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Newsbreak for Walpole
The Week – July 14
The Year – 2003
The Era of Super Stores
The face of business in Walpole is changing. Earlier this year, Ashmont
closed its doors and left a gaping hole in the plaza off route 1A.
Subsequently, Ace hardware moved in to that spot. A national chain
replaced a small local business.
Let’s look at the supermarket picture
1. The Stop and Shop at route 1A was remodeled and restructured into a
store that is more like a small mall than a simple market.
2. Over on route 1, the Super Stop and Shop is also a large store with
many and varied features.
3. Locally, with this large store advent, Edmund’s market in East
Walpole has closed.
4. Now, at the junction of route 1 and route 27, another huge
supermarket is about to open. This will be another in the line of super
stores.
The trend is clear.
Huge stores are being constructed to attract shoppers to come and do all
their buying at one time and in one place. The pharmacy, the florist,
the stationery goods are all now being positioned in the midst of a
large grocery store.
The local small business owners seemingly are being displaced by this
phenomenon.
The benefits to this trend are in price and variety and convenience.
The downside is an increase in the time it takes to stop by to buy just
a few items. That quart of milk is always at the rear of the store.
The traffic on route 27 will dramatically increase if folks head out to
the new supermarket and/or head over to Wal-Mart’s.
Is big better? |
