Former Shoppers - Manassas (West), VA: The Last 8 Days (Part 4)

Welcome to the Shoppes of Battery Mill, a blog that's fresh for everyone! (at this point, I'll just go with any retail slogan unrelated to the topic).

Today, I'm here to present the long-awaited continuation of my series on the former Bull Run Plaza Shoppers in Manassas (now a Giant Food), documenting the store's descent from business as usual to going out of business.

Photos taken on December 26, 2019 by BatteryMill

As mentioned before, this store was part of Shoppers' late 2019 closing wave, the largest in the Washington/Baltimore-area grocer's history. To exit all its retail holdings, owner UNFI set out to wind down Shoppers through a series of sales. In doing so, the Rhode Island-based wholesaler made deals with new entry Lidl and independent chains like Compare Foods and McKay's to acquire several sites. While 13 of the 17 Shoppers slated for closure went to these buyers, 4 of these would simply shutter without word on any successor. Out of each category, the Bull Run Plaza Shoppers would be one of the latter. All closing sales were the same, though the trajectory of each store would be different.

For now, though, we must take a look at what happened in the weeks following the big closing announcement. This photo set, taken the day after Christmas and in the store's final eight days, shows how the chain departed the Prince William County seat of Manassas approximately 32 years after it entered. With all that being said, let's get on with the tour, shall we?

Store tour 

Getting ready to enter the store under the canopy of the facade, we see a window into the store's front end. Much of this, however, is covered by a large banner marking the sale status of the store, only two weeks in to the closing. From most Shoppers closing sales I have witnessed online or visited, the company pastes on Shoppers-themed closing signs and leaves the rest to the employee team. This one, however, appears more akin to a "going out of business" sale where liquidation firms take over some of the duties essential to running a store. 

Let's stroll on in through the left-side doors! What we can see here, besides the omnipresent store closing signs, are a couple of typed up signs announcing the then-current store hours.

This entrance format has been common to nearly all purpose-built Shoppers, though earlier stores lacked the vestibule and had only one set of doors between the interior and the outside world.

Let's start things off inside with the Saving Zone, once home to an abundance of deals coming from nearly every corner of the store.

With the store having expanded in 1993 to become a Shoppers Club, the ceiling heights and wall alignments drastically vary. The rest of the front end appears in the distance, still teeming with customers.

Here we have two perspectives on the Floral department. Clearly, nothing extravagant would be available anymore, but you could always wow a loved one with what's left.

...and here are store closing signs to match.

Walking under the dividing wall piece hanging across the Saving Zone, we enter the produce/seafood/floral "grand aisle". Now this is a place that calls for a panorama! While it is a feature I like to play around with on my phone, I also find it fun to try it out in unorthodox settings like this one.

The Produce department, presented in three parts. With 8 days on the clock, some scattered fruits and vegetables remain on the shelves. Surprising, especially since so much of the section has already emptied out. It is also a nice place to take a look at another pre-SuperValu Shoppers staple, that being the rugged retro ceilings, akin to those found at Rite Aid.

Now we catch on to the service seafood counter. This section, along with frozen meat in the corner, is done for by this point.

As we depart the produce/floral/seafood area, we enter the lunchmeat territory. Still a few options to choose from here, but most everything else is already gone. Seems some cleaning supplies and plastic bags have been stuffed in the coffin cooler, though.

Making our way towards dairy, we witness nothing but the empty blackness of store coolers. In the background, the entrance to the restrooms is visible. The location of such restrooms is most likely original to the store's opening.

As this was the first Shoppers Club, it was more of a prototype and existed prior to the creation of the Shoppers Cafe seating area, where restrooms would be placed in from there on out. These would also evolve beyond the single-occupant models found in older supermarkets (especially competitors of the time like Giant).

The meat department. No service kitchen for it at this location.

Here's more of dairy. This department sure had a lot of stickers!

 

Every... actually, that's all I'm going to say here.

 

Here, we dip into the store's aisles, this time finding ourselves in the international aisles. This has to be the most well-stocked part of the store, by far. This expanse of the store is also where we can see the cacophony of loud "STORE CLOSING" and "NOTHING HELD BACK" signs at full volume.

One of three specialized aisle markers from this Shoppers package! Nice touch on SuperValu's behalf, I must say.

Looking towards the meat department now, of which intersects with dairy. With the length of these aisles, Shoppers usually took the time (in the Shoppers Club era, at least) to divide aisles into sections (ex. "A9A", "B9B" etc.)

Not quite Aisle 12, but I think this will do.

All the way down Dairy. Bakery/Deli is behind this image.

Now we move over into the bakery/deli "court". I prefer the previous mercury vapor lighting (before the 2009 remodel) as it felt less cheap and added a sense of height to the department.

Here's the bakery, up close. It's hard to tell whether this kitchen is closed for the night or for good, since a few cakes are still available in the coolers.

The highlight of my visit: a cooler being disassembled. Auction time, or just something gone wrong?

What a big store this must be! Once the largest in the chain, but it still holds a great title, with the aisle count going up to 20. This is the intersection between bakery and the wine aisles. Frozen foods used to roam here, too.

Cheers for beers! Beer coolers are a feature that has sporadically appeared at Shoppers stores from the Shoppers Club era onwards. I like that it shows how Shoppers grew in store size during this period, and that it appears similar to larger warehouse chains such as Costco that have dedicated coolers for cold products like produce and dairy items.

Gliding by the aisles, we finally make our way to checkout. It is worth noting that the lettered/health & beauty aisles still have a decent amount of product left.

What's that, a Kitchen Shop? This location is the first time I have seen such signage, as well as any decent selection of such at Shoppers for that matter. Prior to the last remodel in 2016, this place was a continuation of the international aisles. Still a good amount of kitchenwares to take in here, though.

Finally, we make our way to customer service, and checkouts. Plenty of signs here to remind you that all sales are, indeed, final.

We close out this tour of Shoppers with a directory sign for the entirety of the Bull Run Plaza shopping center. This center, opened in 1987 by Trammell Crow, was part of their burgeoning "Festival Centers" concept featuring dozens of tenants big and small throughout the Washington and Baltimore metro areas. It's crazy that that old Shoppers logo stuck around until the end, of course.

Bonus photo

Here's a look at what was to the right of Shoppers at the time. Dress Barn themselves was going through the same thing as Shoppers then, only they made it to closing permanently. Since then, that space has been occupied by a Five Below.

Conclusion

Thank you all for reading through! I have one more part of the series to share with you. Next time, we will be going over what happened to this location after Shoppers left in January 2020.

Until then, take care!