86 Stores to Be Sold in Major Supermarket Merger: The Complete List

(UPDATE: On Friday, July 22nd, the FTC approved the merger subject to the sale of 81 stores – five fewer than on the the list below. Ahold and Delhaize said the FTC decision will not affect the list, and they will move forward with the 86 store sales as planned.)

A major grocery merger will result in new names and owners for some seven dozen stores in seven East Coast states, and the eventual demise of one local grocery chain altogether. Delhaize, the owner of Food Lion and Hannaford, and Ahold, the owner of Stop & Shop, two different Giant divisions and Martin’s, have announced the sale of 86 stores, as part of a merger that they expect to be finalized any day now.

The announcement came late Wednesday night, or Thursday morning in Europe, where both companies are based. Each has extensive American holdings, but significant overlap in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

“These divestments are being made in connection with the United States Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) pending review of the proposed merger between the two companies,” the grocery owners announced. “The divested stores are being sold to well established supermarket operators.”

Well-established supermarket operators like Pennsylvania-based Weis Markets, the biggest beneficiary of the deal, which plans to purchase and convert 38 Food Lion stores in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

The complete list of affected locations is below, but other buyers include:

• Supervalu, the owner of Shoppers warehouse grocery stores in the Washington D.C. area and Farm Fresh in Virginia, will buy 22 Food Lion stores in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia and convert them to Shop ‘N Save, the company’s St. Louis-based banner.
• Florida-based Publix plans to purchase ten Martin’s stores in the Richmond, Virginia area.
• Massachusetts’ Big Y is buying eight Hannaford locations in eastern Massachusetts.
• Tops Markets of New York will pick up one Stop & Shop store in Massachusetts, three others in New York as well as two New York Hannaford locations.
• New Albertsons will buy one Giant Food store in Salisbury, Maryland and convert it to ACME.
• And Saubel’s Markets is purchasing a Food Lion store in York, Pennsylvania.

For fans of Martin’s in Virginia, the good news is that only ten stores will be sold right now instead of all 20 locations. The bad news is that the remaining stores are still available for sale – and if they don’t sell, Ahold expects to close them.

In an era when successful supermarket operators Kroger and Albertsons are getting bigger than ever from mergers and acquisitions of their own, while stores like Walmart, Target and ALDI are claiming a greater share of the grocery pie, the Ahold-Delhaize merger was not considered exciting news for shoppers when it was first announced last year. Instead, it was seen as more of a much-needed move to help ensure the survival of the two companies and their middle-of-the-road grocery stores.

Still, the combined company is promising good things to come. “The combination of Ahold and Delhaize Group is a unique opportunity to deliver even more for customers, associates and local communities,” Ahold CEO Dick Boer said in a statement. “Together, Ahold and Delhaize Group have been working hard to resolve the competition concerns raised by the FTC, and we are pleased to have found strong, well established buyers for the stores we are required to divest. We deeply appreciate the long-time support of our customers and associates in these locations and are confident that the new owners will continue to serve local communities well.”

Added Delhaize CEO Frans Muller, “Selling stores is a difficult part of any merger process, given the impact on our associates, customers and communities in which we operate. We believe we have made every effort to identify strong buyers for these locations, and we want to thank our loyal associates and customers who have shopped our stores and supported us for so many years.”

What follows is the compete list of stores to be sold, and to which new owner:

STORE TO BE SOLD TO ALBERTSONS (AND REBRANDED AS ACME):

STORES TO BE SOLD TO BIG Y:

STORES TO BE SOLD TO PUBLIX:

STORE TO BE SOLD TO SAUBEL’S:

STORES TO BE SOLD TO SUPERVALU (AND REBRANDED AS SHOP ‘N SAVE):

STORES TO BE SOLD TO TOPS:

STORES TO BE SOLD TO WEIS: