Quincy, MA -- In conjunction with Black History Month, The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company will publish the Profiles in Excellence brochure, which recounts African American heritage by highlighting sigSTOP & SHOP CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTHnificant accomplishments and milestones achieved by African Americans.

Stop & Shop will distribute 100,000 brochures in their stores to customers free of charge. The Profiles in Excellence brochures have great educational value, teaching children and adults about the contributions that African Americans have made to the United States.

Prominent African Americans featured in Profiles in Excellence include U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Historian Arthur Schomburg, and acclaimed storyteller J. California Cooper.

Tashana McPherson, a Senior at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), was selected to draw interpretive illustrations of this year’s honorees profiled in the 2005 edition of Profiles in Excellence. Ms. McPherson was selected from among six other gifted artists at MICA and plans to attend graduate school at the prestigious Central St. Martin College in London, England next year. She was also featured in the 2004 Society of Illustrators’ National Student Competition.

About Stop & Shop
Based in Quincy, Massachusetts, Stop & Shop operates 348 stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York and employs more than 57,000 associates.

Company History:
Stop & Shop’s roots can be traced back to 1914, when the Rabinovitz family founded the Economy Grocery Stores Company in Somerville, Massachusetts. Four years later, family member Sidney Rabb introduced an idea new to retail: the self-service, modern supermarket. By 1947, Economy Grocery Stores had grown into a flourishing chain of 86 supermarkets and the name of the company was changed to Stop & Shop, Inc. In the 1980s, Stop & Shop pioneered the superstore concept in New England, opening the first Super Stop & Shop in 1982. In 1996, Stop & Shop was acquired by Ahold, one of the largest food retailers in the world. Worldwide, Ahold employs 450,000 people and services the needs of 40 million customers in 28 countries every week.

Operations/Services:
Stop & Shop is a member of the Ahold USA group, owned by Royal Ahold of the Netherlands. Ahold USA currently owns five other prominent supermarket companies along the eastern seaboard: Giant Food LLC, based in Landover, MD; Tops Markets LLC, with headquarters in Buffalo, NY; Giant Food Stores LLC, based in Carlisle, PA; BI-LO LLC, headquartered in Mauldin, SC; and Bruno's Supermarkets, Inc., with headquarters in Birmingham, AL. Jointly they operate over 1,600 stores of which 1,220 are supermarkets. Royal Ahold (NYSE: AHO) is a leading food provider in the United States and elsewhere in the world with total consolidated sales of $66 billion.

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company pioneered the superstore concept in New England, opening the first Super Stop & Shop in 1982. The modern Super Stop & Shop averages 65,000 square feet and combines specialty food shops with a broad selection of general merchandise, offering the convenience of one-stop shopping. Stop & Shop stores offer an excellence in perishables, the best variety (52,000 items per superstore on average) and wide aisles in a clean, easy-to-shop environment. Along with the traditional food offerings, Stop & Shop offers many full service departments such as Foods-To-Go, pharmacy, florist, full-service branch banking, bakery, deli, and other services and products such as photo processing, salad bar, bookstore, and small appliances.

In 2001, Stop & Shop aggressively expanded in the New York Metro area, converting 36 Grand Union stores and 63 former Edwards stores. In November of that year, the company opened its first low-energy superstore in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The groundbreaking store uses 30% less energy than the average supermarket.

Twenty years after opening its first Super Stop & Shop and setting a new standard for one-stop shopping, Stop & Shop raised the bar for customer expectations with their new prototype supermarkets. With new departments offering products such as toys, party goods, home accessories and office supplies, this next generation of superstores offers customers an unprecedented level of one-stop shopping convenience. In early 2002, Stop & Shop partnered with Dunkin’ Donuts, the world’s largest coffee and baked goods chain. Today, Stop & Shop has more than 100 full-service Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in its stores.

In 2003, Stop & Shop expanded into the New Hampshire market, where they currently have three stores. In 2004, Stop & Shop began the process of integrating its services with that of sister Ahold company Giant Foods in Landover, MD. The integration, once complete, will create a company with more than 500 stores, 84,000 associates, and an estimated $16.5 billion a year in sales.