Contact sheet (click image above to enlarge) of several Indianapolis Stop and Shop locations after they were purchased by Colonial Stores in 1955 (but before they were subsequently unloaded in 1959). Colonial purchased the Albers chain in Ohi0 at about the same time and had much better luck with those stores. Colonial did similar co-branding with both chains.
These are from a large collection of construction archives I recently acquired. They’d been sitting in the abandoned Colonial Stores HQ in Atlanta for probably twenty years. Lots more to come.
This is an interesting set of stores…no two are quite alike; apart from the rooster signs tacked onto all of them! I notice a sign for an Edsel dealership in the background of one of the shots, so that narrows the date a bit.
The pics look to be from late 1957 or 1958. The newest cars are ’57 Fords (in several pics). The Edsel ad is for the ’58 model. The co-branding seems less successful than the Albers stores which used Colonial’s corrugated metal motif to good use. Here it seems like extra clutter in places. Stop and Shop was a small chain which would explain the lack of a standardized look. A couple of the stores like they could have been pre-WWII. The Meadows location looks like a new build, post-acquisition.
You have definitely hit the motherlode with this Colonial Store information. Definitely looking forward to your posts about all the interesting information that you will share with your fans.
Wishing you a fantastic New Year. I do hope that the last 32 years of Great A&P history will also be preserved and not thrown in a Montvale NJ land fill.
Wow, Andrew is right — that IS an Edsel dealership in the East Wash Office photo. I hadn’t noticed that; I was focused on the Edsel billboard on the side of the West Wash store. But that’s definitely the Edsel “E” on the sign, as well as definitely the ’58 model on the billboard.
No real need to point it out, but obviously these stores have no connection whatever to the northeast Stop & Shop Supermarket chain HQ’d in Massachusetts and now part of Royal Ahold.
Wow–what an amazing find! Can’t wait to see what else you uncover!
That looks like THIS Edsel dealer http://edsel.net/dealer/mcgee.jpg