Shaw’s In Freeport, Maine, Made A Confusing Error During Renovations

Shaw's in Freeport, Maine, got a spiffy update in 2024 - except for this glaring oddity.

If you have shopped at Shaw's in Freeport, Maine, and you aren't a regular, I bet you've come close to giving yourself a concussion. Because the doors are backwards!

Shaw's in Freeport, Maine, renovated but kept the wrong-sided doors

In almost every other side-by-side door situation, the entry is on the right, and the exit is on the left. But not Shaw's. I don't know if every Shaw's has this frustrating trait, but I know Freeport and Sanford have this setup. They also do have another entry where the doors are 'right'. But when they renovated, they kept these doors old school.

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The Scarborough and Westbrook Shaw's had the backwards doors too, but those Shaw's stores are no longer with us. There may be a very believable reason why the doors are reversed. A United Kingdom company bought Shaw's in the 80s. According to Wikipedia,

In November 1983, J Sainsbury plc, the UK's largest supermarket group, purchased 21% of Shaw's outstanding stock. In June 1987, Sainsbury's acquired controlling interest. The backward doors and the extensive international foods of UK origin were reinforcing clues.

Maybe the doors are backward at the Freeport, Maine, Shaw's because of England

So in England, you drive on the wrong side of the road and you enter businesses on the wrong side too! There have been theories that the reason the doors are backward is because it's exit flow from the registers. Or to stop a thief as they run out of Shaw's with an armful of ribeye steaks - they smack right into the wrong door!

I'm going with the English company owning the store and going all European on us poor Mainers. There's not a time I've stopped by and done these doors the right way. Secretly, I kind of like that they are messing with us and kept the odd doors even when they renovated and modernized this location.