What we know (and mostly don’t know) about Stop & Shop’s looming store closures

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Welp, PWHL Boston came up short in their quest for the inaugural Walter Cup last night. But they still made the hometown crowd proud. Just listen to these chants.

Now, we wait until August for the reveal of the team’s nickname and logo. Now, to the news:

The shopping could be stopping at some local Stop & Shop grocery stores in the not-so-distant future. Ahold Delhaize, the Dutch parent company of the Quincy-based supermarket chain, says it’s planning to close some of its “underperforming store locations” to help better position the company for long-term growth.

• Which stores are closing? How many? For now, Stop & Shop isn’t saying. (Currently, Stop & Shop has nearly 400 locations across the Northeast, including 125 in Massachusetts.)
• When should we expect the closures? The company is keeping mum on the timeline, too. However, Ahold Delhaize exec J.J. Fleeman said at an investor meeting last week they’ll have more to say about which stores will be impacted later this year.
• The big picture: The closures are part of a four-year plan to, as Fleeman puts it, “optimize the store portfolio.” Since 2018, the company has remodeled 190 Stop & Shops, which he says are outperforming their peers. Fleeman said they’ll reinvest money from closures into additional remodels in areas where the “brand has strong density” and “a strong market position.” (That’s maybe the best hint we’ll get about which stores are at risk of closing.)
• A silver lining: Stop & Shop doesn’t have the best reputation for price compared to other local grocery chains — and leaders know it. Fleeman said their multi-year effort plan also includes an effort to lower prices. “The value proposition and pricing at Stop & Shop are simply not strong enough,” he said.

Good news/bad news: Two weeks after private property owners in Leominster found out they could get federal financial help for repairs after last summer’s severe floods, the city itself has learned it will not get the same relief. Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said yesterday the city’s appeal for federal disaster relief for roughly $30 million in public property damage has been denied. Mazzarella called the news “devastating,” noting the storm destroyed one-month-old sidewalks, freshly paved roads and a new culvert.

• Now what? Leominster is left with 75 damaged sites — some with multi-million-dollar repair price tags. Mazzarella told WBUR’s Amy Sokolow they’ll need to apply for state and federal grants “one project at a time,” rather than the sweeping relief they hoped for. “We don’t have the necessary funding to go out and fix everything,” he said. “We just don’t have the resources.”
• Meanwhile: FEMA opened in-person centers in Leominster and Attleborough to help private property owners affected by the September floods. The deadline to apply is July 15.

Commencement day: MIT is holding its commencement ceremony this afternoon, and school officials are preparing for possible protests. WBUR’s Simón Rios reports leaders are engaging in what they call “wide-ranging scenario planning,” after about two dozen students were suspended and lost access to resources like campus housing after participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus.

• Last week, hundreds of students walked out of Harvard’s commencement in protest of the school’s decision to not let 13 seniors graduate on time because of their involvement in the protests. (MIT has not responded to WBUR on whether any of the suspended students will be prohibited from walking.)
• Meanwhile: Brookline Town Meeting members are set to vote tonight on a much-debated resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. However, critics are expected to try to table the measure and replace it with a resolution that aligns with the Biden administration’s position on the war.

Life science layoffs: Massachusetts’ largest biotech employer, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, is planning to lay off over 600 workers. In a state filing, the company said it will let go 146 of its Lexington workers and another 495 employees in Cambridge over the coming months. That’s roughly 10% of its Massachusetts-based workforce.

P.S.— What makes Boston your home? Join our Cognoscenti team at CitySpace tonight at 7 p.m. for an evening of conversation with local authors, chefs and leaders on what makes the city so special to them. Tickets are still available here.