Shoppers - College Park, MD (Retro Store Tour)

Hello and welcome again to the Shoppes of Battery Mill blog! Today we have some more classic retail treasures - this time from one of Washington, D.C./Baltimore's most famous grocers, Shoppers Food.

This store in particular is located in College Park, MD and follows the Shoppers Club concept. This concept, introduced in the mid-1990s in the midst of Shoppers' growth period and the rise of warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's Club. This concept made sure to bank on the original warehouse-style format of Shoppers though departments were vastly expanded to provide more selection.
The photos here are an archive of said store before opening, as the stocking process was happening. 

Shoppers - College Park, MD (as of 1998)

Store Info

• Location: 4720 Cherry Hill Rd, College Park, MD 20740
• Opened: 1998
• Remodeled: 2005 ("Smart Shoppers Shop Shoppers" package), 2012 (Fresh & Healthy package)
• Features (at the time of opening): Deli, Seafood, Shoppers Café, Cheese, Salad Bar, Olive Bar, Fountain Drinks, Bakery/Colossal Donuts, International, Natural & Organic Foods, Club Paks, Health & Beauty

I certainly appreciate the feel the architects were going for with this shopping center. While the façade gives off a more modernist/scientific design it manages to retain some colonial aspects.

With that, let's begin a vintage tour of this Shoppers Food store as it appeared upon opening in 1998.

Once a customer has settled into the store, they were able to peruse this vast produce selection. Rows of fruits and vegetables made for an attractive, yet low-price display they could shop. The decor utilized in this area (and the interior as a whole) abided by typical warehouse fare, as seen by plain slatted walls and an industrial use of the color orange. There were also elements that break from the traditional design, such as the occasional use of neon and overhead produce lights. This store also implemented mercury-vapor lighting, something that was occasionally utilized in these stores.

Now here is the deli corner, filled with various service departments and foods that you could fancy.  Included in this is the cheese cooler, shelves of deli snacks, and the olive bar. The decorations that sat above the olive bar helped to give a more rural, yet authentic feel to these stores.

 Now here's a close-up of the cheese section. This corner contains a variety of cheeses from different international sources and flavors, however is smaller than something on the lines of Wegmans being confined to a single cooler instead of a service counter.

This is certainly something you wouldn't see at a Shoppers store today. While SFW transitioned to a generic mid-level grocer under SuperValu (comparable to Giant/Safeway in the region) and also expanded upon some departments, concepts like these from Shoppers Club were ditched.

 

The bakery court follows the corner containing the deli and cheese departments. Here you were able to select from different types of baked goods you needed. The neon and scripts provided for excellent accenting to this store.

On the left side of the bakery, Shoppers offers a wide assortment of small baked goods - including large ones, being none other than their world-famous Colossal Donuts! This is an attractive case filled to the brim with such, that Shoppers long had expertise in and continues to have today. In fact, those cinnamon donuts would be pretty cool...

To make the bakery stand out even more, it's no secret that an extensive bakery section would be a go-to.   A rear menu board helps customers to decide which of these breads are right for them.

 

Amongst the slatted warehouse walls, Shoppers showcased a cooler of cakes. This is one attractive, yet simple display for any event where cake is useful.

Here is the main Club Paks section now featuring larger, bulk quantities of boxed groceries. As evident by the banners, Shoppers put themselves in front of the comeptition by advertising their membership-free advantages. In the distance, the front end and checkouts are also visible.

Sadly I believe this concept did not last upon SFW entering the SuperValu fray. As the chain was reworked into a conventional grocer, Shoppers discontinued their club paks and streamlined their inventory to favor regular product sizes. Overall, this is certainly something that made Shoppers stand out before the SuperValu acquisition and a new owner should certainly implement this.

Among several departments Shoppers Club introduced, an aisle for healthful foods was on the cards. At a time when natural and organic products were only beginning to enter grocery stores and Whole Foods was in a lesser state, Shoppers banked on these products, selling them at lower warehouse prices.

This is an ostensibly broader natural foods selection than most found the SuperValu era. While Shoppers and its parent organization made inroads to promote such products later on, the selection has often been minimal, being confined to small rows of coolers.

As an addendum, this is the store's map at the time. As some portions of the plan were modified during planning, some of these aisles/sections may not be accurate. In retrospect, this layout resembles that of later Shoppers stores while retaining some of the basics from the classic warehouse days.

The store today

The store prior to remodeling in 2012 - retaining the classic Shoppers logo. Credit: Shoppers Food

Since these photos were taken Shoppers has made numerous changes to the store in order to bring it in line with the rest of the chain. From what I believe some layout modifications were made once SFW was absorbed into SuperValu, eliminating the Shoppers Club concept and introducing a service pharmacy/bank. The former move was especially made considering later stores would adopt conventional shelving and therefore discontinue warehouse-style products along with paid plastic bags. The store would later undergo two remodels to maintain a modern standard along with the rest of the Shoppers Food chain.

The store is still open as of this post's writing, however with the unpredictability of Shoppers and their steady contraction this may change. From what I've seen this store appears to be high-volume and one of SFW's more profitable locations, so it may either hang on or continue under another local chain.

Anyhow, thanks for reading this blog's first full post. If you liked what you read, make sure to leave a comment here and pass it on to your friends! You may also leave any corrections or suggestions if you are more knowledgeable about this topic.
That's all folks! -BatteryMill 

Photos found via archive.org versions of shoppersfood.com. Note that the website's gallery was not archived in its entirety.