STOP & SHOP AGREES TO SELL FOUR PURITY STORES

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

QUINCY, Mass. -- Stop & Shop Cos. here has agreed to sell four Purity stores in Massachusetts, three to local supermarket operators.

The deals, disclosed last week, are in line with Stop & Shop's decision to sell 31 of the 55 Purity Supreme stores it acquired late last year. The decision to sell the stores was made before Stop & Shop announced its agreement to be acquired by Dutch-based Royal Ahold.

Two stores, in Whitman and South Weymouth, are being sold to Foodmaster Supermarkets, Somerville, Mass. A store in Kingston is being sold to Victory Supermarkets, Leominster, Mass., and a store in Scituate is being sold to Supervalu, Minneapolis, which supplies independents here. Of the 31 Purity units to be sold, deals have been made or are pending on 10: two stores in New Hampshire, which were sold in January to Shaw's Supermarkets, East Bridgewater, Mass.; four stores in Massachusetts, whose sale to Star Market, Cambridge, Mass., is pending, and the pending sale of four to local independents.