Shoppers Food & Pharmacy Moving to New HQ

Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, currently based in Lanham, Md., will relocate its corporate headquarters to Bowie, Md., this October, according to a published report. The grocer’s new offices will be within the Maryland Science and Technology Center, a 466-acre business campus that, when finished, will offer 3 million square feet of office space, retail stores, shops and restaurants.

The chain, which operates over 60 stores in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area, will be one of the first tenants in the second of two recently built office towers. The company will lease nearly 25,000 square feet of office space, with 2,520 square feet to be used for the distribution of sales materials to its stores.

The new headquarters will feature such amenities as a free fitness center, a café and a lake bordered by a three-quarter-mile scenic walking and exercise trail, the Baltimore Sun reported.

According to the grocer, the new offices are closer to the communities where it does the most business.

“St. John Properties, a large office park developer in the … area, apparently has offered Shoppers a sweet deal to be one of the first tenants in their office park in Bowie,” Baltimore-based grocery industry expert Jeremy Diamond told Progressive Grocer, noting that the move was a good thing for employees of the third-largest supermarket chain in Maryland, “given all the extras that the new office park has to offer.”

Added Diamond, “I don't see it being much different from a grocery standpoint, although the rent will be cheaper.”