Stop & Shop, Giant Unveil Logos

MARK HAMSTRA

QUINCY, Mass. — Stop & Shop and Giant of Landover, Md., unveiled new logos last week as part of an effort to highlight broad changes being made in the stores.

The logos — resembling multicolored slices of fruit, with purple lettering — are identical for the two chains, which operate jointly under the ownership of Amsterdam-based Ahold.

“The new logo is the symbol that says there are exciting new changes being rolled out to your local Stop & Shop or your local Giant,” Faith Weiner, a spokeswoman for the chains, told SN.

As previously reported, the changes include more prepared-food offerings — including new rotisserie chicken and about 100 other items ranging from side dishes and soups to desserts — as well as several customer-facing technologies. The new logo was scheduled to first appear on the outside of a Giant store in Bethesda, Md., last week, and will be rolled out throughout the chains' 570-store network in the coming months.

According to reports, Stop & Shop had used a “stoplight” logo with red and green circles since 1914. Weiner said she was uncertain how long the previous logo had been in use, although she said there had been “a few different logos” in the chain's history and that the stoplight logo had been used “for a very long time.”

New advertising supporting the in-store changes was also scheduled to begin last week, she said.

In addition to the expanded prepared-food offering and a meal-component program called Choose & Cook (see the July 28 issue of SN, Page 8), changes also include expanded offerings in the chains' Simply Enjoy and Nature's Promise private-label offerings; new employee uniforms; and the planned rollout of deli-ordering, self-scanning and produce-weighing technologies. Weiner said the technologies will be added to stores “over time,” and that it was too soon to say if they would be added to all of the stores that the two chains operate.

Stores are also adding a “family-friendly” checkout lane that includes “healthy snack alternatives such as yogurt, animal crackers and bottled water” instead of candy and tabloid magazines.

“Customers talked and we listened to them,” Weiner said.