Was One Florida Grocery Store Just A Pirated Copy of Hannaford?

Do you still call Hannaford Shop & Save?

I do. Partly, because there are still a couple shop & Save holdouts around the state. We have one right in Brewer. There's another one in Gray. And another one still in Dover. The Pittsfield one just recently switched ownership, but still sells Hannaford products, despite not being an actual Hannaford.

So while Hannaford is probably the most widespread grocer in all of Maine and New England, there can still be some confusion right here in state. But Florida, not to be outdone, had a chain of grocery stores that basically looked like some sort of dubbed VHS copy of Hannaford, called Sweetbay Supermarket. The similarity on the outside is frightening. Check it out...

Am I insane or is this just a bootleg Hannaford???
by u/xXBruins37Xx in Maine

The similarity was crazy.

Sweetbay opened up their first stores in 2004, but in 2013, the chain was bought out by another company and re-branded. But during that time, they were using all the brand elements from a Belgian company called the Delhaize Group. They seem to be some sort of parent company to Hannaford, and that's where Sweetbay got their branding.

So to look at one of them from the outside, you'd swear you were walking into a Hannaford. The fonts, the logo, the store design... All of them just scream Hannaford. Could you imagine being on vacation down there at the time, and seeing that. It'd be a major mind-messing experience.

These days that won't be an issue, since the sale of all the stores. But it's uncanny when you're just cruising Reddit and see such a familiar scene. You wouldn't think it could be that obvious, but there it was. But hey, businesses come and go. That's America. In the meantime, I'll just keep going to the real Hannies, thanks.