor package was rolled out. New colored department signage and a brighter look erased Shoppers' lower-end past for a more expanded look, building on the Shoppers Club philosophy. Conversions of Metros were completed by early 2004, while construction and planning for new locations continued. Shoppers was then focusing on revamping their image with an entirely new logo (emphasizing a more friendly image), slogans such as "Real People. Real Value. Real Smart.", "Smart Shoppers Shop Shoppers", in addition to the new look.
In the fall of 2008, SuperValu unleashed a brand new look for Shoppers inside, inspired by their other chains like Acme, Albertsons, and Cub Foods. This package was also a radical departure in ways that changed ad campaigns once again. Several stores used this package, as well as the extensively remodeled and expanded Annapolis store, which itself was once an Acme.
2010 brought another new package, which is presently used in many stores. This package features basic colored walls (reminiscent of the mid-2000s decor) with clear signs, which debuted in the renovated Burke, VA store. This package is inline with the rest of the SuperValu company.
In early 2011, SuperValu announced store closings for several locations across multiple banners, including Shoppers. Shoppers also bought out a former SuperFresh in Ellicott City, MD later in the year and converted it to a Shoppers.
In 2012, SuperValu introduced new/revamped in-house brands (Essential Everyday, Wild Harvest, Baby Basics, Culinary Circle, etc.), effectively ending the Richfood name since the Shoppers buyout of 1998. The brand disappeared entirely by early 2013. 2014 saw changes such as the start of remodels to the rest of Shoppers' locations, and a new streamlined rebrand emphasizing yellow and red in conjunction with other SuperValu chains. The Ellicott City store closed in October 2014, marking the store as one of the shortest-lived in the chain. The longtime Leesburg store also saw closure in early 2015, after being open for over 22 years, and a new Baltimore store opened a month later, one of only three in the past eight years.
In 2018, UNFI (United Natural Foods Inc.) acquired SuperValu, including Shoppers in order to obtain the wholesale operations of the company. They had little inclination to continue to operate the retail business and sold off many of the retail assets. All Shoppers pharmacies closed in 2019, although UNFI plans to indefinitely retain operations at remaining Shoppers locations.
On December 6, 2019, UNFI finalized plans to sell thirteen Shoppers locations and close another four outright. This news followed almost two years of speculation, stemming from SuperValu's initial plans to exit their own retail brands. The time period in question had already shown dedication to the wholesaler's goal, with a string of other Shoppers closings and the sale of sister chains such as Farm Fresh, Hornbacher's and Shop n' Save.
Among the supermarket outfits who bought into SFW included Lidl, Compare Foods (which itself failed in the state, later re-bought by UNFi), and McKay's (now defunct). Sales began within days; most stores on the list had wrapped by mid-January 2020, with some finishing only two weeks after the announcement. An additional two stores in Kensington, MD and Franconia, VA were added soon afterwards, closing in tandem with the original 17 announced earlier in the month.
In the aftermath of this round, grocery industry analysts wondered what would be UNFI's next move. All that they had indicated was that SuperValu's holding company was still in the process of selecting buyers for the remaining 24 locations. This version of the story held true until May of that year. As COVID-19 cases began to pop up in the region as they were nationally, customers flocked to Shoppers locations to take in essential products in advance of lockdowns. Once the dust had settled, the sales numbers for the chain had grown higher than the usual. This would provide not only for better financial stability, but a greater return down the line.
In May 2020, the first reports of UNFI retaining the Shoppers brand appeared. Speaking in a BMO conference, UNFI CEO Steve Spinner declared his intent to delay the sale of their Shoppers and Cub chains as a result of the aforementioned sales increase. Both chains had previously been marked as having "discontinued operations" - a code which meant the two banners were in autopilot, no longer to expand on their brands as their individual locations were in talks for sale.
During the three-year period, Shoppers would continue to close and sell select branches as they had previously. There, however would remain some stores by the time. It was yet unknown if these final stores will continue, or close down simply. Regular maintenance, and probable remodels are continue for the rest of these stores, until late 2022.
In recent times, Shoppers has been re-opening up their former Maryland locations and adding new locations to slowly revive the Shoppers chain.
Store numbering[edit | edit source]
Prior to SuperValu's acquisition of Richfood, Shoppers instituted a chronological store numbering format originating from Jumbo. In order to differentiate Shoppers store numbers from those of other chains in the SuperValu portfolio, a 4-digit numbering system was adopted. A 26- was added to the original store number (ex. 12 > 2612 for the Olney, Maryland location). Upon the conversion of Metro stores in the Baltimore area to the Shoppers banner in 2003, its numbering scheme of 75- was inherited for those locations, as well as new sites in the vicinity. A similar numbering scheme, with 052- and 054- prefixes for respective regions was adopted around 2011.
The current numbering format dates circa 2003 and omits the numbers of stores that closed prior to that date, with 23- and 22- prefixes.
Slogans[edit | edit source]
- "Real People. Real Value. Real Smart." (2003-2004)
- "Smart Shoppers Shop Shoppers" (2004-2010)
- "Low Prices are Only the Beginning" (ca. 2007)
- "Low Prices. Every Day." (2010-)