EAST PROVIDENCE — As the strike of Stop & Shop Supermarkets in the region by some 31,000 members of the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Locals 328, 371, 919, 1445 and 1459 continued into its fifth day Monday, April 15, will no near end in sight, regular clientele at stores in East Providence and Seekonk are matriculating mostly to the large chain competition, Shaw’s.
According to information provided by workers at Shaw’s as well as budget retailers Price Rite and Save A Lot, there has been a noticeable uptick in patronage by usual Stop & Shop customers over the last few days. And that’s likely to continue this week if the strike persists because of the Christian Holy Week and Easter Sunday holidays.
Anecdotally, the workers at the competition, who declined to speak definitively citing the need to have corporate approval to comment, agreed Shaw’s was seeing more of the Stop & Shop traffic. Price Rite and Save A Lot employees said while there certainly has been an uptick in numbers, they tend not to serve the same customer demographics.
“Typically, our customers aren’t the same,” said one discount chain employee. “We tend to get the overflow from Shaw’s that’s not shopping at Stop & Shop right now. It’s not a significant increase. It’s slight, but we appreciate it. We certainly appreciate it.”
In terms of actual sales, of increases in store profits to date, the employee continued, “It’s noticeable, but not significant enough to say it’s moving the needle very much.”