Stop & Shop, the Northeast supermarket chain owned by Dutch grocery giant Ahold Delhaize, has confirmed another round of store closures, with locations in Basking Ridge and Westfield, New Jersey among those shutting their doors this fall.
The latest closures follow the 32 underperforming stores the chain eliminated in 2024 as part of a broader turnaround strategy, and come despite the company announcing lower everyday prices across all 46 New Jersey stores in May.
The decisions were each described as the result of routine evaluations of store operations rather than a coordinated plan.
Affected employees will be offered transfer opportunities to other Stop & Shop locations. The chain still operates more than 350 stores across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.
The broader picture explains why this keeps happening. Grocery is a razor-thin margin business at the best of times, and 2026 is not the best of times. Grocery prices rose 2.7 percent in June.
Labor and transportation costs are elevated. Competition from Walmart, Aldi, warehouse clubs and Amazon Fresh has intensified. Consumers are shopping multiple stores for deals and trading down to private labels. Stop & Shop is not alone, Kroger recently announced plans to close roughly 60 stores by year-end for similar reasons.
The industry is shrinking its physical footprint to survive.